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Budweiser King Funny Car on display at this year's event
Kenny Bernstein World Famous Drag Racer
By 1978, Bernstein could no longer resist his racing urges. He named his latest Funny Car after his restaurant's signature sandwich, the "Chelsea King", and returned to the quarter-mile tracks.
Though he crashed twice in the early stages of his comeback, Bernstein finally got his first major rewards as a driver in 1979. He won one NHRA national event, plus a pair of IHRA national events, which led to that series' Winston World Championship.
An even more important development occurred that same year when the heads-up Bernstein parlayed a race event postponement into the Budweiser sponsorship that has been with him for now 20 years running. When rain delayed the running of the NHRA Cajun Nationals at Baton Rouge, LA, he quickly concocted an opportunity for a sponsorship pitch to Anheuser-Busch management at their headquarters in St. Louis, MO. He hustled his race transporter from Louisiana to Missouri to have his car and trailer proudly on display when the brewer's employees reported to work on Monday morning. 
Bernstein's bold maneuver, and the accompanying presentation, rewarded him with Budweiser sponsorship for the 1980 season, and the launch of the first "Budweiser King" Funny Car. The Chelsea King Pubs were then sold, and the former restaurant magnate has been a full-time racer ever since.
His racing continues today being the owner of his son, Brandon Bernstein's Budweiser King Dragster Team. This year, 2007, Kenny returned to drag racing in his own "Monster" Funny Car.
As avid race fans, with the love for racing, either as a participate or spectator, Wayne and I had to opportunity to purchase Kenny's "Original" Budweiser King Funny Car with anticipation to restore the car to its original state.
We purchased the car in August 2004 from a gentleman in Montana, where the car has been stored since 1982. With Wayne's knowledge and history of the sport, he was able to restore this car to be 95% correct as being in its original state. He fabricated and duplicated parts he could not find, he used magazines and talked to Kenny and his crew chief from that era for information to complete the project. We completed restoring the car from the frame up in April of 2007. We have had several requests to display the car, many visits from avid race car fans and several contacts for the purchase of this famous race car.
Owners: Wayne and Carolyn Galligan (alleyworks@aol.com)
Bernstein's bold maneuver, and the accompanying presentation, rewarded him with Budweiser sponsorship for the 1980 season, and the launch of the first "Budweiser King" Funny Car. The Chelsea King Pubs were then sold, and the former restaurant magnate has been a full-time racer ever since.
His racing continues today being the owner of his son, Brandon Bernstein's Budweiser King Dragster Team. This year, 2007, Kenny returned to drag racing in his own "Monster" Funny Car.
As avid race fans, with the love for racing, either as a participate or spectator, Wayne and I had to opportunity to purchase Kenny's "Original" Budweiser King Funny Car with anticipation to restore the car to its original state.
We purchased the car in August 2004 from a gentleman in Montana, where the car has been stored since 1982. With Wayne's knowledge and history of the sport, he was able to restore this car to be 95% correct as being in its original state. He fabricated and duplicated parts he could not find, he used magazines and talked to Kenny and his crew chief from that era for information to complete the project. We completed restoring the car from the frame up in April of 2007. We have had several requests to display the car, many visits from avid race car fans and several contacts for the purchase of this famous race car.
Owners: Wayne and Carolyn Galligan (alleyworks@aol.com)