IHRA Puts on a Winner at Cordova

words by Chris Martin
photos by Jeff Burk

The IHRA Amalie Summer Nationals, the little train that could. Cordova Raceway Park, now 45 years old, neat, clean, bucolic, figured to be a backdrop for a fun, safe and sane show. Sort of like a Fourth of July without cherry bombs and M-80s. WRONG-O!

World War Three for all to see. In Friday afternoon's Top Fuel qualifying, Shirley Muldowney dropped thousands of jaws when she thundered to the best speed in IHRA history with a 319.22-mph blast. This was not supposed to happen at good old Cordova. Last year, there was just one 300-mph run; this year 'twas a whole lot different.

On this same weekend, NHRA was holding its Pontiac Excitement Nationals in Ohio and one would figure that their Top Speed would be significant better. Not so.

Bruce Litton won Top Fuel and mathematically figured to pass Paul Romine in the IHRA Top Fuel points lead, but such was not the case. Due to the penalty for oildowns, Litton's win still left him second behind Romine in the IHRA standings.

As a footnote to the Top Fuel proceedings, a young new star may have emerged in the form of 18-year old J.R. Todd. In his first-ever full pass in a Top Fuel dragster, he qualified with a 4.95. He lost in round one to Romine, but ran another four and looked good in the loss.

In Pro Modified, Jim Oddy and Fred Hahn's Summit Performance '54 Corvette won its third straight IHRA Pro Mod title, tying a record for consecutive wins.

Pro Stock Harley was an all-John Mancuso finale. Mancuso ran the quickest ever Harley fuel time by qualifying with a 6.41 ahead of teammate Steve Strodeur's 6.47. They met in the final with Strodeur whipping the boss.

Shirley Thunders to IHRA All-Time Best of 319-mph
During Top Fuel's first qualifying session, Shirley Muldowney cranked a stunning 4.74/319.22. The current IHRA speed mark is 308.21 by event winner Bruce Litton's WIX Filters dragster. Grade school math shows that this is a full 11-mph improvement, making it the biggest demolition of any hot rod association speed mark since the Winston era began in 1975. Unfortunately, Shirley was not able to back it up for the new record.

Shirley's GoRacing.com dragster (shown above going against Don Reed) covered the first 60 feet in .885 and hit the eighth mile clocks at 3.219/255.10.

Shirley remarked later, "The car didn't leave all that hard, but at about half track it really picked up and moved. I could definitely feel it charge and I needed all of the shutoff area to get it stopped."

Muldowney, who celebrated her 60th birthday Monday, did something even rarer in eliminations when she red-lighted - almost unheard-of from her. She thought the last time she did it a big meet was in 1982.

And On the Subject of Records, How About that Mancuso Guy?
John Mancuso's Nitro Harley out of Houston, Texas, which finished second in last year's IHRA points, was the other record setter when he cranked a 6.415 during Friday's final qualifying session. The current IHRA Nitro Harley elapsed time mark is a 6.443 set in April of this year at Rockingham, N.C., by champ Jay Turner. Interestingly enough, Mancuso's teammate Steve Strodeur, had led qualifying for two sessions with a blistering 6.470 at a stunning 216.79-mph, a speed that bettered the current IHRA mark of 215.27. When all was said and done, Strodeur beat Mancuso in the final, but only Mancuso nailed an IHRA mark. And it wasn't with elapsed time, either. In eliminations, his 216.00 was backed up for the speed record.

Three In A Row For Hahn/Oddy

Fred Hahn wheeled Jim Oddy's Summit Racing '54 Corvette into an IHRA Pro Modified winner's circle for the third straight time when he bagged the Cordova trophy. That's big stuff in Pro Mod. How big? Scotty Cannon, the big gun in the class, won the 1993 IHRA Northeast Nitrous Nationals, President's Cup Nitrous Nationals, and Springnationals and Tommy Mauney won the 1995 IHRA Winter Nationals, Alabama Nitrous Nationals, and Empire Nationals, making them the only two to have won Pro Mod at an IHRA national event three consecutive times. Hahn now is the third.

Given the 6.17 up in Canada and the fact that Oddy has Funny Car great and advisor Tom Anderson to bounce info off of, the New Yorkers are beginning to give off John Force vibes. Not to put any pressure on anybody, but should Hahn nail 'em at the CarQuest Empire Nationals in New York (stomping grounds for all three of these crushers), July 14-16, we have ourselves a new history-maker.

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