Driver, builder

A speed centurion who built the fastest Chevrolet engines on the planet that he ran first in land-speed modified sports car classes and then in the fearsome Spirit of Autopower streamliner. He was SCTA Points Champion in 1961, ’63 and ’64 and earned Bonneville 200 MPH Club life membership in 1963. For 20 years, White jousted with competitor Al Teague to earn the annual Hot Rod Magazine Top Time Trophy with marks exceeding 400 mph. White’s best one-way run was 442.496 mph in 1999. White, son Rick and grandson Brad were known to run on different octane. Teague said of White, “He never quit. I’d catch on fire, or break, pack up and go home. Not Nolan. He’d stay, order parts and fix the car. It takes a lot of determination to work through the long, cold nights, fighting fatigue; he was the racer I always wanted to be because he never gave up.” White was inducted into the Dry Lakes Racing Hall of Fame in 2000. He perished in a Bonneville racing accident in 2002.