In the mid-1980s, Edmond Richardson hit the NHRA scene like a bolt of lightning, winning just about everything in sight, but he typically wasn’t quick to accept much credit. Instead, the talented Texan would typically defer praise to younger brother Scotty, seven years his junior.
“If you think I’m good, just wait until you meet Scotty. My little brother is the real deal,” Edmond often noted, and his words could not have been more accurate.
Indeed, while Edmond Richardson boasts Hall of Fame credentials, little brother Scotty, who passed away on Aug. 14 following a brief illness at the age of 54, has cemented his legacy as arguably drag racing’s greatest Sportsman driver.
A rare combination of natural talent and searing motivation, Richardson won hundreds, perhaps thousands, of races during his career and etched his mark as one of the sport’s all-time greats.
From NHRA national events to big-money bracket races, Scotty Richardson won week after week, year after year, compiling a staggering list of career achievements. Dragsters or door cars, top bulb or bottom bulb, quarter-mile or eighth-mile, there wasn’t a single discipline that Richardson didn’t master.
It's a widely held opinion that Scotty Richardson and Peter Biondo are 1 and 1A, when it comes to the age-old argument of who is the best Sportsman driver of all time. In celebration of NHRA’s 50th anniversary in 2001, Richardson was ranked No. 45 in the list of NHRA’s greatest drivers, and if that vote were held today, it’s a given he’d be ranked much higher than that.
NHRA fans got their first glimpse of Richardson’s immense talent when he won the Super Gas title at the inaugural Houston Raceway Park event in 1988, but his success story actually began several years earlier with multiple wins around the Richardson family’s home in Kennedale, Texas.
There are more than enough Scotty Richardson stories to fill several volumes, and one of the earliest (and most entertaining) involves the 13-year-old prodigy sneaking off to a local track with the family station wagon, winning a big-bracket race, and later having to explain to a Texas State Trooper how the $3,000 cash he was carrying was earned as prize money.
Between 1988 and 2014, Richardson tallied 39 NHRA national event titles across six eliminators, Comp, Super Stock, Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas, and Super Street. He is well known for his five world championships, but in actuality, that number could be closer to seven as he lost two more titles via a tiebreaker. In 1994, Richardson also became the first driver to claim two championships in the same year when he secured both the Super Comp and Super Gas titles.
In 1995, Richardson almost single-handedly destroyed the Super Street class, winning four of the seven events contested that season. He was so dominant in the 10.90 division that the “Richardson Rule” was enacted, prohibiting a Super Street competitor from racing in more than one category. He wasn’t happy about the ruling but wore it like a badge of honor.
By the mid-2000s, Richardson took a step back from NHRA racing to focus on big-money E.T. bracket events, and he barely skipped a beat, winning many of the biggest races in the country, including the overall title at prestigious Moroso 5-Day E.T. championships (twice), the Spring Fling Million, and a host of other huge events. Google Richardson’s name and you’ll see a host of photos of him posing with a $25,000, $50,000, or $100,000 winner’s checks.
In a 2021 interview with Dragzine, Richardson was able to shed some light on his road to success and those who helped him get there.
“My brother, Edmond, he taught me everything I know about racing, but the biggest thing he taught me was how to be competitive,” Scotty said. “We grew up racing at Texas Raceway [Kennedale, Texas], and you had Luke Bogacki, Tommy Phillips, and the Hefler boys, and quite a few others. You had no choice to be good.”
Richardson seemingly never lacked self-confidence and was well known throughout his career for being an aggressive driver, and one with strong opinions. And he wasn’t the least bit shy about sharing them, verbally or otherwise.
Any Sportsman racer who has heard the repeated whack of a throttle well past the finish line knows exactly what it’s like to be on the receiving end of “A Scotty;” a celebratory move akin to spiking the football following a touchdown. Much like Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, Richardson didn’t just want to win; he wanted to dominate, and he did.
Last year, Richardson scored one of his last major victories when he captured the $100,000 top prize in the Allstar Shootout held at the JEGS Summer Fling event in Columbus, Ohio. During a memorable winner’s circle speech, Richardson acknowledged the current crop of up-and-coming young talents, but also made it known that he wasn’t quite willing to pass the torch.
“Sometimes, I think we give the newer generation more credit than they deserve just because they’ve got a lot more to work with,” Richardson said. “We learned to win when our cars weren’t good, and I think that’s one of the things that’s always helped me. Whenever I do struggle, I just go back to the basics of 1985, and that gets me back on the plan. For me, I was just blessed [growing up] in the era that I was in, making 1,000 runs a year.”
Not as blessed as we were to be able to witness your greatness, Scotty. Rest in peace, friend.
