Harold Dutton – Oxford, GA – Born in Gwinnett County in December of 1932, Harold Dutton’s only interest as a young child was in cars, which soon led to a passion for racing.
Dutton began his professional drag racing career in 1957 after serving in the US Army. He ran his 1957 390ci Ford Starliner with 365hp from ’57 to ’61, winning all over the southeast and setting class records at multiple tracks.
Racing multiple Fords over his entire career from 1957 to 1986, Dutton had hundreds of successes over the years. There was a short-lived hiatus from Ford when he joined Mopar in 1968, driving a Barracuda Hemi (only about 50 built that year). Although he ran well with the Barracuda, it was without the success Dutton was accustomed to, so he returned to Ford the very next year with a two-car deal.
Many remember Dutton’s drag cars, his “Drag Hag,” taking wins at tracks all over the country, from Florida to California, racing in various classes in the NHRA and AHRA divisions, with several outlaw tracks thrown in the mix as well. In 1969, Dutton could be seen match racing in his 427 Mustang at the outlaw tracks while also running his 428 Mustang at NHRA and AHRA tracks.
In 1969, Dutton raced with fellow drag racing friends in the Dixie Pro Stock group, with 8 cars in total racing each other. After winning all the races up to a certain point, the other drivers said they were tired of chasing him down the track and would rather quit. So the group disbanded without finishing the season.
Throughout his career, Dutton raced numerous classes in various cars. While racing in the NHRA in 1967, he set multiple national records in both S/S Division 2 and Division 3 S/S classes and went on to win the national championship in the NHRA Division 2 Super Stock series with his 427 Fairlane.
Dutton loved racing in the southeast, his home territory. In Cumming, he won 13 weeks in a row and did the exact same in Dallas, winning 13 weeks straight there too. But once Ford came into the picture, he went on to race across the country, even attempting to run in Canada at one time. This trip north didn’t pan out – Canada required the cars to run lead-free gas, and Dutton’s car was not equipped to do so. So back to the homeland they went.
Dutton truly loved racing for the cars, the camaraderie, and the sport, not for the publicity. Once Ford started dropping the help he had once been receiving and his daughters started to get involved with showing horses in 4-H horse shows, Dutton’s racing career eased off.
Although cars and racing were his only interests as a child and he had won hundreds of races, Dutton knew that drag racing would be hard to get away from. He continued to race with fellow drivers from years past throughout his remaining racing years up until 1995 when he ran his last race down a track. They would occasionally rent out tracks to practice and run cars he’d built, but he never raced again.
In 1997, Dutton’s beloved wife of almost 42 years, Betty, passed away. She was a one-of-a-kind woman, making sure the truck was restocked with items from the race the weekend before, washing the truck, trailer, and car when Dutton returned from being on the road.
After hanging up his professional racing suits for good, Dutton went on to build a few cars and engines and helped younger guys interested in getting involved in drag racing, guys with the same dream of drag racing he had as a young man. He recently sold the last car he built, a 1967 Fairlane like the one he won the championship with in ’67, in April 2024, having never taken it down the track.
Although he hasn’t raced in almost two decades, Dutton still loves to talk about drag racing – it was his life for so long. He won many races, the quantities unknown, and was good at what he did. Dutton was inducted into the East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame in 2005.
Dutton resides in Oxford, GA.
