William Tyler "Grumpy" Jenkins (born 1930) is an engine builder and retired drag racer. Between 1965 and 1975 he won a total of thirteen NHRA drag races.[1] Jenkins raced in the clutchless planetary gear transmission era. Most of these wins were won with a manually shifted four speed transmission. In 1972 he recorded 250 straight runs without missing a gear shift.[1]
He was formally trained as a mechanical engineer at Cornell University, and he used his training and skills to build engines.[2] He has been inducted in numerous motorsports halls of fame for his engine building skills in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Pro Stock division. His innovations include drag racing's first kickout oil pans, Pro Stock strut-style front suspension, and dry sump oiling system, and cool cans, electric water pump fan, gas port pistons, and slick-shift manual transmissions.[2] Considered the "Father of Pro Stock", Jenkins-built engines were used to win five NHRA Pro Stock championships and three American Hot Rod Association (AHRA) championships.[3]
He was nicknamed "Grumpy" for having a no-nonsense attitude at races.[1] The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America said: "his continual search for improved performance left little time for idle chatter with his racing colleagues."[1]
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Jenkins grew up in Malvern, Pennsylvania.[4] He began drag racing in a 1955 Chevrolet convertible at Berwyn, Pennsylvania. He became nationally known after helping to build 30 cars that set national records.[2] He became known in national circles as the engine builder for Dave Strickler in the early 1960s. Jenkins teamed with Dave Strickler to win the 1963 Little Eliminator Nationals with an A/FX 427 Chevy.[2] He drove Hemi-powered Dodges in 1964 and 1965 after Chevy left drag racing early in the 1963 season. His first driving victory was at the 1965 WinterNationals in a Dodge Black Arrow. In 1964 Jenkins and Strickler travelled to England, as part of the U.S. Drag Racing team, to take part in the First International Drag Festival, a series of six events held that fall.
Jenkins couldn't agree on terms with Chrysler for 1966, so he decided to run a Chevy independently by making his own Chevy engine package.[2] Without factory support, Jenkins developed his first "Grumpy's Toy", a 327 cubic inch / 350 horsepower Chevy II. When he found out that the compact car was to be placed in the same class as the 426 Hemi-powered / 425 horsepower Dodge and Plymouth muscle cars, he commented that it "looked like a pretty good gimmick at the time".[2] The lower displacement engine in the smaller car was able to outrun the larger engines in the heavier cars. He set a class record with a 11.66 second run.[2] He was added to Chevrolet's team in 1967. He became known as the premiere normally aspirated drag race engine builder after his victory at the 1967 Nationals Super Stock event.[1] He joined the Pro Stock division when NHRA started it in 1970. He won the first two events of the year (the Winternationals and Gatornationals) in a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro.[1]
After going winless in 1971, NHRA changed the 1972 rules to allow drivers with a small block wedge engine to run a lighter car. He used a small block 331 cubic inch engine in a Chevrolet Vega fitted in the division's first tube chassis.[1] Jenkins showed up at the 1972 Winternationals with the untested Vega. He had a subpar 9.90 second run to qualify 17th of the 32 entries at the season opening event. After reconfiguring the chassis, the car ran low 9.6 second runs on race day and Jenkins won the event.[2] Jenkins used the car to win five of the first eight events of the season (some events are regional) and six of the eight national events.[2][2] Jenkins earned a total of $250,000 that year, including event and manufacturer support.[2] He matched Wilt Chamberlain as the professional athlete with the highest salary in the United States.[2] That year he was featured in Time magazine, the first drag racer to experience mainstream national coverage.[2] Jenkins built a Vega in 1974 (dubbed Grumpy's Toy XI) that had several firsts which impacted future drag racing cars. Innovations that are still standard equipment on drag cars include the first dry sump oiling system and a McPherson strut front-suspension configuration.[2]
Jenkins retired as a driver, hiring Larry Lombardo and Ken Dondero to drive his cars so that he could concentrate on research and development.[2][5] Lombardo replaced Jenkins in the drivers seat for the second race of the 1976 season in NHRA. Lombardo won that season's NHRA Winston Pro Stock championship despite the late start. Dondero won the AHRA title. Lombardo raced for Jenkins until 1979, finishing third in 1977 points, second in 1978, and seventh in 1979. Jenkins cut down the teams match races in the early 1980s until his final season as a team owner in 1983. Joe Lepone won the 1985 Winternationals with a Jenkins Pro Stock engine. Grumpy's main focus was on Comp engines, which were used by a large client list, including national event winners Garley Daniels, Steve Johns, and Bob Kaiser.[2] He led development of GM's new splay-valved cylinder heads for the small block Chevrolet V8 engines which were utilized in the new Pro Stock Truck category in 1998. He used the splay valve heads in a 358 cubic inch engine which was used by Larry Kopp to win the 1998 Winston drag championship, and by 1998 national event winners Tim Freeman, Brad Jeter, Johns, Mark Osborne, Scott Perin, and Don Smith.[2] His engines continue to be used. A Jenkins powerplant was used by Dave Connolly in his title-contending Pro Stock Cobalt to win the 2005 Winternationals and briefly placed Connolly in the POWERade points lead. In 2006, two-time Pro Stock champion Jim Yates announced a testing program with a Jenkins motor in his 2005 Pontiac GTO.[5]
Jenkins worked on some NASCAR engines. He built the engine that Donnie Allison used to win the pole position in the 1975 Daytona 500.[4] Mike Swaim used a Jenkins motor to win the pole for the 1987 Busch Series race at Daytona.[4]
Jenkins was inducted in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2008.[4] He has been inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (1996),[1] and Don Garlits International Drag Racing Hall of Fame (1993). In 2001, he was ranked eighth on NHRA's Top 50 Drivers of all-time.[2] The American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Association named him to their All-America Team in 1972, and he was named awarded Chevrolet's Legends of Performance in 1984.[4]
Jenkins was selected 21 times to the Car Craft all-star drag racing team including winning the "Man of the Year" and "Ollie Award".[4]