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The 3,400 class had different woes. It turned out that initial winner Bob Repline's "Thrasher" Dodge was 150 under the weight limit and the decision was made to rerun the entire class. Again, the lateness of the hour screwed things up and only three cars were still in the pits when the announcement came to hit the staging lanes. As it was Tom "Smoker" Smith in the L.P. Stuart Plymouth beat Bill Rubin's Plymouth for that title.
Other winners included Al Eckstrand's "Golden Commandos"/Hamilton Motors nitro-burning, injected Plymouth taking a 9.67 to 9.58 win over Dick Landy's Dodge for the Unlimited title. Ronnie Sox wheeled the Sox & Martin #2 Plymouth to the 3,200-pound class title over Billy McDuell's Mark's Mobile Homes Comet.
The big titles were split between the Mopar
and Ford Camps. Bob Harrop's "Flying Carpet"
'65 Dodge set low e.t. and top speed for non-exhibition
cars with a 9.32, 146.57 win over a wheelstanding
Bud Faubel in the "Honker" fuel-burning Dodge,
and Bill Lawton with the Tasca Ford Mustang
got past a red-lighting Cecil Yother in the
"Melrose Missile" '65 Plymouth. Top Speed went
to an exhibition car when Faubel drove his "Honker"
turbo-charged Dodge to a 147-mph clocking.
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When you compare it to modern times, those numbers are like comparing a caveman to a Cal Tech scientist. The only single-digit average for any class occurred in the Unlimited ranks where a Super Gas-like 9.90 held sway. Everything else was in the double digits.
But of course, the numbers were not what this was about. In attendance were future superstars like the Mr. Norm group from Chicago, Bill Jenkins, Sox, Phil Bonner, Eddie Schartman, Shirl Greer, Dick Brannan and the Tasca team. After this event, they became household words and interest in the unlimited stockers (Funny Cars) took off. The next season, Don Nicholson, Schartman, and Chrisman appeared in "floppers" with dragster-like chassis under the skin. More blowers were atop the engines, and nitro soon became the only way to travel.
If you view the 1959 Bakersfield race as the historical ignition for the Top
Fuel class, then the first Super Stock Nationals
has to be considered in the same way. 
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