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35 YEARS AGO ...
As one might guess, prices were a lot different during the Lyndon Johnson
administration than George "Dubya's." Doug Thorley was selling his national
record-holding "X" Modified Sports Corvette, an injected Chevy-powered
that ran in the 10s at 130-mph. How about this. Car and trailer for
$3,000, also two spare engines, less injectors, $500 apiece ... At Fontana
Raceway in Southern California in March, 14 e.t. brackets were run Bracket
1 (9.50 to 10.24) paid $50 to win, and Bracket 14 (19.25 and up) paid
$10. ... In the 1960s, Fremont Raceway used to hold a big fuel show
a week after Bakersfield and called it in the beginning, the Northern
Nationals and later (as in 1966), the West Coast Championships. The
late Jim Davis won Top Fuel over Dwight Bale, but what was really astounding
was low e.t. Most recall "the Surfers" won Bakersfield that year and
ran a sport's best of 7.34. James Warren equalled that e.t. at Fremont
... At the same race, Gas Ronda's Funny Car low e.t. 8.95 eclipsed his
record-setting 8.96 at Bakersfield a week earlier.... On the back page
of Apr. 16 Drag News, Mr. Norm (above photo by Mike Lahr), the Chicago
High Performance Dodge king, was offering one injected fuel Funny Car
for the staggering sum of $5,500.
25 YEARS AGO ...
The hottest Top Fuel driver for the month of March 1976 was James Warren.
He began the month by winning the Bakersfield March Meet, then made
the long trek to Gainesville, Fla., where he won the NHRA Gatornationals.
... Minot, North Dakota's most famous drag racer, Bob Struksnes, set
Top Fuel top speed at the Gators with the second best speed of the year,
a 248.61-mph jaunt ....The late Lee Shepherd, one of the sport's greatest
Pro Stock drivers, began his career in Pro Stock on March 7 at Green
Valley Race City in Smithfield, Texas. He lost in round one to Paul
Peyton, but rebounded in the second round for a win over Buck Buchanan
(Not the football player - I don't think) ... Bob Glidden (above) won
the IHRA Winternationals Pro Stock title at Miami-Hollywood Speedway
and would go on to compile an incredible 32-1 IHRA national event competition
won-loss mark, winning seven of eight race crowns.
15 YEARS AGO ...
March of 1986 marked the resurgence of the streamlined Top Fuel dragster,
a revival that would affect other classes as well ... Don Garlits debuted
a canopied dragster at the Gatornationals that had small airplane front
wheels with Kevlar rubber strips around them, all tucked in by a snake
head shaped front end ... The race took two weeks to run. Garlits showed
the car would work during weekend one with a best for the class 268.01-mph
charge, and then won the race in weekend two, chalking up the sport's
first 270-mph run (272.56) in the process. ... Darrell Alderman won
his first IHRA Pro Stock title during the IHRA Winternationals at Darlington,
S.C. ... It was not Alderman's first national-event win; he had won
the 1984 AHRA Gateway Nationals at St. Louis aboard Gary Duckworth's
Camaro.
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