| 35 YEARS AGO
NHRA, in response to the tremendous popularity of the "match race cars"
(later known as Funny Cars) announced that a number of the breed would
be taking part at the sixth annual NHRA Winternationals at Pomona. They
would compete as B/FDs, C/FDs, S/XS according to weight in the Competition
Eliminator category. Heading the list were the blown cars of Jack Chrisman
(Mercury Comet), Tom McEwen (Hemi-Cuda), Bob Davis ('65 Chevy Impala),
Dee Keaton ('65 Chevy II), Arnie Beswick ('65 GTO), Don Gay ('65 GTO),
Joe Davis ('66 Mustang), and Larry Reyes ("Kingfish" Barracuda)....The
UDRA Winter Championships at Lions were rained out after qualifying
with Paul Sutherland in Jim Brissette's entry leading the qualifying
with a track record 7.38. Eventual winner Dave Beebe was second with
a 7.46 in the Beebe Bros.-Vinson-Sixt dragster and Mike Sorokin in the
"Surfers" dragster was third with a 7.57.....The winners at the NHRA
event were Mike Snively in Roland Leong's "Hawaiian" over Jim Dunn in
the Dunn & Yates/"Green Mountain Boys" dragster for Top Fuel, and Gordon
Collett in Top Gas. No Funny Cars made the finals in Competition Eliminator;
instead the winner was Arnold Chaves in the rickety looking Dos Palmas
Machine Chevy 6-powered D/A Bantam.
25 YEARS AGO
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| "Ace" in action at Irwindale.
Photo by Sandy Reece. |
The first NHRA Winternationals held under the R.J. Reynolds/Winston
banner wasn't until 1976. The tobacco giant didn't join the NHRA program
until April of 1975, meaning that the 1975 edition was the plain old
Winternationals ... At the '76 event, Frank Bradley overcame a James
Warren holeshot to win Top Fuel, and Don Prudhomme's Army Monza got
by Ed McCulloch's Revellution '75 Dodge Sport to take Funny Car with
Bob Glidden winning an all-Ford battle over Wayne Gapp in his and Jack
Roush's Maverick for Pro Stock. ... Back-to-back Top Fuel shows were
held at Orange County and Fremont on the weekend of Feb. 21-22. Warren
and the Warren & Coburn/"Rain For Rent" dragster won all three rounds
at OCIR, including a low e.t. 5.88 skunking of Marvin Graham in round
one. At Fremont, Larry Dixon (Sr., that is) was undefeated in three
rounds with the Don Madden-tuned "Howard Cam Rat" Chevy-powered dragster.
He beat Warren, Bradley, and Ken Moitoza in his win skein.
15 YEARS AGO
The talk of the pits at the 1986 Winternationals was Gary Ormsby's Castrol
GTX Top Fuel streamliner. A problem with exploding superchargers just
beyond the water box kept it from qualifying ... For those who recall
the Scotty Cannon-Frank Pedregon Jr. top end crash at last year's Winston
Finals, it should be kept in mind that there was one at Pomona worse
than that. Dave Uyehara in Ray & Shirley Strasser's Corvette piled into
the rear of the "Capt. Crazy" Cavalier of Bill Dunlap and driver Ron
Correnti at full speed. Both cars exploded in a hurricane of debris,
but miraculously neither driver was injured. ... Talk about a great
Alcohol Dragster final, how about current Winston Top Fuel kingpin Gary
Scelzi against current Federal-Mogul champ Rick Santos. Unfortunately,
the race was killed in the cradle when Santos jumped too soon. ... Taking
his sixth runner-up in six Funny Car finals at the time was John Force.
He lost a 5.69 to 5.75 nod to Tim Grose's Skoal Bandit/Curb Racing Pontiac
Trans Am. ... Oddly enough, Bob Glidden, the sport's winningest driver,
was the 16th qualifier in Pro Stock with a 7.71. Frank Iaconio beat
Warren Johnson for that title.
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