Phil Burgess has a piece about Jeb over on nhra.com, and I believe will have a more in-depth story in an upcoming National Dragster article. I'm glad to hear Jeb has overcome some troubles from years ago and is enjoying life. He and his family were a big part of the sport back when I was a kid. Actually, he was a kid too, while becoming a Top Fuel star.
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Jeb Allen Story
- Thread starter Nunz
- Start date
Kansas Stan
Nitro Member
I was there for the Wiebe/Allen crash and also remember Jeb running at Mile High Nats in early eighties. A tough customer and I guarantee you he has a ton of inner character to beat the boogie man he had to face down. He has my total respect for putting things in order and moving on.
I was also there at Tulsa when that wreck occurred. I was able to get three pictures of it while it was in progress. Scary stuff.
Jeb Allen was always one of my heroes. Mainly because he and I are the same age. When he just dropped off the map it was disappointing.
But, I'm glad he's gotten his life in order. Good for him.
Kansas Stan
Nitro Member
Hey Ted, I've seen other incidents also but the thing that really got me about the Tulsa crash was how long it seemed to take to finish. I was in the second set of stands on the tower side and remember Jeb stepping out of the wreckage and swatting his shoulders a bit. And not to hijack the thread or anything but can you believe how many cars tried to qualify? those were the days, huh?
Kansas Stan
Nitro Member
Wiebe and Allen were the opening pair. Weeb was low qualifier with a 6.11 and he took the left lane. Got out maybe fifty feet and tires rattled hard enough that the whole car did a sharp right hand turn and he ran up and over the top of Jeb, driving both cars into the guardrail and then sliding across and into the left hand side rail. At some point, John got upsidedown on top of the guardrail and broke his (Left, I think) leg really bad. Five places as I recall and they had to put an extension of sort in where the bone was crushed. During the down time while Weeb was laid up, Warren,Coburn and Miller slapped Wiebe livery on their car and competed at a race in California to gain points (points were with the car in AHRA then). A guy with a black car from Florida had a major problem with that and subsequent points reaping attempts by W-C-M for the Kansas driver were no longer possible. That's the way I heard it anyway and I heard most of that from the guy with the broken leg about a month ago. Who's up on how to shrink pics to post here? I have some stuff I'll email to you of Wiebe cackling Tom Hanna's car in Salina,Ks.
The Little Lizard
Nitro Member
Nice piece by Burgess on Jeb!
Stan,
I was near the top of the first set of stands on the tower side. I was there on Saturday and Sunday and about overdosed on the sheer volume of cars in all three pro categories.
I wish I had realized at the time that was as good as it was ever going to get.
Speed1288
Nitro Member
Ha thats a pretty funny way of putting it, thanks for the explanation.
Ed Allison and I raced against Jeb's older brothers Ed And Les in Jr Fuel. Jeb at age 13 or 14, built buzz boxes out of flashlights and was always cruising the pits trying to sell them. Jeb was hooked on drag racing from a very young age. Thankfully his father Guy had the money to get him started. He was a great racer.
Tim5636sc
Nitro Member
Jeb's son Troy is a crew member of Fast Jack Beckman's Valvoline / MTS Funny Car and a very nice young man.
Funny story. Last year in Denver, I met another one of his crew members Christopher Abbott...who's grandpa is none other than Johnny Abbott who back in 1981 had one hell of a battle with Jeb.... Kinda cool to see both of them working side-by-side on the same team... Christopher went over to the Yas Marina team this past season.
Funny story. Last year in Denver, I met another one of his crew members Christopher Abbott...who's grandpa is none other than Johnny Abbott who back in 1981 had one hell of a battle with Jeb.... Kinda cool to see both of them working side-by-side on the same team... Christopher went over to the Yas Marina team this past season.
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