In the history of the National Hot Rod Association there have only been a few repeat Top Fuel World Champions and the very first guy to do it came from that hot bed of drag racing, Sand Springs, Oklahoma. Bennie The Wizard Osborn won the first of his two consecutive World Championships in 1967 when he beat Don Prudhomme in the finals of a race that was held in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The track, which was extremely tricky that year, played right into Bennie's plans. I know this place like the back of my hand, he said before the start of eliminations, and then he went out and won the race while recording low elapsed time (7.03) and top speed (223 mph) in the final round against The Snake.

In 1968 the anticipation for the NHRA World Finals was running high, especially with the announcement of a nation wide, closed circuit television hookup for the event, a giant step for NHRA. Bennie came to the race as the '68 Division 4 champion and, as such, he only had to make one qualifying run in order to make the field, but Bennie wanted to show off for the home crowd so he made a pair of runs including a 7.01 which gave him the number one qualifying spot. On race day, he beat Jerry Ruth, Jerry Wilson and Tom Larkin to get to the final round where he would meet one of the top drivers in the country, John The Zookeeper Mulligan. NHRA's newspaper, National Dragster, had a feature called the Hauler's Handicap where they rated the drivers, and they had Bennie at 2-1 odds while Mulligan came in at 3-1. When the two made it to the finals, the trackside observers called it the match of the century, and it started out like it was going to be just that, but John's car broke at about half-track and that enabled the Wizard to sail on for the win, and his second straight world championship. Oh, I almost forgot, in that Hauler's Handicap section right next to Bennie's name it said, Never bet against a wizard.