Clayton Harris began his racing career in 1959 with a blown Top Gas dragster, which he use to win the 1966 NHRA Division 2 Top Gas championship.

Harris moved to nitro in 1968 with a Chevy-powered dragster, followed three years later with Jack McKay and his New Dimension homes-sponsored dragster, which put him on to the national scene. Harris had a stellar season in 1972, he was the first to record four-consecutive 6.20 elapsed times and was low qualifier at the NHRA U.S. Nationals, which earned him a runner-up at the NHRA World Finals and captured the NHRA Eastern Conference Top Fuel championship.

Clayton left the drivers seat of the New Dimension car in ‘73 to operate independently and again he won the NHRA Eastern Conference championship along with his only NHRA national event win, the Summernationals.

During the 70s, Harris went on to win four IHRA national events, the 1976 U.S. Open Nationals, Rockingham, N.C., the 1977 Fall Nationals at Atco, N.J., the 1978 Winter Nationals at Darlington, S.C., and Dixie Nationals, in Atlanta, Ga., which culminated in the 1978 IHRA Top Fuel World Championship.

In the late ‘90s Clayton joined with Paul Romine in the CARQUEST Auto Parts sponsored Top Fueler. The team had what it took and won the 1997 and 1998 IHRA Top Fuel Championships. Harris has had a long reputation for being not only a outstanding Top Fuel mechanic, but a real southern gentleman.

This illustration was originally used in the IHRA magazine, "Drag Review" as part of the "Look'in Back" series in the early '90s.