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45 YEARS AGO
Drag News reported that on June 4, 1955 "The latest innovation in organized
drags, 'night racing'" would take place at Saugus Dragstrip. Director
Bob Corbett said that lighting facilities are under way for the first
night program. Qualifying would begin at 5 p.m. and eliminations would
start at 8 p.m. Saugus was located just north of the San Fernando Valley
in Southern California at the Rancho Airpark, just west of Palmdale.
35 YEARS AGO
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Owner Roland Leong, crew member Wes Hanson,
and driver Don Prudhomme (left to right) are pictured in this cover
photo by Mike Mitchell for the
May 1, 1965 issue of DragSport Illustrated. |
The Hot Rod Magazine Championships were held at Riverside Raceway on June
18-20 and taking the Top Fuel title in one of the sport's biggest upsets
to the time was Nando Haase and the Rader Wheels Spl. He beat James Warren
in the Warren & Crowe dragster in the final. The big performances in the
speed department came from Don Prudhomme in Roland Leong's "Hawaiian"
and Tom McEwen in Lou Baney's Yeakel Plymouth Special. Both ran superior
21..26 mph speeds. Top Gas at this event was won by current NHRA Chief
Starter Rick Stewart at the wheel of Gene Adams' blown/injected Chrysler
dragster.
25 YEARS AGO
Shirley Muldowney made the first Top Fuel final of her career at the
1975 NHRA Springnationals in Columbus, Ohio, but came up just a tad
short. She lost to rising star and 1974 U.S. Nationals upset winner
Marvin Graham in the final. Current engine building standout Scott Shafiroff
won his only IHRA Pro Stock title when he defeated current Funny Car/Fuel
Altered driver Larry Huff with an 8.99/150.25 in the Spring Nationals
final at Bristol, Tenn.
15 YEARS AGO
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Dale Pulde
photo by Tim Marshall.
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Dale Pulde scored the second of four straight 1985 IHRA National event
Funny Car titles in a row when he defeated Don Prudhomme in the Spring
Nationals final. Pulde, wheeling the Miller High Life Warrior Buick Somerset
Regal, ran a 5.82/199.11 to nail the title. He would go on to take that
year's IHRA Winston world title. At the same race Bruce Allen guided the
Reher & Morrison Camaro to the second of three straight IHRA Pro Stock
event title, beating Billy Ewing in the final.
5 YEARS AGO
Steve Schmidt stunned the crowd at the 1995 NHRA Springnationals when
he upset soon-to-be NHRA World Champion Warren Johnson in the Pro Stock
final. It was just Schmidt's second win in NHRA Pro Stock competition
in a then nine-year-old career.
15 MINUTES AGO
It was discovered that St. Louis Ram quarterback Kurt Warner miraculously
survived a non-emergency appendectomy on May 16, earning page one status,
full right column in the ultra-homer St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
A night earlier, light-heavyweight Richard Hall stopped 320 punches
with his jaw in a losing 11th round k.o. torture at the hands of unbeatable
champion Roy Jones, Jr. He earned a couple 'graphs on the page 13 skid
plate of the country's most popular comic book, USA Today. Because
of their complete lack of understanding of news value, no credentials
will be issued to these publications for the upcoming national events
at Columbus, Ohio or Cordova, Illinois … or so we're told.
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