'71 Deat Buckner


Deat Buckner (EFHS '71) 
by Becky White
Information Provided by Colt Buckner
Almost everyone who drag races knows the name of Deat Buckner. It would take a book to hold all... his accomplishments in drag racing…such as being the youngest driver to ever win a world championship in two different sportsman categories at that time, being the first racer Piedmont Dragway ever had to file a 1099 on, was one of the first racers to run multiple classes at a track on the same day. Deat started racing in 1968 in his daily driver and he was hooked…he is still racing today, as is his son Colt.
He has raced in 21 states, winning races in 14…N.C., S.C., VA., GA., FL., W.V., OH., N.J., KY., TN., IN., IL., HA. and AL. He won 20 track championships between Farmington and Piedmont Dragways in either Top, Pro, Sportsman, Footbrake, Stock, Super Stock and Modified! From 1973 through 1988, he went to the finals in 78% of the races he entered and won 92% of those final rounds. This all happened many years before racers were allowed to race two cars or two classes at any race!
From 1976 through 1986, he finished no lower than 7th in IHRA points in five categories including Stock, Super Stock, Modified, Super Rod and Quick Rod. In 1973, he won 22 out of 24 races at Piedmont Dragway in a 4-speed Toyota Corolla! In 1977, he won two IHRA national events and IHRA points races to become the IHRA Rookie of the Year. He was the 1979 IHRA Super Stock World Champion.
In 1981, when IHRA’s Hot Rod was indexed at 10.50, he won that, too…before the class changed to 10.90 in 1982. He won that IHRA Super Rod World championship, too! He was IHRA’s Most Consistent Driver two separate years. He HAS been known to run in three separate eliminators in one day, winning as many as two of them!
He won the first ‘bracket’ race ever held at Piedmont Dragway driving the ’69 Dodge Charger RT he drove to college! In 1974, he drove his 1969 SS 396 Camaro to Rockingham and decided to race it in A Stock. On his first pass, he ran .9 seconds under the A/Stock record. That was the first IHRA national event he ever raced. In the following years, he set well over 100 national records in IHRA and SCRA, won many Best Engineered Awards and Best Appearing Awards over the years and was nominated for the Car Craft magazine Driver of the Year 4 times!
From 1979 through 1984, he fielded a second car…providing other great local drivers such as Van Lyles (the first African American to ever win an IHRA national event) and Arthur Bryant (many time track champion) an opportunity to race on a national scale. When almost every racer in the country was using automatic transmission, every IHRA race he ever won he won with a 4-speed…even in the ‘Rod’ classes! He never kept any particular car more than two years and as a result, he has owned over 70 different race cars and he won races with every one!
Deat won 17 national events between IHRA and SCRA. He has been featured in Car Craft, Super Stock and Drag Illustrated, Hot Rod Magazine, Popular Hot Rodding, Quick Times Racing News and even the front page of the Bristol Herald Courier in Bristol, TN. This doesn’t even include the many sponsor ads he and his car appeared in during his racing career.
He also raced many NHRA races…winning 7 Division 2 races. That doesn’t include the race he won in Hawaii when he raced a rented car while on vacation! He has raced and had wins in the past six decades…1960s, ’70s, ‘80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s driving almost every conceivable make of car…Chevy, Ford, Chrysler, AMC, Buick, Olds, Jaguar, Toyota and Mercury. He NEVER failed to qualify for an IHRA or NHRA Super Stock, Stock and Modified race and NEVER lost a class run-off.
He’s had over 500 race wins in his career! He was the first racer to ever win an IHRA national event in 5 separate eliminators…Super Stock, Modified, Hot Rod, Super Rod and Quick Rod! A fierce competitor and one many other racers hated to see come through the gates…including most all the members of this Hall of Fame! He is a person who was never satisfied with ‘just’ drag racing…he has promoted drag racing in every venue he possibly could…from schools to shopping malls to car shows on the street and more, Deat Buckner is one of the most deserving drag racers the North Carolina Drag Racing Hall of Fame can possibly have as a member