Pops Racer


 * For the character from the 2008 Speed Racer film, see Pops Racer (2008 character).

Pops Racer is Speed Racer's father, he was voiced by Jack Curtis in the original series. In the 2008 movie, he is played by John Goodman.

Biography
He is a former champion wrestler going by the name of Dragon Racer and used to fight on the West Side Grunters and Groaners. He then became a car builder. After quitting his job in a corporate car manufacturing company, he founded his own company, Pops Motors. He is very overprotective of his creations and his family and eventually had a falling out with his eldest son Rex after he wrecked a race car that Pops had built.

Pops is a mechanical genius, capable of building cutting edge vehicles such as the Mach 5. As a result he is often sought out by automotive companies who wish to hire his expertise such as in "The Supersonic Car" when he was recruited to design and construct a supersonic car prototype.

Character traits
Pops is known for constantly (as Spritle and Speed say), "blowing gaskets" and often launches into angry tirades but it is clear that he dearly loves the boys. He at first was a firm opponent to Speed's wanting to race professionally because he secretly feared another tragedy that separated Rex Racer from the family.

Relationships

 * Husband of Mom
 * Father of Rex, Speed, and Spritle
 * Employer of Sparky

Behind the Scenes

 * Pops Racer was based on Mifune Daisuke, father of Mifune Go from MachGo Go Go. The two versions of the character bear little difference from each another, with the sole exception being while Pops Racer was a world champion wrestler, Daisuke was simply a university wrestling team captain (captain of the Tatsunoko University Wrestling team).
 * In the WildStorm comic adaptation, when Pops reveals he was formally a world champion wrestler, he appears in a vaguely bird-like outfit modeled after Tatsunoko's Gatchaman series.