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Every professional sport has its characters and auto racing is no exception. One of the most memorable is the irrepressible John Force, who is the all-time king of, appropriately enough, drag racing’s Funny Car class.

But long before Force, there was Tommy Ivo, movie actor and hardcore drag racer who also managed to inject some fun and pizzazz into the sport.

Ivo was a natural to play the part. This skinny, blond-haired California kid looked like a typical young gearhead, the sort who sweats most nights and weekends working on his pride-and-joy hot rod project. Drag racing fans could relate to him because Ivo looked and acted just like one of them.

Far more importantly, though, was that Ivo was already famous before he became involved in tearing up quarter-mile drag-race tracks. He had already acted in more than 100 movies and had 200 TV roles in the 1940s and 1950s, including the “Mickey Mouse Club,” “The Donna Reed Show” and “The Danny Thomas Show.” Playing to an audience, whether in front of a camera or thousands of cheering fans, was something that came naturally to him.

Ivo’s involvement in this high-risk endeavour was frowned on by the film studios, and in an attempt to keep his hobby a secret, he often raced using a different name.

With the money he made from acting, Ivo built a number of dragsters, including cars with two and then four Buick engines. This was between 1957 and 1963 when the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) had banned the use of nitromethane, a dangerous and volatile power-adding fuel.

Without nitro, Ivo’s solution for creating more horsepower was to add more gasoline-powered engines. His two-engine dragster was the first quarter-mile racer to surpass the 160-, 170- and 180-mph barriers. But his ultimate was the Showboat, a car that featured four 402-cubic-inch Buick V-8 engines and four-wheel drive. Barrelling down the drag strip with smoke pouring from all four tires, it created a fan frenzy whenever it raced.

Fortunately for drag racing, the TV series Ivo was starring in was cancelled in 1961 after two seasons. Ivo, then 25, left acting for good to pursue fame and fortune behind the wheel.

With a partner, Ivo opened a race shop where they constructed tubular frames for “slingshot” dragsters: long-wheelbase machines with motorcycle-style wheels in front and massive motors positioned directly in front of the driver.

Once the NHRA’s ban on nitro fuel was lifted in 1963, and the Top Fuel category established to support its use, Ivo began driving single-engine Chrysler-powered slingshots. That year, he became the first driver to go below the eight-second mark in the quarter mile.

Although Ivo competed in many of the NHRA’s big events, he also devoted much of his time — and generated most of his income — driving in match races. These were non-championship events for which a track promoter would pay an appearance fee to the driver. Before the age of megabuck corporate sponsorship, match racing paid the bills, and movie and racing star Tommy Ivo (by then billed as TV Tommy Ivo) made the most of his celebrity status.

By the late 1960s, Ivo was pulling down some serious money by match racing around the country, competing against other established drivers such as Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney and Don (The Snake) Prudhomme. Always the promoter, TV Tommy had a race-car transporter with large glass windows installed along each side, and an illuminated interior, so his fans could see in while he was travelling from event to event. As well, his unusual Corvette pusher car — to push the race car around — would be parked on the roof of the rig, with just enough room to clear highway overpasses.

In 1972, Ivo joined Garlits by making the switch to a rear-engine Top Fuel-class dragster. That year, he also became the first to run the quarter-mile in less than six seconds.

By then, the new Funny Car class — dragsters with exaggerated bodies that vaguely resembled passenger cars — had been developed. In 1976, Ivo was in the Funny Car class where he competed with (but seldom won against) his longtime rival Prudhomme. Four years later, he was exhibiting a flame-shooting jet-engine-powered machine that was not only quick, but a great showstopper.

In 1982, at the age of 46 and after 30 years in drag racing, Ivo made the decision to retire. For his final hurrah, Ivo toured with his old four-engine Showboat that sported a Buick station wagon body. Despite a serious crash in Saskatoon, where he broke three vertebrae, Ivo’s performances carried on, winding up at the Orange County International Raceway in California. There, after his final run, Ivo saluted the crowd, then set his driving gloves on fire at the starting line.

Hollywood couldn’t have staged a more dramatic career ending for a man who spent the better part of life as an entertainer, whether on the silver screen or at the racetrack.

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