Читать книгу 1001 Drag Racing Facts - Doug Boyce - Страница 9

Chapter 1

Diggers Digest

1950s

1 Dick Kraft’s 1950 Bug, considered by most to be the first dragster, started out as a ’27 T rescued from his folks’ West Coast orange grove. Little beyond the original frame rails remained of the car once Dick was through modifying it. Powered by a 268-inch flathead-8, running on 30-percent nitro, the Bug was the first rail to top 100 mph when Dick accomplished this feat, hitting 109.09 mph, at the Santa Ana Air Strip in July 1950.

2 At the same time Kraft was toying with his Bug, Otto Ryssman and his partner Tiny Conkle were busy with their own early dragster. They used lengthened Model A rails and pushed a flathead-8 within a foot of the rear end as a means of improving traction. Like all early rails, it was quite primitive, gutted of all unnecessary weight and wrapped in a topless Crosley body. Otto’s rail looked more like a crude version of a later Altered.

3 Records show that C. J. “Pappy” Hart coined the term “dragster,” after looking at Dode Martin’s drag car. Dode’s dragster followed close behind the cars of Kraft and Ryssman. When Martin showed up at Santa Ana with his car, Pappy just didn’t know what to call it or how to classify it. It was easy to see that it wasn’t a lakester, so on the spot, Pappy coined the phrase dragster.

4 Like many early drag racers Art Chrisman was was a convert of the dry lakes. His famed 25 covered dragster was the first to break into the 9s and the first to top 140 mph. Art accomplished the feat in February 1953 at Santa Ana, hitting 140.08 mph. Power came from a Jack Ewell 304-inch Ardun-equipped flathead, apparently surviving on 100-percent nitro. 25, originally built by Harry Lewis and raced on the dry lakes in the 1930s, featured an 89-inch wheelbase, which Art, the fourth or so owner, stretched out to 110.

5 Formed in 1949, The Bean Bandits is recognized as the first organized drag racing team. Based out of San Diego, the team, which consisted of members of numerous ethnic backgrounds, won the first major NHRA event with its flathead-powered full-body rail. The Bean Bandits, headed by founding member Joaquin Arnett, captured Top Eliminator honors at the Southern California Championship held April 11–12, 1953.

Slice of Pie was campaigned by Creighton Hunter, who was also partners with C. J. Hart in operating the Santa Ana strip. Those eyes on the left and right flank were adopted by Moon Equipment. (Photo Courtesy Bob McClurg)

6 A very unique early dragster was Slice of Pie, campaigned by Creighton Hunter around 1955. Creighton’s crude-looking dragster featured a full, owner-fabricated body covering a front-mounted tri-carb flathead, positioned sideways in the chassis and running direct drive, via chain to the rear axle. Creighton relied upon a jacking system to raise the rear of the car once he was at the starting line. Bringing up the RPM, he dropped the car when the flag dropped. Creighton topped 150 mph with the car in 1956 before crashing it at Santa Ana.

7 Big Daddy Don Garlits started his drag racing career in 1950 and won his first big meet late in 1955 at the Lake City Airport near Jacksonville, Florida. Driving his crude home-built flathead-powered rail, Don cranked out a speed of 108.17 mph and won a 2-foot-high trophy. It wasn’t until the 1963 NHRA Winternationals that Don won his first national event, in a much more sophisticated Swamp Rat.

8 The slingshot dragster was born in the 1950s. The whole idea behind the design was to place the driver behind the rear wheels to maximize traction. Mickey Thompson has been credited as being the first to introduce the slingshot in 1954, though many seem to forget that Calvin Rice also debuted his slingshot rail the same year.

9 Calvin Rice was a heavy hitter in the mid-1950s and the J. E. Riley Top Fuel flathead-powered rail he drove was top eliminator at the first NHRA nationals in 1955. Cal’s nitro-fed 274-inch flathead eliminated the nation’s hottest overhead-valve engine dragster turning times of 10.30 at 141.95 mph. It was the top ET of the meet, which had to be completed two months later in Arizona due to heavy Kansas rains. Cal’s rail started out with a Hemi but after exploding the blower, he dropped in the flattie. This was the last gasp for the side-valve V-8 in Top Fuel because overhead-valve engines were taking over. In 1956, Melvin Heath and his Hemi dragster won the Nationals.

10 On February 20, 1955, Bob Alsenz of Paramount, California, hit an astounding 147.05 mph in his Lakewood Auto Parts Special. At the time, it was believed the Ardun Mercury-powered dragster was only 20 mph short of the theoretical quarter-mile maximum speed. Going beyond that, scientists believed the g-forces would make a person pass out.

11 Lloyd Scott, Noel Timney, and George Smith sure took a different approach to building a twin-engine dragster. Their Bustle Bomb featured both 391 Caddy and 348 Olds V-8 mills, not in tandem or side by side but stem to stern. Both engines ran off the same axle, and as unorthodox as it sounds, the getup actually worked. With the Caddy hanging out back for added traction, Lloyd clocked a 151.07 mph on gas in August 1955. This was the first quarter-mile clocking in excess of the magical 150-mph mark. The way the setup worked was really straightforward. The Olds engine transmitted power to the swing axle rear through a modified Ford transmission, which ran second and high gears only. The Caddy engine ran a timed throttle, which gave full power just after launch. The engine, which was mounted backward, made use of a dog-leg clutch, feeding power to a second pinion. Specs for the bomb were 1,800 pounds, 96-inch wheelbase, and a reported 500 horses on gas (700 on fuel).

12 In 1956, Don Garlits built Swamp Rat 1 around modified 1930 Chevy frame rails. On June 20, 1959, the car suffered a blower explosion in Chester, South Carolina, in which Garlits was seriously burned. Garlits, who vowed never to drive again (the first of many times), was convinced by Art Malone to allow him to take over the driving chores. Of course, Big Daddy’s retirement was short-lived, and by mid–1960, he was back behind the controls.

13 The chassis of Swamp Rat 1 had to be stretched 6.5 inches to fit Malone and was renamed Swamp Rat 1B. Twenty-three-year-old Malone exclaimed after making a record-setting pass of 8.23 at 183.66 mph in 1960, “It’s like riding on the tail end of a missile headed for Mars!” Just two months prior to taking controls of Swamp Rat, Art was circling the dirt tracks around Tampa.

14 Southern California’s Ollie Morris is credited as being the first to drop a Chevy OHV V-8 into a dragster. In early 1956, Ollie swapped out his 275-inch flathead in favor of a 265-incher, which propelled his mid-engine dragster to a 141.86-mph clocking. The relatively tame Offenhauser test bed featured stock bore and stroke. Weighing a shade more than 1,400 pounds, the dragster had a full aluminum body perched on Model A rails, which held a Zepher gearbox and a Model A rear end.

15 With the millions of dollars paid out to athletes these days, it’s not unusual to see sports figures cross over and invest their time and money in the world of drag racing. But in 1957, it was very unusual. The world of drag racing and pro tennis collided when Pancho Gonzales, eight-time winner of the U.S. singles as well as four-time winner at Wembley, hooked up with Don Rowe. The pair campaigned a 389-inch Caddy-powered Gas dragster, and on August 18, 1957, they set the elapsed time record with a 9.70 at San Fernando.

16 Big Daddy Don Garlits started a reign of terror in 1957 that lasted almost 50 years. On November 10, Don set his first national record, turning a 8.71 at 176.40 mph in his carbureted, Hemi-powered Swamp Rat. The record was set at Brooksville Airport in Florida. Garlits laid claim to being the first to crack 170, 200, 240, 250, and 270 mph.

17 The nitro fuel ban was first activated on February 10, 1957, at Santa Ana by Pappy Hart. The reasons stated for implementing the ban included overall safety, sky-rocketing costs, lack of sufficient stopping distance, and the desire of participants to return to gasoline. Although the new rule affected all categories, it was aimed at dragsters. Emery Cook set the new dragster record prior to the ban, hitting 166.97 mph at Lions on February 3, 1957. NHRA’s all-out nitro fuel ban commenced with the Nationals held in Oklahoma at the end of August 1957. The NHRA ban ran until the Nationals in 1963.

18 With the NHRA fuel ban in 1957, many Top Eliminator dragsters compensated for the loss of power by adopting either a blower or twin engines, or in some cases, both. Tommy Ivo, influenced by Howard Cams’ Twin Bear team, chose to go the twin-injected route and in 1959 bolted two Buicks into a Kent Fuller–designed chassis. Kent wasn’t a fan of these twin-engine oddities and did his best to convince Tommy to go with a single blown engine. Kent felt the car would be quicker than a twin-engine rail, but Tommy, being the engine builder and tuner, felt otherwise. He didn’t want to go with a blower because he wanted to stick with his Buicks and knew that the small valves in his nailhead wouldn’t work with a blower. As Tommy recalls, “At the time blown cars were breaking a lot of parts.” To appease Kent, Tommy bolted a blower onto his Buick and proceeded to prove Kent wrong. Of course, Kent had no idea that Tommy had detuned the blown engine to ensure it ran like a slug.

19 Tommy’s twin Buicks measured 464 inches each and the rail became the first to crack 170 mph and hit the 8s, accomplishing each feat in 1959. The old nail-valve Buicks ran on torque, and as Tommy recalls, he may have been hitting 4,000 rpm going through the lights. The secret to making the car perform was the 2.90 rear gears. “And we had the right combination of tire and horsepower,” Tommy says. The Kent Fuller chassis initially featured a 92-inch wheelbase, but it never worked for the twin. “It never grabbed the ground very well so we started shortening it at 2-inch increments until we settled on 88 inches where the car seemed to hook the best,” Tommy adds.

20 Ivo’s twin was by no means the first twin-engine rail. That distinction falls to Mike Willis, who built a twin-flathead car in 1950. Others who capitalized on the twin design included The Bean Bandits in 1951 and the Colorado team of Kenz & Leslie in 1955. The Kenz & Leslie team went on to greater fame in the mid-1960s with one of the first flip-top Mercury Comets.

21 Jack Chrisman in the Chuck Jones/Joe Mailliard Automotive Engineering Hemi-powered Sidewinder topped 9.03 at 151.51 mph in May 1959 and went on to defeat Tommy Ivo at the Kiwanis charity meet at San Fernando. Running on gas, the engine was mounted sideways and transmitted power to the solid-mounted rear via chain drive. Jack once commented that Sidewinder was the hardest leaving car he ever owned. Jack, seemingly hooked on the idea of rear, side-mounted engines, built a number of them through the years.

22 By the late 1950s, Art Malone had his own rail and was also driving for Garlits. Art’s drag race career has spanned from Indy’s Brickyard to Daytona Beach, where he was the first to clock 180 mph. In 1963 he first went to Indianapolis, where he ran the 500. He finished as high as 11th in 1964.

23 In 1956, Robert “Jocko” Johnson put his renowned West Coast porting service on the back burner and went to work developing drag racing’s first fully enclosed fiberglass streamliner. Powered by a Jazzy Jim Nelson–built, 450-inch blown Hemi topped by eight Strombergs on nitro, the 1,800-pound streamliner managed a best of 8.35 at 178.21 mph in May 1959 before the body finally disintegrated. Not discouraged, Jocko went to work on an aluminum-bodied streamliner, which debuted in 1964. Powered by an Allison aircraft engine, the new streamliner proved to be too heavy to be competitive and quickly faded from the limelight. Restored by Jocko in 1987, the innovative streamliner resides today in the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing.

24 Earlier attempts at slicing a cleaner path through the air included the Cortopassi brothers’ well-designed Glass Slipper. Built in 1954 with the help of Doug Butler, it has been credited as being the first dragster to incorporate a streamlined body with an enclosed cockpit. Dick Katayanagi laid on a gorgeous burgundy paint job, which helped win the most beautiful competition car at the 1957 Oakland Roadster show. Although the brothers, Ed and Roy, switched from flathead power to a 301 Chevy after a couple seasons, at the second annual NHRA Nationals, they used both the flathead and Chevy engines during qualifying. For eliminations, they opted to go with the flathead because it proved to be the most consistent. Ed set a high-speed mark of 141.50 mph during the meet and took home the winning prize, which, ironically, was a small-block Chevy. Glass Slipper topped 160 in the quarter and 180 at Bonneville before being parked in 1963.

25 The bullet-shaped A/Dragster, Hustler 1, of Art Chrisman and Frank Cannon can take credit for being the first to break the 180-mph barrier, although I’m sure Garlits would have something to say about that. Chrisman hit 181.81 mph in 8.54 seconds at Riverside on February 15, 1959. According to Drag News, weather conditions were ideal and the track had just been certified. Chrisman took home $300 that day for grabbing Top Eliminator and a $25 bond for top speed.

26 Hustler 1 also holds the honor of winning A/Dragster class at the first Bakersfield U.S. Fuel and Gas Championship on March 1, 1959. Chrisman, in the 454-inch blown Hemi-powered rail, faced Tony Waters’ equally impressive blown Hemi A/Modified Roadster in the anticipated final. With night falling, Chrisman blasted out an easy 9.36 at 140.50-mph victory. Tony was left in the weeds, literally, as he was forced to backpedal after becoming crossed up.

27 In what has to be a first and probably a last in a drag racing final eliminator, Jack Chrisman had to race himself during a meet at Bakersfield in July 1959. You see, Jack wore two hats that day, I mean helmets. He won AOG class in Sidewinder and also grabbed A/D in the Howard, Hawkins & Gireth blown dragster. It was an obvious win-win situation for Jack, who chose to pull Sidewinder out of the Top Eliminator final handing the win to . . . himself.

1960s

28 In 1960, no Chevy rail was quicker than the one campaigned by Northern Californians Ted “Curly” Cyr and Bill Hopper. With Cyr behind the wheel, the 338-ci B/Dragster clocked 162 mph on gas and 175.43 mph on fuel. The pair grabbed Top Eliminator victory at the NHRA Nationals in 1958 and in 1960 and won Top Fuel at the Bakersfield Fuel and Gas Championship. The same year, they were recognized as having the second most popular rail behind Garlits’ Swamp Rat. Unlike Garlits’ Swamp Rat 1B, which survives today, the Cyr-Hopper rail was lost in a late-1960 accident.

29 In May 1960, Cyr clocked what was reported to be the first 7-second pass, a controversial 7.962 at Fremont Raceway. The controversy is that it was recorded a year before Garlits’ universally accepted 7.88 time.

30 In 1960, a tall Texan, Eddie Hill, set his first NHRA record when his twin 422-inch Pontiac-powered A/Gas dragster, Texas Tornado, clipped off an 8.84.

Good ol’ Eddie Hill was never afraid to step outside the box. How about a twin Pontiac short-wheelbase slingshot with four slicks, which literally tore up tracks. Eddie’s a proven winner, be it drag racing, boats, or bikes.

31 On April 9, 1988, Eddie became the first to break into the 4s when he propelled his Dave Uyehara–chassis Super Shops–sponsored T/Fueler to a 4.99 at 288.55 mph during a IHRA event at the Texas Motorplex. At the time, it made Eddie the fastest on land and on water (229 mph).

32 Who was in the other lane when Eddie Hill clocked his record-setting 4.99? None other than Gene “the Snowman” Snow. And when Snow ran NHRA’s first 4-second pass (4.99) at the Supernationals in Houston on October 6, 1988, who do you think was in the opposing lane? Yup, Eddie Hill.

33 In 1962, Hill became the first to break 200 mph on gas when he hit 202.70 mph at Hobbs, New Mexico. Eddie was driving his twin-blown Pontiac rail, which also featured twin drivelines and four 8-inch-wide slicks on the rear. The car was later stretched to a 160-inch wheelbase in a failed attempt to improve handling and keeping the front wheels on the ground.

Eddie Hill lays a whooping on the competition at the 1988 IHRA Fall Nationals. Eddie and his wife, Ercie, led the way into the magical 4s. (Photo Courtesy Allen Tracy)

34 Eddie drag raced through 1966 before parting with his dragster. He went motorcycle racing through 1974 to promote Eddie Hill’s Fun Cycles. He raced speedboats through 1984, becoming the first in the 5-second bracket before returning to drag racing in 1985. Surprisingly, Eddie’s first national event win didn’t come until the 1988 NHRA Gatornationals, where (at age 52) he defeated Joe Amato with a 5.066.

35 Chet Herbert (Herbert Cams) and Zane Shubert started 1961 right by winning the AHRA winter meet with their twin Chevy-powered AA/FD dragster. Chet assembled the twin small-block Chevys, supplied to him by Chevrolet’s own Zora Arkus-Duntov. The bore and stroke of each was 4.25 x 4.125, giving 454 inches. Herbert and Shubert met up with Ed Garlits at the AHRA Championship at Green Valley, Texas, where Zane won Top Eliminator even though one of his precious small-blocks self-destructed in the process.

36 When it came to the unorthodox in dragster design, Chet came up with one of the best. How about a pair of rear-mounted sidewinder Chevys? In 1961, this ill-handling AA/F dragster clocked a best of 168 mph. The two 450-inch Chevys were connected via 3 flywheels, 52 clutch disks, and a pair of spider gears with the rear engine running the wheels.

37 Tommy Ivo was the first traveling professional racer, hitting the road in 1960 with his twin Buick rail and a young Don Prudhomme. With Ivo jokingly referring to Don as his tire wiper, the pair headed east and made ten stops in three short months. The car was a huge hit, which sparked the idea for the four-engine Showboat. And the thought behind building a four-engine rail? Says Tommy, “I figured that if they liked two engines, they’d like four better.”

Tommy Ivo proved that if two were good then four were better. Tommy toured the country with a young Don Prudhomme, referring to the Snake as his “tire wiper.” Four nailhead Buicks and four-wheel drive got the job done.

38 Ivo debuted Showboat at the 1961 NHRA Nationals. Describing the build, Tommy says, “I built a twin-bank in-tandem four-wheel-drive car with the front and rear engines chained together. The two left-side engines drove the front wheels, and the two right-side engines drove the rear wheels. This arrangement, pairing what were essentially two V-16 engines, allowed both banks to torque inward and counteract each other. Unfortunately, what I feared would happen did. Weight transfer from the initial launch unloaded the front wheels, and they broke loose excessively. The second problem was that the car weighed almost 4,000 pounds, so it wouldn’t ET. And although it ran upstairs, it was no winner. But the NHRA didn’t know that before it was done. They were getting nervous. Their thinking was simple: If my four-engine car ran proportionally as well as my twin, other guys were going to build them. And if that happened, they might not be as well built as my cars were, and they could start crashing through that era’s flimsy guardrails. So the NHRA said I could only run it as an exhibition car, the first to be so designated, but it broke my heart. In retrospect, it has become my signature car.” It had a Kent Fuller chassis, Bob Sorrell body, Dodge 1 truck front end, and a 1,856-ci engine gulping 2.5 gallons per run. Don Prudhomme, who shared driving chores initially, complained that the car drove too nicely.

39 TV Tommy was a bit actor who never had a contract with one single Hollywood studio. This worked out great for Tommy as it allowed him more time to enjoy his first love, drag racing. His movie career ended in 1965, and one of his last roles was in the 1964 flick Bikini Beach, starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. The movie featured Showboat and Tommy (in an ape costume) in an unaccredited role.

40 Ed Garlits, lost in the shadows of his older brother Don, had an impressive, although brief, driving career of his own. Ed started racing 1952 with a Buick-powered 1932 Ford roadster. By the following year, the Buick found its way into a C/Dragster that he and Don had built and christened Banana. The car earned the Florida state championship on its debut outing. Ed won Top Gas at the AHRA Championship in 1961 driving Banana “C” A/GD, rewriting the class record in the process with an 8.72 at 169.17 mph. Ed sold the car shortly after, choosing the married life over drag racing. Between 1974 and 1978, Ed worked as Don’s crew chief. He returned in 1992 to work on the crew, but retired for good three years later.

41 Connie Kalitta, Michigan state champion, walked into Long Beach in November 1961 to steal away Top Eliminator. This was the first time anyone from out of state had won the eliminator in the track’s six years of running. In the final go, Kalitta’s blown Chrysler put away the twin-Chevy Howards Cams’ Special driven by Jack Chrisman. Getting the jump off the line, Kalitta held on for the win with an 8.73 at 169.49 mph to Chrisman’s 9.05 at 136.95 mph.

Red Goble in the Destroyer Two cranked out an 8.24 at 191.48 at Kent, Washington. The rear-engine rail was the old Coleman brothers’ car.

42 Hailing from Elk Ridge, Maryland, Bill and Dave Coleman have been credited for building one of the first successful rear-engine dragsters. The guys ran the Chevrolet-powered rail between 1959 and 1961, and at one time, it was considered the world’s fastest Chevy, clocking 8.70s times at 180 mph in September 1961.

43 Chris Karamesines, in his Chizler I, clocked an unheard-of 204 mph in 8.80 seconds at Alton, Illinois, in 1960. Powering the 90-inch-wheelbase Chassis Research dragster was a 392 Hemi gulping 90-percent nitro and more than likely a pinch of the highly explosive hydrazine.

44 San Fernando, September 4, 1960: Don Prudhomme earns what is believed to be his first and possibly only career grand slam. Don took his ex–Tommy Ivo Buick-powered rail to Top Eliminator honors defeating Tony Nancy’s roadster with a blistering 9.10 elapsed time. In addition to the record win was a top speed of the meet of 160.71 mph, which he ran while winning B/Dragster class.

45 In February 1961, at Pomona, Mickey Thompson clocked a record-setting 125.96 mph in 11.27 seconds with a Pontiac 4-cylinder Dragmaster rail. Always innovative, Thompson derived the four by chopping off the driver-side bank of a 389 V-8. The remaining bank ran a stock bore (and stroke) while a GMC blower was mounted to the blank side.

46 The Belmont Boys, Jesse and Walt Schranks, held the Standard 1320 elapsed-time record in August 1961 at 8.65 with their 276-inch Hemi Chassis Research B/Dragster. They set the record at Half Moon Bay with a 183.28 mph (which stood for almost two years). With the car that weighed less than 1,600 pounds, the brothers defeated the likes of McEwen and Zane Schubert at Lions in 1962, earning a $500 bond. Around 2012, the brothers gathered the remains of the car and built a spot-on clone.

47 At the 1961 NHRA Nationals, nobody questioned the clocks when Tom McEwen in the McEwen & Adams 475-inch blown Olds laid down low ET and top speed with a 9.01 at 170.45 mph. But when unknown Sneaky Pete Robinson rolled off the trailer with his 352-inch blown and injected Chevy AA/Dragster and dropped low ET of the meet with a 8.68, the times seemed so far out, the tower initially refused to broadcast them. Pete commented, “I was pretty burned because they wouldn’t show me my times for two days, but they weighed me five times.” Jack Hart eventually had no choice but to relent and show Pete the numbers, as his clockings were just too consistent to be incorrect. Pete opened Sunday with a 8.52 and proceeded to beat Jack Chrisman and Eddie Hill on his way to a final face-off against Tom “not yet the Mongoose” McEwen. It was a close race, until half-track, when Robinson opened a slight lead, taking the win with an 8.86 at 170.77 mph to an 8.90 at 168.55 mph. Yup, Pete Robinson had arrived.

48 In an interview back in the day, Pete recounted that he had blown his engine about a week prior to the 1961 Nationals. “I had gone through something like five engines that year and had only been out of state once. I was pretty much unknown when we headed to Indy with junk, and I mean junk.” Not only had Pete won Indy with a junk engine, he had only been in the 8s once before the Nationals, at Brooksville, Florida, where Gartlits clocked a 176 mph.

49 Garlits’ 176-mph run came in November 1957. Until that time, he had been running a flathead in the rail and hitting 110 in 12.5 seconds. Blowing the transmission one day, Don decided to run his coupe through the traps; he hit 114 mph in the 14-second bracket. With times like those, Don knew that the first person to install a Hemi in a dragster was going to be unbeatable. According to a Hemmings article, Don’s wife, Pat, suggested they install the Hemi in the dragster. Pulling the 331 Hemi from his tow vehicle, a 1939 Ford coupe, Don dropped it into his dragster and became the first to run in excess of 170 mph.

50 Drag racers are a versatile bunch, aren’t they? How about Hayden “the Stocker King” Proffitt, dominating the Winternationals with his Chevy in 1962 and then hopping into the Proffitt & Jones Pontiac-powered A/FD to face Don Prudhomme? The pair faced off in April 1962 at San Fernando, where Prudhomme, in Dick Balfatti’s 454-inch Chrysler rail, passed Proffitt with a 9.12 at 172.74 mph. Proffitt failed to adhere to “the shortest distance between point A and point B is a straight line” theory.

51 The all-dominating Greer, Black, and Prudhomme A/FD dragster made its debut on June 17, 1962, at Pomona. Prudhomme, stepping out of the Prudhomme-Zuechel rail, won Top Eliminator, set top speed, and ran the low ET of the meet. In the car’s first eliminator final, Prudhomme faced Lefty Mudersbach in the Howards Cams Special twin Chevy and defeated the AA/FD with an 8.73 at 177.51 mph. According to Hot Rod, between its debut and 1964, the Greer, Black, and Prudhomme rail went on a phenomenal 200/7 win/loss rampage.

Jack Chrisman (right) and crew pose proudly with the twin Chevy-powered Howards Cams Special. The surrounding hardware is but a fraction of what the Twin Bear accumulated into the 1962 season. Jack has the honor of recording the first 8-second quarter-mile time with this car. In 1964 he introduced the drag race world to the first blown and injected nitromethane-fed full-body sedan. This 1964 Mercury Comet is considered by many to be the origin of today’s Funny Car.

52 Mickey Thompson was without a doubt one of the sport’s true innovators. In 1962 he developed his own Pontiac aluminum Hemi cylinder heads (20 sets), bolted a pair on a poked-and-stroked experimental aluminum 389 block measuring 450 inches, and dropped the works into a Dragmaster rail. Jack Chrisman was hired to drive the car and he proceeded to defeat Don Garlits at the 1962 NHRA Nationals. Jack cranked out an 8.76 at 171.75 mph in the final to give Pontiac its only Top Eliminator win.

53 The 1960s were by far the most innovative, diverse decade in drag racing history. Take the Cook brothers’ B/Fueler (on alcohol) for instance. They designed and built their own direct-drive three-wheel sidewinder, debuting the spectacle on January 6, 1963, at San Gabriel. Driven by Jeff Jahns, the side-winding 297-inch Hemi rail had initial times of 8.77 at 177.5 mph.

54 James Warren and Roger Coburn were the first ones to make use of the Simpson drag chute, in an AHRA competition in 1965. With the introduction of the Simpson chute, racers could finally say good-bye to the army-surplus chutes they had been using.

55 The Bakersfield-based team of Warren, Coburn & [Marvin] Miller sure earned the name Ridge Route Terrors. The team was so feared in Southern California during the latter half of the 1960s that the competition posted lookouts at off-ramps to see which track the team members were heading for. Once it was determined which track they were going to, the competition headed for a different track.

56 Val LaPorte holds the distinction of being the first known AA/FD pilot to run his car off the end of a track and submerge it in a drainage ditch (now there’s something to be remembered for). Val did the deed at Florida’s Palm Beach International, now known as Moroso Motorsports Park, in 1965 while filming a local beer commercial.

57 Don Garlits and those on the Left Coast have always had a love/hate relationship with each other. Maybe it all stems from 1960 when Garlits was paid a large sum of money to appear at Bakersfield. During the early 1960s, the pendulum was leaning toward the hate side, I think, and was compounded by his win at Bakersfield in 1965. Not only did Don grab Top Eliminator, but his stablemate Marvin Schwartz took runner-up. Garlits took his first Bakersfield win with an 8.10 at 205 mph to Marvin’s 8.15 at 175 mph.

Known as the Ridge Route Terrors, James Warren, Roger Coburn, and Marvin Miller earned their much-feared reputation. Their competition went out of their way to avoid these guys. (Photo Courtesy James Handy)

58 Have you ever wondered where that long-standing feud between Garlits and the late NHRA President Wally Parks originated? Well, wonder no more. It harkens back to the first Winternationals held in 1960 at Spruce Creek Drag Strip in Daytona, Florida. The winter meet was a mix of the NHRA and the recently formed drag race division of NASCAR. After a week’s worth of dragging, local hero Garlits was crowned overall points champion and Top Eliminator champion. After driving back up the track in the wrong direction, Garlits became involved in a heated argument with Parks, who immediately disqualified him. Although the two were the biggest names in the sport, they never had what you might call an agreeable relationship.

59 Early A/FD heroes were Steve Porter and Herb Reis and their world’s quickest and fastest Oldsmobile. The Olds became just the fourth Top Fueler to crank out a 7-second time when Porter and Reis hit a 7.96 at 189 mph on December 9, 1962, at Pomona. They came close to defeating Garlits in the final at the 1963 NHRA Winternationals.

60 Pete Robinson didn’t earn the nickname “Sneaky” for no reason. Prior to the 1963 running of the NHRA Nationals, Pete had installed a jacking system on his small-block Chevy-powered AA/Dragster (sound familiar?). Trying to get one up on the Hemi competition, Pete staged his dragster, raised the rear, and spun the tires at approximately half throttle. When the light turned green, he lowered the rear and got the jump on the Hemis. Although nothing in the rulebook noted that the jacks were illegal, after Robinson set low ET with an 8.50, NHRA Director Ed Eaton quickly banned their use.

61 With Ford support, Sneaky Pete made the switch from his fuel-fed small-block Ford late in 1965 to an SOHC 427. The manufacturer had built the engine specifically to battle Chrysler’s Hemi in NASCAR, but when Bill France said no to the exotic engine, it was passed on to the drag guys. Unike the Hemi, the SOHC was never tamed for street use and after 1968 was no longer available.

Sneaky Pete really SOHC’ed it to them with his 427 Cammer. Among other innovations, he designed his own gear drive for the Cammer, which replaced the flexible chain Ford used to run the two cams. (Photo Courtesy Joel Naprstek)

62 Pete Robinson’s only world championship came in 1966. In the finals, Pete downed Division 7 champ Dave Beebe with a 7.19 clocking.

63 In 1963, Drag News hailed Dale Grantham’s turbine dragster as the future of the sport. Dale’s turbine weighed a meager 725 pounds and produced 800 hp. The turbines, originally used as DC-8 starters, were modified and used just one combustor for both turbines. Fueling the turbine was kerosene. The fuel and air were admitted through the combustor and ignited by a Champion igniter plug. Water injection cooled the charge from 35,000 degrees to a manageable 1,000 to 1,200 degrees. Built in just six months at a cost of $14,000, the car had quarter-mile times well into the 9-second range. Due to poor traction, the dragster’s true potential was never realized.

64 Garlits cracked the magical 200-mph mark at New York National Speedway on August 2, 1964. Big Daddy pushed his Wynn’s Jammer to a once-unthought-of 201.34 in 7.78 seconds. As Don climbed out, he was quoted saying, “It’s like being in another world.”

65 Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Rat Fink extraordinaire, entered the custom rail scene in 1965 when he debuted his Yellow Fang full-body dragster. The 392-powered car featured a full Tom Hanna body with a (some say) grossly extended, pointed, tail end. Piloted by George “Bushmaster” Schreiber, the 153-inch rail initially featured an enclosed canopy. The NHRA frowned upon the enclosed cockpit, which Roth solved by cutting a square out of the plexiglass. In mid–1966, Yellow Fang was one of the few streamliners capable of cracking 200 mph.

66 Why is it that rock ’n’ roll super groups are rarely super? Drag racing has had its share of super groups. The Magicar of chassis builder Kent Fuller, engine man Ron Winkel, and PR man Kaye Trapp showcases just one. Although Magicar failed to meet performance expectations, its uniqueness made it an instant standout and a key in the evolution of the dragster. While most rails of the day relied upon a solid mounted rear axle, the Magicar used a coil-spring suspension, mounted on a subframe.

Gerry Glenn makes what may have been his very first pass in a Top Fuel car. Magicar was one trick piece back in the day and has been beautifully restored.

In the September 1965 issue of Drag Racing, Fuller, Winkel, and Trapp described the chassis setup this way: “Basically the whole power train is mounted in a separate sub-frame, which is suspended on coil springs within the main chassis. The engine then is an isolated, cushioned component. Its horrendous vibration isn’t transferred directly to the car’s main structure and its weight is allowed to shift rearward slightly for added bite coming off the line.” Magicar made its debut at San Fernando in October 1964. Trapp, who was track photographer and worked for Drag News, ensured the car received plenty of ink.

Well, after all the hype and publicity, the debut proved to be a little anticlimatic. The car performed well but failed to meet the unrealistic expectations. Hampering the car’s ongoing development was the fact that three different drivers took the controls during the first season. Gary Casaday was the first and found the car a handful, relinquishing the seat almost immediately to Gerald “Jeep” Hampshire. Jeep was an experienced driver who, at the 1964 NHRA Winternationals, had set the low elapsed time of 7.85 behind the wheel of the Stellings-Hampshire Red Stamp Special.

After transplanting the Red Stamp engine into Magicar, Jeep laid down the car’s best time of 7.62 at 204.08 mph. By season’s end, Magicar had won three Top Eliminators and grabbed top speed at meets at Fremont and L.A. County. By the end of 1965, Magicar was back in builder Kent Fuller’s shop. In Kent’s eyes, the car was a success, having proven a few of the ideas that had been kicking around in his head.

By all appearances, the Rodger Lindwall Re-Entry showed great potential. It’s a shame that potential was never realized; the exercise in aerodynamics fizzled at Indy in 1966. (Photo Courtesy Pete Gemar)

67 Chicago’s Bob Lindwall put his hydroplane experience to work when creating his Re-Entry dragster. The mid-engine rail featured an aluminum body, which enclosed the supercharged 392 Hemi along with the driver and the rear wheels. Re-Entry has been credited as being the first rear-engine car to crack 200 mph, accomplishing the feat in 1966 at the World Series of Drag Racing at Cordova. Driver Wayne Hill crashed the car a week later at Indy while running against Connie Kalitta in the second round. Hill hit 201.34 mph with an out-of-control ET of 9.52. The study in aerodynamics was never rebuilt and Lindwall retired from drag racing after the crash.

68 Nye Frank’s Pulsator was one sexy dragster. Although it won the Best Engineered Car award at the 1965 NHRA Winternationals, it never really ran up to expectations. Nye had initially paired with John Peters to build the Top Gas twin-engine Freight Train and hoped the success would carry over into Top Fuel with Pulsator. Built similar to Freight Train with tandem injected small-block Chevys, Nye took it up a notch by wrapping the rail in a sleek outer shell, which enclosed the engines and driver’s compartment. Driven by Bob Muravez (aka Floyd Lippencott Jr.), Pulsator became the first twin-engine Chevy to top 200 mph when it hit 201.78 at Drag City at Fontana. The fiberglass-bodied dragster proved to be quite cumbersome and was eventually ditched, ending up some years later as a Hemi-powered snowmobile. Ice Kutter was dubbed the world’s fastest snowmobile.

69 The first NHRA Springnationals was held in July 1965 at Bristol, Tennessee. The Top Gas final came down to Pete Robinson and Gordon Collett. In a show of ultimate sportsmanship, Collett gave up his good Hemi to Kenny Hirata before the semifinals, and just before blowing his own engine. Collett had no choice but to rebuild his engine in his motel parking lot overnight prior to the finals. Getting the job done in time, Collett faced Pete Robinson in the final. In a repeat of Indy 1965, Collett collected the win, putting away a fading Robinson with an easy 8.47 at 185.94 mph.

70 The members of the Surfers Top Fuel team were not surfers at all, but compared to the crew-cut set, they were long hairs who had their act and engines together while other teams thrashed away. How’d they do it? According to team member Tom Jobe in a Hot Rod interview, they kept their engines together by studying and understanding the characteristics of nitro, which helped avoid continuous teardowns. The Surfers figured out how to run up to 97 or 98 percent without scattering their engines, whereas most could only run 60 to 70 percent and hope to keep it together. Higher loads meant more power. More power and a driver with the skill of Mike Sorokin helped propel the team to a win at Bakersfield in 1966.

71 On August 1, 1965, the Canadian Frantic Four’s AA/FD becomes the first Canadian rail to crack the 7-second barrier. Driver Fred Farndon drove the Hemi to a 7.76 clocking at Ontario’s Mohawk Raceway.

72 You have to love the stories behind the names; for instance, Fearless Fred Forkner’s Quarterhorse. Well, American Indians at one time bred quarter horses and for Fred, who was one-quarter Cherokee and whose car covered the quarter-mile in plenty of hurry with plenty of horses, the name seemed appropriate.

The unmistakable, George Hutchenson’s Stone Age Man. George was a true entertainer, driving rails to Altereds to exhibition cars. (Photo Courtesy Dave Davis)

73 For George “Hutch” Hutcheson, The Stone Age Man wasn’t just a name on one of the 1960s most beautiful dragsters, but it was a whole persona. George had a vivid dream in 1968, one in which he saw a helmet, similar in style to that which a Roman centurion would have worn, and affixed to the helmet were 24 red plumes. Over the next couple weeks, George went to work building the helmet, which became part of the Stone Age Man persona. Thereafter, not a pass was made without the helmet.

74 To top the accolades of a handful of Southern California track records and a runner-up finish at the AHRA Winternationals, John “the Zookeeper” Mulligan drove the famed Adams & Warye dragster to NHRA’s first AA/FD 6-second ET in the first round of a match race against Tom “the Watchdog” Allen at Carlsbad, California, on October 9, 1966. Although a red-light run, John hit a 6.95 at 221.12 mph in the team’s Woody Gilmore Hemi-powered rail. In the second round, Mulligan shut off early after Allen blew and still managed a 7.17 ET.

75 Conrad “Connie” Kalitta was named Detroit Dragway’s Man of the Year for 1966 and with good reason. Kalitta survived a high-speed wreck of his Bounty Hunter late in the season, and as he recovered, he went to work on building a new SOHC Ford-powered rail. Completed prior to the AHRA Winter meet, Kalitta drove the virgin car around stiff competition to win all the marbles. A week later, he repeated his big win, taking the NHRA Winternationals over Glen Goleman with a 7.17. A trip to Florida immediately after saw him take the NASCAR winter meet.

76 Lou “Money” Baney, Ed Pink, and Don Prudhomme were a formidable trio in the mid-1960s with their SOHC Brand Ford Top Fueler. One of the team’s most memorable performances came at the 1967 NHRA Springnationals. Prudhomme not only won the event, he was the only competitor to break into the 6s. And he accomplished the feat every round. He started with a 6.99 at 220.04-mph defeat of Bub Reese and then coasted to a win against a broken Jimmy Nix. Mike Sorokin in Hawaiian was next to fall when Prudhomme hit 6.97 at 220.58 mph. In the only NHRA all-Ford Top Fuel final, Prudhomme defeated Sneaky Pete with a 6.92 at 222.76 mph.

77 Ford Motor Company had its fair share of dragstrip winners in the 1960s, building everything from Stockers to Super Stockers to Funny Cars. One effort that the company could have done without was the Super Mustang dragster. The exercise proved little more than to showcase how not to build a dragster. Powered by an injected SOHC 427, the rail featured a 150-inch Logghe chassis that carried a live rear axle. It was unusual for the day because almost every dragster had a solid-mounted rear suspension. The chassis was wrapped in an all-fiberglass body, designed and wind-tunnel tested by Ford’s design group. Tom McEwen, who barely fit in the car, had to literally squeeze himself into the enclosed cockpit. Appearing at the 1967 NHRA Winternationals, McEwen managed a less-than-spectacular 8.60 at 180 mph. Many may remember Super Mustang gracing the May 1967 cover of Car Craft. From behind a plexiglass front grille was a galloping Mustang, no doubt trying to leave the scene. The car quickly disappeared, being sold to Mickey Thompson and stayed in hiding until it was sold at auction in 2004 for a cool $154,000.

78 At Indy in 1967, a bearded Garlits finally broke into the 6s. Back when only four national events were in the season, Garlits had already failed to qualify his Swamp Rat 10 at the NHRA season-opening Winternationals. Failing to qualify at the following Springnationals, Garlits decided he wasn’t going to shave until he broke into the 6s. A new car was built prior to Indy where finally he qualified (23rd in the 32-car field) and made rounds with 7.0 times. Saving his best for last, in a final-round appearance against James Warren, Garlits tripped the clocks with an unreal 6.77, leaving Warren’s 6.95 in his wake. After his ABC interview, Garlits wheeled back up to the start line, whipped out his razor, and shaved off the beard on the spot, to the approval of the roaring crowd.

79 Most stories fail to mention that not only did Garlits beat Warren in the finals, he defeated Tom McEwen in the semifinals. The significance of that? Well, McEwen turned Garlits onto the new sticky M&H slicks prior to their runoff and Coburn helped Garlits set up his slipping clutch. What’s the old saying? No good deed goes unpunished?

80 On July 16, 1967, 17-year-old Dale Pulde climbed into Skip Watson’s Junior Fueler and defeated 19-year-old Ray Angeleri at the Pond. Watson, released from serving Uncle Sam, left the Chevy rail to wrench for Glenn Dobbs and Pulde, who had previously run his own 396-powered 1957 Chev. A future Funny Car marvel, Pulde took his big break and ran with it, defeating Angeleri with an 8.40 at 187.67 mph.

81 The popular Der Wienerschnitzel Top Fuel mount of Jim Nicoll and Don Cook out of San Diego could really draw a crowd, on the street or strip. The low-7-second ride enjoyed the sponsorship of the popular chain of hot dog restaurants, and when not at the track, the rail could often be seen displayed at any one of the restaurant’s numerous outlets. One night during the summer of 1967, Nicoll decided to give the patrons an extra taste of Der Wienerschnitzel. With the cooperation of San Diego’s finest, the alley off of Mission Boulevard was blocked off and Nicoll proceeded to let the mustard fly! By the time he’d finished his little cookout, a few hundred onlookers were lining the alley, hungry for more.

82 Although Cook & Nicoll was one of the first teams to enjoy support from a nonautomotive company (the Wienerschnitzel chain of restaurants), the Southern California T/F team of Nelson & Pratt had one of the more envious support teams. Their sponsorship came courtesy of San Diego’s Lamplighter Topless Night Club. Sorry folks, being a family-friendly book, photos of the “crew” cannot be shared.

83 In 1968, Bennie “the Wizard” Osborn became the first drag racer to win back-to-back world championships. Driving his 392-powered Woody Gilmore dragster, Bennie defeated Prudhomme in 1967 with a 7.03, and in 1968, he took out John Mulligan with a 7.05. What a year 1968 proved to be for the Wizard; he also won a number of AHRA events and won a $14,000 match race against McEwen at OCIR, which at the time was the largest pot offered for such a race. In total, Bennie won six T/F eliminator titles in 1968. Could things or would things get any better for Bennie? I’m afraid not. This proved to be his peak season.

84 When you go to the Larry Dixon Racing Internet home page, Larry Dixon Sr. isn’t mentioned much. That’s odd. The empire started with Senior, and without his infectious passion, there would have been none of Larry Dixon Jr.’s three world championships. The roots of the empire go back to Senior’s first major win, which took place at the Hot Rod Magazine race at Riverside in 1969. Driving the Howards Cam Rattler, Larry put away a cocky low qualifier, Steve Carbone, who gave the victory sign before the race even started. Larry’s winning time was an easy 7.23 at 205.94 mph. And Carbone? He broke on the line.

85 Downey, California’s Steve Carbone became the first T/F driver to win both the AHRA and NHRA championships in the same season when he accomplished the feat in 1969. He took the NHRA crown driving Larry Huff’s Soapy Sales Fueler by defeating Dave Chenevert and repeated a week later driving the Creitz-Donovan rail to AHRA victory over Preston Davis.

86 Lasting memories are sometimes made of incidents you’d just as soon forget. Take this Joe Medina story for instance. Joe was a crewman for Jim Dunn in 1969 and was lending a hand, backing up Dunn’s rainbow rail during a matchup against Leland Kolb at Orange County. After the warmup burnouts, crewmen had to push or pull the cars back to the line. Well, poor ol’ Joe must have lost his footing because he fell under the right slick and was promptly run over by the boss. As told in an interview with Drag News, Dunn thought he had lost a wheel or run over the lights. Outside of a bruised ego, Joe was okay. Dunn was noted to say, “We gave him a beer to cure the pain.”

87 The multihued car of Dunn & Reath was Dunn’s final foray in Top Fuel and he closed out the 1969 season having won Bakersfield and the Division 7 points championship with the Woody Gilmore car. Funny Cars were next up for the pair.

88 Don Johnson and Roy Fjastad’s Beachcomber dragster took Top Fuel at 1969 NHRA Springnationals with a 6.80 at 214.79 mph. Driven by Hank Westmoreland, the Ed Pink 392-powered Beachcomber was one of the first rails into the 6s. Previous big wins by the team included the 1966 Las Vegas Invitational and Mickey Thompson’s 200-mph championship race at Lions. Today, the Beachcomber name lives on in the form of a Nostalgia nitro ’Cuda.

89 By 1969, the 10-year-old team of Dave Powers and John Riley had established themselves as an inventive pair. They had won the UDRA Championship (one of two for them) in 1968 and revolutionized the sport with a pair of home-grown inventions. They brought the reverser and the adjustable clutch to Top Fuel. The reverser allowed the long, across-the-start-line smoky burnouts without having to be pushed all the way back. The clutch allowed the car to be set up to specific track conditions.

90 Top Gas racer Domenic Anthony (D. A.) Santucci graduated from running Altereds to dragsters in 1965. His newfound success carried into 1969 where he opened with a win at the AHRA Springnationals. The momentum carried to Indy for the NHRA Nationals where D. A. must have been a favorite to win his category. Celebrating his low qualifying 7.58 the night before the class finals, D. A. joined fellow racers hopping from one sponsor’s hotel suite to another, taking in a nightcap or two.

Now D. A. wasn’t much of a drinker, and by the time he found his way back to his room, he was feeling no pain. Morning came too early for D. A. and he had to rush out the door to make class runoffs. Suffering from a little “cotton breath,” D. A. popped in a stick of Wrigley’s. But prior to his run, he forgot to spit out the gum, and when he nailed the throttle on the green light, the gum lodged in his throat. No panic for D. A. as he figured when he popped the chute after his 7.66 run, it would dislodge the gum.

Well, it didn’t quite work out that way, and when the chute came out, the gum stayed put. D. A. brought the car to a quick halt and with his consciousness seemingly fading, alerted track officials that he was in dire need of assistance. They quickly loaded the fading D. A. into an ambulance and rushed him off to hospital. By the time they arrived, D. A. had lost consciousness. Drag racing, is there ever a dull moment? Doctors removed the gum and held D. A. overnight for observation. The next day, D. A. returned to Indy and defeated Dick McFarland in the class final with a 7.65 at 193.94 mph to McFarland’s 7.77 at 192.71 mph. The choking episode was an ongoing gag for all those involved, and years later, he made light of the incident. As D. A. ran Funny Car into the 1990s, his wife, Barb, tossed bubble gum to the crowd.

Multitalented Jim Gonsalves, a tool and die maker by trade carved and mounted his own heads on a side-bolt Ford 427. Don and the rail won Best Engineered Car numerous times and Best Competition Car at the Oakland Roadster Show in 1969. (Photo Courtesy James Handy)

91 Jim Gonsalves, not content with just any overhead-cam engine, used his tool-and-die skills to build his own quad overhead-cam AA/GD in 1969. Using a 427 Ford as a base, Jim fabricated his heads piece by piece, investing more than 4,000 hours in his one-off design. The cams, which were also custom cut, were driven by a pair of 2-foot-long chains. By 1974, the Don Long rail was cranking out 8.0 times at close to 200 mph.

92 The lowly D/Dragster builders never received the acclaim they deserved. A case in point was the home-brewed rail of Oregon’s Don Ringer. Graduating in 1968 from flatheads and a straight-8 rails, Don found a loophole in the the existing rules and built a new rail that featured twin Pontiac fours. The dragster sported a homemade chassis, owner-modified Algon injectors, and Ford flatty magnetos. Says Don, “What really made the car wail was the ClutchFlite transmission.” Each engine measured 200 inches and was connected by a flywheel at the cranks, which helped dampen the four’s notorious vibrations. How good was the combo? Don set a class record at least eight times between 1968 and 1971. He won two division championships in that time and was runner-up at another. Eventually, the car ran as quick as 8.72 at better than 155 mph before Don retired.

Noel Black does some testing of his unorthodox Bonneville car at Freemont during 1969. Dubbed Motion 1, the car later crashed during the SCTA Speed Week at Bonneville, costing Noel his life. (Photo Courtesy James Handy)

93 Bert Peterson had a dream of sinking the Summers Brothers’ piston-engine land-speed record in 1969. So Bert and partner Noel Black of B&N Automotive built an unorthodox twin-Hemi streamliner. The four-wheel-drive vehicle was a bit of an oddity even by Bonneville standards, with one engine mounted amidships and the other mounted ahead of the front axle. To test and tune, Noel regularly piloted the car down the Fremont Dragstrip. The best time turned in the quarter was an 8.02 at 199.48 mph. Sadly, Noel lost his life in the car after hitting 382 mph during Bonneville Speedweeks.

94 John “the Zoo Keeper” Mulligan set low ET at Indy in 1969 with a 6.43, the quickest time turned by a Top Fueler up to that point. Coming off an NHRA Winternationals win, no doubt the Beeb & Mulligan Fighting Irish dragster was a favorite to win. In the first round of Indy eliminations, Zoo Keeper faced TV Tommy. Zoo Keeper won the race with a 6.62 at 187.67 mph, but just short of the finish line, the clutch let loose, damaging the engine, igniting fuel, and sending the burning dragster into the guardrail. Mulligan was rushed to the hospital where he was treated for burns on his head and arms and severe cuts on both legs. Seemingly improving, Mulligan succumbed to the effects of his injuries a couple weeks later.

95 Prior to his Indy incident, Mulligan was awarded the Mike Sorokin memorial award for most outstanding Top Fuel driver of 1969. Mike is best remembered for his days with the Surfers T/F team. When the team disbanded, Mike continued to drive for others. In December 1967, Mike lost his life driving Tom Waters’ T/F car. Mike’s fatal accident happened during the first round of eliminations at an OCIR race when the clutch exploded on the top end.

96 In the immediate aftermath of the Mulligan accident, SEMA, with the input of aftermarket manufacturers, recommended the following changes, which NHRA quickly implemented:

• Aluminum direct-drive bellhousings must have a steel liner.

• A 1/4-inch steel plate must be affixed to the front of the bellhousing in a manner that does not allow shrapnel to escape even if the engine becomes disengaged from the driveline.

• It is advisable that an inspection hole in the bellhousing be provided. The hole must be on the backside, securely covered, and must not exceed the 90-degree angle of the bell housing.

97 The Ramchargers’ last year in Top Fuel was formidable. At the AHRA Winternationals in 1969, the team debuted a new Woody Gilmore–chassisied and Phil Goulet–tuned car with a new driver, Leroy “the Israeli Rocket” Goldstein. He set a low elapsed time with a 6.89 and drove around a 32-car field to defeat Cliff Zink in the final. The Ramchargers followed up with a win at the AHRA Spring Nationals, where they defeated Prudhomme in the final go, and a win at the Smokers meet, at New York National Speedway. The team closed the season as the AHRA’s points champion and NHRA’s Division 3 points champ.

98 Prior to rollers and self-starters, it was an involved process to fire a dragster: Couple the driveline, push out onto the track, bring it to a stop, and have your crew push you back to the front of the push car. This backs the engine down, pushing out any fuel that may be sitting in the cylinders. Next, fuel on and Mag off. You’re pushed to about 25 mph by the push car, you let out the clutch and feel the engine begin to spin. Just before flipping the switch to send spark to the plugs, the fuel system needs to be purged. You push the accelerator to the floor, the butterfly injectors open wide, and you count to three. Before you hit the magneto switch, come off the accelerator pedal. The butterflies slap shut, then you hit the magneto switch on. And with a bang, the big Hemi comes to life and pulls away from the push car.

99 When hand-held starters were introduced in the late 1960s, you still had to back the engine down, so you used a 1/2-inch extended-handle ratchet that fit on the end of the top blower pulley. You just backed up the engine with the mag off, for about 12 to 15 pulls, and you were done. The other way that the cylinders could be purged of nitro was to pull the plugs and spin the engine for a short time. If you noticed mist being pushed out of the spark plug holes, you know you did a good thing. And know this: Every engine is different. Some wind up with nitro in the cylinders; other don’t have the problem but could develop the problem. And all it takes is one time starting it with nitro in a cylinder and you can blow out the side of the block. A real downer!

1970s

100 Before Larry Dion Jr. was Top Fuel champ, Larry Dixon Sr. was Top Fuel champ. Senior set the tone for Junior when he won the 1970 NHRA Winternationals with his still-fresh SPE chassis dragster. Sixty-four cars competed for Top Fuel, but Larry moved around them all to meet and beat Tony Nancy in the final with a 6.80 time. Dixon earned his win after melting a piston in the semifinals, forcing him to borrow the engine from the Howards Cams Rattler. With 45 minutes to call, Dixon relied upon the helping hands of many to get the car ready, including a few he had beaten. In a Cars interview, Larry said, “There were people working on the car I didn’t even know. Loaning things to get us back to the line.”

101 Top Fuel at Lions began with a horrifying start in 1970 when Don Garlits’ Swamp Rat XIII grenaded its transmission off the line. It was the AHRA winter meet on March 8, and Garlits had just set the AA/FD class record with a 6.57 and was now testing a new transmission. In the final go against the Creitz & Donovan Richard Tharp–driven car, Garlits’ transmission let loose, sawing the car in half and removing a portion of his right foot and breaking bones in the left. Don spent the following year planning his next venture.

102 By the AHRA Springnationals in June 1970, 13 weeks after the accident, Garlits had recovered enough to crawl behind the wheel of the repaired car to set low ET of the meet with a 6.80 at 224 mph. You can bet every eye was on that first run, and even though Tharp, Creitz & Donovan won the race, every memory of that race, I’m sure, centers on Garlits’ return.

103 Woody Gilmore and Pat Foster can take credit for building the first successful modern-day rear-engine AA/FD dragster. After watching John Mulligan’s fateful front-engine crash and fire, Gilmore was determined not to have it happen again, and in December 1969, he tested the pair’s first rear-engine car. The dragster crashed during an early outing, but undeterred, Gilmore and Foster went to work on a second car. The new car featured a 223-inch wheelbase and went to Dwane Ong. Dwane debuted the car at Orange County in February 1970 (10 months before Garlits’ first rear-engine car), where he laid down a 6.93 at 214 mph. In August 1970, Dwane’s rear-engine car became the first to win a national event taking the AHRA Summer Nationals. In the event held at Long Island, New York, Dwane defeated Fred Ahrberg with a 6.82 at 217.39 mph to a 6.85 at 221.21 mph.

Dwane Ong has piloted Top Fuel and AA/Funny Cars and has seen his fair share of on-track excitement. His accomplishments include taking class at the AHRA Summer Nationals four years running, starting in 1970.

104 One of the most spectacular Top Fuel finishes of all time took place at the NHRA Nationals in 1970. Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, hoping to win his second Nationals in a row, faced Jim “Superman” Nicoll. Nicoll was an all-business competitor who had trailed a red-lighting Big Daddy in the semis to make his third final-round appearance of the year. Prudhomme, who had set low ET of the meet with a 6.43, was trailing Nicoll off the line, but by the 1,000-foot mark, he had gained ground and pulled even. It was going to be a photo finish, but as the cars entered the timing traps, all hell broke loose. At an estimated 225 mph, Nicoll’s clutch let loose in a fiery explosion, sawing his dragster in half. With Nicoll onboard, the rail’s back half with chute extended bounced off the track and over the guardrail, where it finally came to rest in the grass. The front half of the dragster, with a still-turning Hemi, slid across the track, past Prudhomme, and finally came to rest in the sand traps. Miraculously, Superman escaped with little more than a swollen foot and a concussion. Although Prudhomme won with a 6.45 at 230.78 mph, the incident shook him up enough at the time that he vowed never to race again.

105 Those who watched ABC’s Wide World of Sports saw the Nicoll crash; for many years it was shown during the program’s intro. A scene not caught by the cameras was the unconscious Nicoll being loaded into the ambulance. Jim, strapped to a gurney in the ambulance, gained consciousness before they headed to the hospital and recalled that someone failed to latch the rear doors. Like a scene from a comedy flick, Jim went rolling out the rear doors when the ambulance pulled away.

106 Bill Schultz, two-time Top Gas champ, opted to field two Top Gas entries at the 1970 Nationals, as well as a Top Fuel car piloted by Gerry Glenn. Although the cars failed to make the final round, Schultz loaned an engine to Jack Jones. Jones took his car to a category win over Roger Rowe with a 7.41 over a 7.57.

107 With driver Tom Raley, Jim and Allison Lee owned the Top Fuel ET record off and on for close to three years. Their last top time was set in October 1970 at Dallas with a 6.53. They were the dominant East Coast team, having won the Division 1 points championship in 1969 and 1970. The highlight of the Lees’ career, though, has to be the invitation they received to the White House in 1971. Joining the Salute to Motorsports crowd, the Lees’ colorful dragster held President Nixon’s attention throughout the gala event. Quite impressive considering Sox & Martin, Richard Petty, and Mario Andretti all had cars in attendance.

108 In 1971, Allison Lee’s proven abilities were rewarded when she won the coveted Car Craft all-star team award for top crew chief. Allison was the first woman to hold a crew chief position.

A trip to the White House in September 1971 saw the Lees’ Great Expectations II draw the eye of President Nixon and Mario Andretti. (Photo Courtesy Brian Beattie)

109 Garlits debuted his rear-engine dragster on December 27, 1970, at the Sunshine Dragstrip in St. Petersburg, Florida. The 215-inch-wheelbase dragster really started the wave for the current design when it won its first national event, the 1971 NHRA Winternationals. Initial times in less-than-ideal conditions were a promising 6.80 at 220 mph. By the end of the 1971 season, Garlits owned both the AHRA and NHRA elapsed time record and was crowned the AHRA world champion.

110 The front-engine dragster made its last stand in 1971 at the NHRA World Finals where Gerry Glenn defeated Don Garlits’ rear-engine car. Garlits had been coming on strong with the new ride since its runner-up debut at the AHRA winter meet. He followed his NHRA Winternationals win with a victory at the Springnationals. At the season-ending World Finals, Garlits was ready to take his place as champion, or so he thought. Gerry Glenn, driving the car of Bill Schultz, had run a best of 6.72 to reach the finals and knew the odds were not in his favor. Garlits’ previous round-low ET had earned him lane choice, and if it weren’t for that nasty red light . . . Glenn took the easy win and world championship with a 6.59.

The evolution of the dragster was showcased around 1970. Schultz & Glenn had a different spin on the sling-shot design. (Photo Courtesy Roger Phillips)

111 The Schultz & Glenn front-engine dragster differed drastically from any front-engine car before it. Although almost everyone jumped onto the rear-engine dragster design after Garlits’ successful debut, Bill Schultz chose to stick with the front-engine layout, taking it to the next and final step of its evolution. Bill went to work designing a chassis that placed the engine 46 inches forward of the then-current practice. California Chassis Engineering built the chassis and completed the project in four months. When the car debuted in June 1971, driver Glenn stunned the troops at Lions after running back-to-back record 6.41 times.

112 Talk about unique. The Best Engineered Car at the 1971 running of the NHRA Winternationals was Jim Busby’s dragster. The Junior Fueler was powered by twin Ford Indy engines that Jim picked up for a song after USAC rule changes made the 255-inchers obsolete. Can you imagine the headache of tuning these engines with their 8 cams and 64 valves? Driven by Hank Westmoreland, the rail cranked out a best of 8.27 at 186.12 mph, on 50-percent nitro. With a change once again in USAC rules, the Ford engines were back in. Jim sold the engines, along with spares, back to the same people he had purchased them from and made a healthy profit.

This twin proved to be worth more parted out than as a competition car. It lasted just one event. (Photo Courtesy James Handy)

113 Tragedy struck the Top Fuel ranks once again when Sneaky Pete Robinson lost his life at the 1971 NHRA Winternationals. One of the sport’s true innovators, Pete had bolted on a new undercar wing, which was supposed to aid traction. Driver Bud Daubler, “not feeling it” that day, gave the seat to Robinson. Photos by Jere Alhadeff show that at speed, the passenger-side front tire separated from the rim and the radius rod bent; this is most likely why the car veered into the guardrail. Pete died later that Saturday evening due to head and internal injuries. Sadly, Pete’s death wasn’t the only fatality at the Winternationals. In a pit incident, the wife of Top Fuel pilot Dave Russell also lost her life because of a Fuel Altered with a stuck throttle.

114 Is it obvious, that I love the unique? Apparently so did John Pulver, who built an A/FD in 1971 powered by twin 301 Chevys mounted side by side and tilted 45 degrees. It was similar in design to Ivo’s old twin-engine rail. Pulver’s Double or Nothing ran meshed aluminum flywheels with the left engine running in reverse and the right engine delivering the power directly to the rear end. Injected on fuel, the side-by-side design benefitted over the tandem-twin design because it placed more weight over the rear of the dragster, John figured. Pete Tropeano built the 200-inch chassis with the total package weighing 1,600 pounds. Although recorded times are unknown, the car probably wasn’t competitive because it didn’t last, and John soon found himself behind the wheel of a Hemi AA/FD.

115 Jim King and Don Marshall were popular pros running their Don Long car out of New England from 1969 through 1971. Always on the verge of bigger things, they were responsible for many East Coast track records. They accomplished plenty of firsts, including what may be the first blowover after driver Don Roberts set the car on its lid at Indy in 1970. It’s believed the team was also the first to use blower-restraint belts. Their final year in T/F proved to be an expensive one. It was reported in Drag News that King and Marshall received the New England hard-luck award due to the fact that by season’s end they had “lunched” at least a dozen Hemis. Having stripped their money tree, they dropped out of T/F after 1971 and focused their attention on a match-race Duster Funny Car.

116 Possibly the most memorable front-engine versus rear-engine dragster race is the burn-down at Indy in 1971 between Don Garlits and Steve Carbone. A burn-down generally happens when one driver refuses to stage before the other. The ensuing waiting game can lead to overheating or frayed nerves. The burn-down is usually instigated by the slower car, hoping to gain an advantage because the driver has nothing to lose. The Garlits-Carbone feud had been boiling for some time, going back to Indy in 1968 when Carbone lost to Garlits after he felt Garlits took too long to stage.

Two weeks prior to Indy in 1971, the pair met up at the Popular Hot Rodding (PHR) race where Garlits defeated Carbone in the final (6.38 to a 6.63). If that weren’t enough, Garlits again defeated Carbone at an AHRA Funny Car show the week before Indy. At Indy, Garlits had the field covered with 6.20 times and once again faced Carbone in the final. Carbone’s run to the final round came pretty easily, having won three rounds after opponents drew the red light. He had made only one full pass of 6.39. In Garlits’ book, Big Daddy, he describes Carbone winning the coin toss for lane choice and how he (Garlits) offered to toss a coin to see who would stage first. Carbone refused, stating they didn’t need to because Garlits was going to stage first. Of course, no one was going to tell Garlits what he was going to do. So after each car was fired, they each prestaged . . . and there they sat, for two minutes, each waiting for the other to stage. Finally, Garlits crew chief T. C. Lemons waved him forward and Carbone immediately followed. In a flash, the race was on . . . and over. Garlits, having built too much heat, smoked the tires off the line and Carbone was gone, winning the race with a 6.48 to Garlits’ 6.65. Afterward, Carbone said, “Garlits played right into my hands.” It seems Carbone had added extra water to his block prior to the run. Talk about keeping your cool!

117 The most famous Top Gas dragster must be John Peters’ Freight Train. John never drove the car himself, instead leaving that responsibility to others. Many racers filled the seat at one time or another. The most mysterious driver was Bob Muravez, better known as Floyd Lippencott Jr. Bob came from a well-to-do family that frowned heavily upon his interest in the sport of drag racing. His family was downright shocked to hear of his involvement and forbid him from driving. To avoid disownment by his parents, Bob relinquished the driver’s seat and stood on the sidelines watching driver after driver fail to match his driving abilities. According to John, the car went from top qualifier to nonqualifier in five short months. In John’s eyes, the only way to rectify the situation was to get Bob back in the seat. To keep it a secret from his family, Bob initially raced under John’s name to avoid recognition.

When the team took Top Gas at the NHRA Winternationals, defeating Connie Kalitta, John Peters was recognized as the driver. Then track announcer Mel Reck and track manager Steve Gibbs gave Bob the Floyd Lippencott Jr. moniker one night in 1963 at San Gabriel. In an interview, Bob said that if a headshot was needed, the photographer waited until he had his goggles and helmet on. It was the NHRA’s best-kept secret that I know of. Bob’s father eventually found out that Bob was driving, and true to his word, disowned him. Bob’s father passed away in 1993 having never spoken to his son after that day in 1967.

John Peters’ Freight Train went through a few different drivers, but none more successful than Bob Muravez. Oops, I mean the mysterious Floyd Lippencott Jr. (Photo Courtesy James Handy)

118 Drag News columnist Judy Thompson gave John Peters’ rail the Freight Train name after watching it defeat the competition by a train’s length. Driver Bob Muravez made more than 1,300 runs in Freight Train and at one point went 28 consecutive rounds before a loss. Bob continued to rack up the wins for Peters, taking six national events. In 1967, Bob set the class record at a UDRA meet at Lions with a 7.31 at 200.44 mph. History has recorded this as the first 200-mph blast by a Top Gas car. Freight Train has a long list of accomplishments, including being the first Top Gas car over 190 mph, the first Top Gas car to run a 7-second time, and the first to run a 6-second time. The Peters team won the Division 7 points championship five times, and in 1967, Freight Train was low qualifier at every meet the team ran.

119 By 1970, it seemed that if you wanted to win in Top Gas, you should be running twin engines. Although most competitors followed in the steps of John Peters’ Freight Train, some guys including Rico and Dom Paris went a different route. They are credited with being the first to campaign a rear-engine twin Top Gas car. They debuted their 240-inch Gary Woods dragster at the 1971 NHRA Nationals. Although Rico failed to qualify the twin 392 Hemi, he made the show at the 1971 Supernationals, where he ran a 7.46.

120 “I Support Top Gas” was the cry through 1970 and 1971. Rumors had been circulating that the NHRA was on the verge of killing the category, and the end finally came at the 1971 season-ending Supernationals. In the final go, Jim Bucher’s twin Chevy engine rail was declared the winner over Ken Ellis. Ken, who had cleared the traps first, was running a little underweight and thus was disqualified.

121 The final Top Gas World Champ was Austin Myers, driving Butch Hummel’s twin 392 Hemi rail. This was Austin’s only national event win, although he made it to the finals a couple times in the mid-1970s driving Jack Hart’s Top Fuel Golddigger. This was Butch’s second national event win, having previously enjoyed the sweet taste of victory at the 1970 Summernationals, with Larry Brown driving his Top Gas car.

122 In 1971, Al Lidert took the “more boost is always better” philosophy to the max when he created a blown twin Schwitzer turbo BB/GD. Golden Gator out of Fort Lauderdale won Best Engineered award at the 1972 NHRA Nationals and took class at the 1973 Gatornationals. Driven by Chase Knight, the car had turbos mounted to a 482-inch Keith Black mill and fed 60 to 70 psi of boost. The NHRA eventually took notice of the car and added weight, and more weight, and more . . . well, you get the picture. Best times for the doomed ride came in 1977 when it clicked off 6.70s in AA/DA. That same season, the car won the Division 2 points championship.

The Greek jumped onto the wedge bandwagon in 1971 but, like most, discovered no real advantage to the design. The wedge was removed and never made it to the end of the season. And the car? Well, it was involved in one of the season’s more unusual accidents. (Photo Courtesy James Handy)

123 Poor Chris “the Greek” Karamesines. He received a swoopy, new rear-engine wedge Top Fueler in 1971 and what happens? He gets run over! Well, not him but the car. And not just by anyone, but by Jim Nicoll, who was driving Chris’ own push car. The accident happened at Fremont in October when the push bar broke. Jim went right up and over the entire car. Thankfully, Chris came out of the incident unscathed. Can’t say the same for the car, though.

124 At the 1971 Supernationals, Ed Donovan debuted his 417 aluminum-block Hemi. Based closely on the 392 design, the first aftermarket Hemi was placed in John Wiebe’s Top Fuel car and proceeded to run a 10th quicker (6.53 best) than anyone in the field. A red light in the final against Hank Johnson marred Donovan’s debut.

John Wiebe sits behind Ed Donovan’s first aluminum 417 Hemi. The block made use of pressed-in sleeves and 392 heads. John’s impression after running early 6.50 times? Super strong and super powerful. (Photo Courtesy Roger Phillips)

125 The first major victory for Donovan’s nugget of Hemi gold came in the summer of 1972 at the 6th Annual PDA race held at Orange County International Raceway. Herm Petersen overcame a number of odds to drive around a failing Tom McEwen in the final round for the honors. Herm had been eliminated in the second round by a young Fred Mooneyham but was reinstated on the low ET rule after Garlits dropped out.

126 Dale Thierer, driving the E. T. Engineering Lewis Brothers Top Fueler, Hemi Hunter, holds the distinction of being the last to pilot a Chevy-powered dragster to a division championship. Dale, running out of Division 1, won in 1971, accumulating 2,800 points with the 454-inch car. Dale’s division win earned him a birth at the season-ending NHRA World Finals, where he cranked out 6.80 times at 217 mph.

127 The final Top Fuel national event win by a front-engine dragster went to (drum roll, please) 23-year-old Art Marshall. Art earned the win behind the wheel of Prudhomme’s old high-back Hot Wheels rail at the 1972 NHRA Grandnationals. A young Jeb Allen, looking for his second national event win in a row, went up in smoke just off the line while Marshall sailed to an easy victory with a 6.57 at 220.58 mph.

128 American-born and Canadian-adopted Gary Beck, a relative unknown in 1972, shocked the Top Fuel troops at the NHRA Nationals when he defeated the Northwest’s Jerry “the King” Ruth in the final of the season’s biggest race. Driving the Ken McLean Woody Gilmore–chassis car, Beck, who had just earned his fuel license two weeks before, went into a burn-down with Ruth on the line and the ensuing heat built by Ruth’s engine saw his promised 5-second run go up in smoke. Beck went on to an effortless win with a 6.11 time.

129 The first member of Cragar’s Top Fuel magical 5-second club was Tommy Ivo, who reportedly hit that mark on October 22, 1972. Tommy found the perfect combination of a sticky track and a cool-air front to reach 5.97 at Pittsburgh.

130 The 5-second barrier was broken for the second time in November 1972 at the NHRA Supernationals. Mike Snively, who became the quickest man ever to lose a national event, knocked out a 5.97 at 235.69 mph in Diamond Jim Annin’s Woody Gilmore fueler. Snively fell to Vic Brown’s hole-shot time of 6.03 at 231.36 mph. Don Moody won the meet with the third 5-second run, a 5.91.

131 The last member to join Cragar’s 5-second club was Frank Bradley, who ran a 5.94 at Orange County on June 29, 1974. Bradley was also around long enough to become the 10th member of the 4-second club, hitting a 4.998 at Pomona on October 25, 1989.

Mike Snively, driving “Diamond Jim” Annin’s rear-engine car used the NHRA 1972 season-ending Supernationals to ring in a new, quicker age in Top Fuel. (Photo Courtesy Peter Quinn)

132 The success of Garlits’ rear-engine Swamp Rat in 1971 really rejuvenated interest and innovation in Top Fuel. Roy Fjastad (SPE Chassis) went to work building a hexagon-shaped wedge car that customer Fred Fardon fell in love with and just had to have. When a divorce ended that dream, Vince Rossi and Tommy Lisa scooped up the car. The Tom Hanna hexagon-shaped body wrapped Fjastad’s 180-inch wheelbase chassis and power came from a Keith Black 426. Bill Tidwell, Danny Ongais, and Jack Martin each drove the wedge. According to Rossi’s son, Jim, the wedge was the first Top Fueler in the 5s. Bill Tidwell hit a 5.99 at Lions in 1972, but track manager Steve Evans refused to recognize it. Ongais eventually got the wedge into the record books with a 243.24-mph time, recorded at Supernationals in 1972. They ran the wedge into 1974 before selling it to Harry Nunn in Texas.

133 Tony Nancy, drag racing’s custom upholsterer extraordinaire, holds the distinction of being the only Top Fueler to smoke the Goodyears down the famed Hollywood Boulevard. It was during the grand opening of Petersen’s Motorama Cars of the Stars show on March 20, 1975, that Tony donned a fire suit over his shirt and tie.

134 Shirley Muldowney became the first woman in drag racing to earn an Unlimited Fuel driver’s license, accomplishing the feat during the summer of 1973 at Dragway Park in Cayuga, Ontario. Muldowney borrowed Bobby “Poncho” Rendon’s Top Fuel Frito Bandito. On hand to witness the accomplishment were partner Connie Kalitta and fellow racers Tommy Ivo and Don Garlits.

Shirley Muldowney never cared much for her “Cha-Cha” moniker. She joined the Funny Car ranks in 1971. (Photo Courtesy Roger Phillips)

135 Jim Bucher of West Chester, Ohio, was on a quickly shrinking list of those running a big-block Chevy in Top Fuel. He was also one of the last to win an NHRA national event with a Chevy-powered Top Fueler. Bucher’s rail featured a Stebbins chassis and was powered by a 468-inch aluminum Chevy. At the rain-delayed 1975 Summernationals, Jim faced Gary Beck in the final. Jim, who had been running consistent 6.50s on the bad track, had an easy go of it in the finals after Beck hazed the tires off the line. Jim and his Chevy first drew national attention in 1973 when he set the Top Fuel ET record at 6.07 at the Gatornationals. The best time for the Chevy was a 5.91 at 248 mph.

136 Garlits sets both ends of the Top Fuel record in October of 1975 with an unheard-of 5.637 at 250.69. The record held until July 1982. He ran the phenomenal numbers during the NHRA World Finals at OCIR.

137 Mark Oswald in the Top Fuel car of Candies & Hughes was the one who finally put away Garlits’ long-standing record. At the 1982 NHRA Summernationals at Englishtown, New Jersey, Mark qualified the dragster with a string of 5.60s before hitting a magical 5.61 at 252.80 mph. At the end of the meet, Oswald walked away with both ends of the record, 5.61 at 254.23 mph, and won it all by defeating Jeb Allen in the final.

138 Marvin Graham seemingly came out of nowhere in 1974 to take Top Fuel honors at the NHRA U.S. Nationals. Marvin, an Oklahoma TV repairman, defeated Gaines Markley with a 6.17. Escalating costs saw independent Marv retire in the early 1980s.

139 As tough as it may be for the Warren, Coburn & Miller faithful to fathom, James Warren only won two national events in his fabled Top Fuel career: the Winternationals in 1968 (with the front-engine dragster) and the 1976 Gatornationals. The Ridge Route Terrors were runner-up to Frank Bradley at the 1976 winter meet and then beat Chevrolet stalwart Bucher in the final at Gainesville. Top Fuel wins also came at Bakersfield in 1975, 1976, and 1977; and Division 7 points championships were garnered five years running between 1972 and 1976.

140 Don Garlits’ Navy sponsorship ended in 1977 due in large part to a critical editorial written in the Los Angeles Times. The Times raised the point that Garlits’ religious cross and the wording “God Is Love” written on the cowl of Swamp Rat 24 conflicted with the military’s philosophy of neutrality of faith.

141 Mark Prudhomme, nephew of the Snake, briefly followed in Don’s shoes, spending time in an econo dragster during the mid-1970s. By 1979 he was partnered with Coburn and drove the Coors Rain For Rent Top Fueler after James Warren called it quits. The partnership lasted through 1983, when Coburn retired. Mark later drove the Neuman & Kerhulas car through 1985.

142 Jeb Allen holds the distinction of being only one of two drivers to win championships from all three sanctioning bodies. And he accomplished the feat while still in his 20s. Jeb first struck in 1977, winning the AHRA title. In 1980 he grabbed the IHRA title, and in 1981 he took the NHRA title. The other driver to grab championships in all three? None other than Big Daddy Garlits.

143 Although drag racing may be an American sport, the thrill of it all hasn’t been lost on the rest of the world. The sport caught on in Europe around 1960, and since then, a lot of British fans have jumped the pond to race in the United States. The most successful of the lot was Clive Skilton, who first competed in Top Fuel at the 1973 NHRA Winternationals. He became a permanent resident of California in 1976 and purchased the Woody Gilmore car of Kuhl & Olson. His best showing came the following year at the Springnationals where he faced Muldowney in the finals. It appeared the race was Clive’s until Donovon’s 417-inch let loose on the top end and Muldowney drove around him with a 6.11 to Clive’s close 6.15.

144 Skilton was no newcomer to drag racing, having established himself in Europe before leaving his mark in the United States. In 1969, he became the first European to make a 7-second pass, accomplishing the feat in Sweden with his blown rail. He was the first to break 200 mph (in 1971 at Santa Pod Raceway). In 1975, he made Europe’s first 6-second Funny Car pass at Snetterton in Norfolk, England. Clive is Europe’s version of Big Daddy and his name fills the history books and halls of fame.

145 The first 6-second Top Fuel time outside of America goes to England’s Dennis “Mr. Six” Priddle, who accomplished the feat in May 1972. He propelled his 392-inch Keith Black front-engine dragster to a 6.995 at Santa Pod and backed it up with a 6.93 at 203.

146 “King” Richard Tharp’s off-track stories are memorable and include such antics as making the FBI look like keystone cops as they attempted to nab him for avoiding the Vietnam draft. They finally caught up with him hiding in Jimmy Nix’s coat closet. Tharp’s first national event victory came at the 1976 NHRA Summernationals. Driving the Candies & Hughes Top Fueler, he defeated Jeb Allen with a 5.99 at 244.56 mph to a 6.04 at 231.36 mph. Tharp parlayed the win into a season-ending world championship.

147 The last big-block Chevy to win an NHRA national event was a Dwayne Lidtke and Ray Zeller car, driven by Stan Shiroma at the 1977 Fallnationals. The team accomplished the feat using an iron-block Chevy. The final-round opponent, Rance McDaniel’s Rodeck-powered rail, died on the line and Shiroma singled for the win. And yes, this was also the last all-Chevy Top Fuel final.

148 When Kelly Brown came back after his three-year hiatus in 1978 to win the NHRA Top Fuel Championship, many wondered who he was. Kelly was runner-up to Prudhomme at the 1969 Nationals and had spent time driving Don Rackemann’s Wonder Wagon Vega Funny Car before retiring, or so we thought, to a life as a Hollywood stuntman. Kelly’s world championship came in convincing fashion as he drove the Don Tuttle–chassis Donovan-powered car of Brissette & Drake to wins at the Winternationals, Cajun Nationals, Springnationals, and Grandnationals.

149 Washington State’s Rob Bruin and teammate/car owner Gaines Markley hold the honorable distinction of being the only Top Fuel team to win an NHRA world championship without winning one of the season’s national events. Coming off back-to-back wins at the 1978 Fallnationals and World Finals to finish third in points, Bruin and Markley were optimistic about 1979. They attended six points meets in 1979 and seven national events, finishing runner-up at the Winternationals, Mile High Nationals, and the World Finals to earn enough points to bring home the crown. In 2008, Eddie Krawiec accomplished the same feat in Pro Stock Bike.

150 One of the prettiest Top Fuel cars ever has to be the gold-plated, gold-anodized, and gold-painted car of Wisconsin’s Tony Ruffalo and John Ehlen. It was reported in 1979 that the car received $25,000 in gold plating. That works out to $82,000 in today’s dollars. Everything that was steel, from the front axle and blower on back, was covered in 18-karat gold. Although not a top performer, the car did win the Best Appearing award at Indy in 1979 and ran a best of 5.97 in 1981.

1980s AND BEYOND

151 Lucille Lee’s career behind the wheel of a Top Fuel car was short, but long on memories. Her first national event was at Indy in 1981 where she ran a 5.74, becoming the quickest woman in drag racing. In 1982, she met and defeated Shirley Muldowney at Bakersfield in the first all-female Top Fuel final.

152 Big Daddy Don Garlits unveiled his radical sidewinder Top Fueler at Orange County in January 1982 during a match race against Shirley Muldowney. Muldowney, driving her new Pioneer dragster, put away Garlits’ experimental rail in a best-of-three match race. Don was hitting 6.40s while Muldowney clocked 6.0s. Garlits’ sidewinder featured a Sikora chassis and was built with the help of SCS Gear in Bellevue, Ohio, the same company building boxes for all those monster trucks and tractor pullers.

153 I could go on and on about Garlits’ innovations, but I’ll stop with his Swamp Rat 28, an Arfons-inspired turbine car that was mired in the mid-6s in 1983 while everyone else was running mid-5s. So much for that inspirational moment. Today, Garlits is looking to be the first to crack 200 mph in a battery-powered dragster.

154 Good things come to those who wait. At the NHRA Grandnationals in 1982, Connie Kalitta won his first Top Fuel title since downing Gene Goleman at the 1967 Winternationals. Kalitta, the Bounty Hunter, beat the ex–Bounty Huntress, Shirley Muldowney, in fine fashion with a 5.75 at 241.28 to Muldowney’s 5.85 at 220.58. Shirley had the last laugh, though. At season’s end, she walked away with her second world championship.

155 The Grandnationals at Sanair, Quebec, in June 1984 is one race Shirley would love to forget. During a qualifying run against Gary Ormsby, Shirley’s dragster blew a front tire, leading to steering loss and a near-fatal crash. She barely survived, suffering two broken legs, a broken pelvis, a broken hand, and broken fingers. She endured months of grueling operations and recovery. But she wasn’t about to give up. In January 1986, she once again took the seat in a Top Fueler. The epitome of guts and determination? You bet!

“Diamond Dave” Miller lights the hides in his shorty rail at Indy in 1986. Interesting thought: What if Garlits or Amato toyed with the idea? Could it have caught on? (Photo Courtesy Allen Tracy)

156 Former Top Alcohol driver Diamond Dave Miller joined the Top Fuel ranks in 1984 and ran an R&B Engineering chassis car that really flew in the face of tradition. Miller’s car sported a short 200-inch wheelbase as opposed to the more conventional 280 inches (or so), which most Top Fuel cars of the day rode on. Miller raced the car through 1989, and even though he failed to win any major events, he regularly qualified well. According to nhra.com, the best times for the shorty were 5.37 at 260 mph.

157 NFL star quarterback Dan Pastorini isn’t the only pro ball player who has competed in NHRA action (think NBA players Tom Hammonds and Larry Nance), but he is the only one to have won a national event. Dan came out on top in 1986 at the Southern Nationals. He qualified in 8th position and held off Gene Snow in the final with a convincing 5.56 at 256.70 mph to cover Snow’s 5.64 at 244.16 mph. Pastorini began his football career in 1971 and retired in 1983 after playing for the Houston Oilers, Oakland Raiders, Los Angeles Rams, and Philadelphia Eagles.

158 You could say that Don “the Snake” Prudhomme had come full circle by December 1989. To the delight of the Funny Car fraternity, he returned to Top Fuel after a 17-year absence. Sponsored by Skoal, Don was making his first full pass in his new United Racing Club (URC) rail at Bakersfield when a wing support broke free as he approached half-track, sending him on his first, but not last, blow over. Miraculously, Don escaped with little more than bruising while the car only required minor repair. Welcome back to Top Fuel, Don!

Dan Pastorini, an adrenaline junkie, had a memorable NFL career before climbing into a national event–winning Top Fuel car. (Photo Courtesy Allen Tracy)

159 In the late 1980s, Don Arivett, with the help of his brother Gerald, built the first fully wind tunnel–developed dragster. The fully enclosed rear-engine dragster featured a carbon-fiber shell and appears to be the last true Top Fuel streamline effort. The body had a coefficient of drag (Cd) of .20, the lowest of any automotive shape ever built. Funny Cars of the day had no better than 0.60 Cd. The Arivett streamliner also spent time on the salt, where it clocked 265 mph.

160 It was a tragic day in Santa Pod in April 1990 when Darrell Gwynn and his Mike Kase Top Fueler ended up in a guardrail at approximately 240 mph. The wreck ended the driving career of Gwynn, one of drag racing’s young stars. Between T/AD and Top Fuel, he had 18 national event wins in 10 years, but he suffered paralysis in the accident and lost his left arm. A determined man, Gwynn fought to overcome his injuries and became a team leader.

161 In a show of real love and appreciation, Gwynn’s former crew chief Mike Gerry built Gwynn a custom dragster, which Gerry presented to him as a 40th birthday gift at the 50th anniversary of the NHRA U.S. Nationals in 2001. The custom rail featured hand controls, which Gwynn manipulated on an exhibition run down the track.

162 Blaine Johnson won four NHRA Alcohol Dragster World Championships between 1990 and 1993. He stepped up to Top Fuel in 1994 and won his first national event in 1995, the World Finals. He was well on his way in 1996, winning the Winternationals, Gatornationals, and the Autolite Nationals. He held the record at 4.59 and was leading the points race before his untimely death at the U.S. Nationals. Eventual winner Cory McClenathan, who was in the lane opposite Johnson at the time of the crash, gave his winning Wally (NHRA award named after Wally Parks, given to national event winners) to Blaine’s crew chief and brother, Allan.

163 Not only has Top Fuel racer Tony “the Sarge” Schumacher won 77 NHRA national events, he’s won 8 NHRA Top Fuel World Championships. In 1999, Tony became the first to top 330 mph in quarter-mile. In 2012, he became the first to accomplish the feat in 1,000 feet.

164 Kenny Bernstein cracked the last great barrier in drag racing, the 300-mph run, in 1992. Kenny ran a 301.70 mph in 4.82 seconds during the second round of qualifying at the NHRA Gatornationals. In a bangshift.com interview, crew chief Dale Armstrong credited (among other things) a reworking of the magneto with helping to break the barrier. It was a discussion with Ron Armstrong regarding magnetos and weak magnets that led Dale to rare earth magnets. Then it became a problem of burning out points, which he solved by adding condensers. Trial and error, trial and error. Recalled Dale, “We ran a 299 during the first qualifying attempt using the regular magneto, after which, we installed the ones with the condensers.” And the rest, as they say, is history.