6/8/04

THE REAL OLYMPICS

hen I die and go to hell, one of the requests I’m going to make from the guard is could he transport me back in time to a little town in the extreme southeast corner of the Badger State … Union Grove, Wis. I won’t care what the admission is. Turn up the heat a few more degrees, let me rat out a pedophile, cut my booze privileges for a week; I really would have liked to experience the annual Memorial Day weekend “Olympics of Drag Racing” at Bob Metzler’s wackadoo Great Lakes Dragaway.

In SoCal, there was no shortage of top drawer shows. We were spoiled like a Dumpster egg. Still, when I went and got my weekly copy of Drag News in the first weekend of June, the first page I’d turn to was number two, for the results of the “Olympics”. The track, sadly enough like another wild Midwest barroom, U.S. 30 in Gary, Ind., seldom produced an elaborate story on the event. I think track owner Bob Metzler, the Midwest’s answer to Bill Doner and Steve Evans, was more concerned about seeing that everyone was paid, laid, and beer waded. As an amateur drag racing researcher in the late 1960s, and for the better part of the 1970s, the reportage out of what insiders called “Union Grove” was inconsistent at best.

Still, the show itself had to have been something.

Great Lakes began running a Memorial Day weekend show in 1957, but management didn’t start using the term “Olympics” until 1966. Up ‘til that year, the Union Grove show was pretty much confined to Midwest talent, which is no knock by any means. For example in 1959, Chris “the Greek” Karamesines won Top Fuel in a 92-inch blown and injected Top Fuel dragster, a victory he earned at the RELATIVELY young age of 31.

In 1965, Union Grove management decided to up the ante, and book in some top name cars. The little country track experienced a turnaway crowd with Karamesines beating Don Garlits in the Top Fuel final. Obviously big names were the way to go, and the following year double truck, color ads in Drag News announced, the UDRA Nationals, “Olympics of Drag Racing.” The race was a runaway success. On Saturday, Sunday, and Memorial Day, Metzler and company had three separate qualified Top Fuel and Funny Car shows and all the “biggies” were there. As it developed, Don Prudhomme’s “B&M Torkmaster Spl.” swept the show, with Don Nicholson’s Fliptop Mercury Comet doing the same thing in Funny Car.

Until 1980, Great Lakes followed this format: three or sometimes four days, three or four times separate shows.

The management at the track was on the ball. Metzler, who is in the Don Garlits Hall of Fame, knew the sport and the stars and his shows reflected this. For instance, in 1974, a relatively unknown Oklahoman named Mike Wagoner had scored a huge upset in winning the Top Fuel AHRA Winternationals, beating (an admittedly broken) Don Garlits in the final. Wagoner continued to have a good year and Metzler booked him in with the usual array of stars. As things developed, Wagoner met Garlits in the final, and lost, but still the savvy of the track producers was duly noted.

If I had a favorite it would be tough to pin down, but I’ll just say for the hell of it, the 1978 race. The event was slotted for three days, and the usual three separate shows plan was used. Talk about a quality field. Entered in Top Fuel were Garlits, eventual 1978 IHRA World Champ Clayton Harris, Connie Kalitta, 1977 AHRA World Champ Jeb Allen, ’74 Indy winner Marvin Graham, Karamesines, Paul Longenecker, the Jim’s Racing dragster of Jim Naramore and Bill Pryor, and Dick LaHaie … and these were just the stars.

In Funny Car, Union Groves booked three really smart cars. Of course, the number one guy was Don Prudhomme in his Army Arrow, but Metzler and Co. also booked in the eventual IHRA Funny Car champ and the most legit No. 2 “flopper” in the country, Denny Savage in the Powers Steel Camaro. The “supporting cast” wasn’t bad either. Eventual 1978 Indy winner Tom McEwen’s English Leather Corvette was in attendance as were the Northwest “Green Elephant” Vega of Jim Green and Mike Miller, “the Chi-Town Hustler”, Raymond Beadle’s “Blue Max,” Tom Hoover’s “Showtime” and match race talent like Vic Cecilia’s “Gambler” opera-window Dodge Charger, Dale Creasy and Dick Bourgoise’s Mustang II, Larry Fullerton’s “Trojan Horse” Mustang II, the Dick Bourgeoise-driven “Chicago Fire” Monza, Frank Oglesby’s “Quarter Horse” Mustang, and Al Herring. In addition, there was a two-out-of three Pro Stock unlimited match between Don Nicholson’s first-in the-sevens Mustang II against Bill Jenkins’ Monza with Larry Lombardo in the saddle.

True, by literal definition, the “Olympics” was not a national event, no hot rod association involvement. But so what, Bakersfield didn’t have that status either, and it turned out pretty good.

The winners? In Top Fuel, in order, Longenecker, Garlits and Allen won the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday Top Fuel show, and in Funny Car, Prudhomme, Savage, and McEwen took Funny Car. Both Nicholson and Lombardo ran sevens, with Nicholson taking the match.

The “Olympics” carried on for a number of years after that. I’m not sure what year in the late 1980s that the pillow cut off the air, but in 1980, the show lost its character to a certain degree. The partying to the wee hours of the morning continued right ‘til the end, but the corporate involvement of Winston quickly erased the match race scene, and “the Olympics” was reduced to smaller shows. In 1980, Top Fuel featured a best of three between Garlits and Shirley Muldowney, and a booked in eight-car Funny Car show.

In its heyday, this race was one of the ones. In this writer’s opinion, it remains one of the top-half dozen match series in the sport’s history.