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THE LITTLE VEGA THAT COULDBy Chris Martin
As most fans with a lot of drag racing bleacher experience might recall, 30 years ago the NHRA Winternationals was the site of maybe the most important happening in the Pro Stock class ... the emergence and success of Bill Jenkins' revolutionary tube-chassis Chevy Vega. I remember it so clearly. I'm not a huge Pro Stock fan, but that little car turned in one of my Top 10 drag racing viewing experiences in what has now drawn out to a long and obnoxious 39 years. At the time, the way to go was Mopar. Don Carlton, Sox & Martin, Butch Leal, Dick Landy, Don Grotheer, Reid Whisnant, Roy Hill, Herb McCandless, and the late John Hagen had the run of the place. Only Jenkins with a 1970 Camaro and "Dyno Don" Nicholson in a Ford Maverick (among other body types) would now and again interrupt the reign of the Chrysler racers. Jenkins, taking advantage of new NHRA rules that allowed compact cars with small-inch engines, showed with a cartoonish looking little car that looked as though it would be mangled in the forest of Chrysler giants. "Da Grump" was hardly defenseless competition as anyone knows. In 1972 he was considered as God when it came to Chevrolet engines and engineering, and if there was ever anyone who could come up with an idea that would challenge the chizlers, it would be him. Outside of former office-mate and Pro Stock fanatic John Jodauga, very
few know the whole story of how Jenkins got the car to work. At the
end of qualifying for the 32-car 1972 Winternationals Pro Stock show,
he was seventeenth with an out of it 10.00. However, some important
changes were made for an early Sunday morning time trial where I saw
the little Vega run a 9.79, equal to anything the Chryslers were doing.
I remember thinking how neat it would be for such an odd-looking little
car to win a race like the Pomona lidlifter. As you know, it did. Jenkins
kayoed No. 1 qualifier, the Billy "The Kid" Stepp Dodge, and went to
the final where he polished off Oklahoma standout Grotheer in the final.
That win, along with efforts like Don Garlits' Pomona Top Fuel victory
of a year before in a rear-engine dragster, rate as one of drag racing's
great snooker jobs and also an accomplishment that forever changed the
sport. |
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