He served in World War II as radio operator and engineer on a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
In 1950, he drove the first streamliner (made, with help from Dean Batchelor,[1] from a drop tank)[2] powered by a Flathead Ford V-8 60.
[3][4] The Xydias-Batchlor tank, named the So-Cal Streamliner (wearing #5), would earn them SCTA's first Hot Rod Trophy (for top speed of the meet) at the 1949 Bonneville Nationals, with a speed of 193.54 mph (311.47 km/h), and put them on the cover of Hot Rod in October that year.
[5] It would be the first flatty-powered tank to exceed 200 mph (322 km/h),[citation needed] thanks in part to running 40 percent nitro.
He was also a member of the board of directors of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum.