As most are aware, the Winston Showdown at the entirely (and impressively) revamped Bristol Motor Speedway, was held to mixed reviews. Great facility, shitty weather, and a format that for the majority of the participants was hit and miss at best. Mostly, "miss", say some.

When Cruz Pedregon's Pontiac Firebird Funny Car came out in the first pro qualifying session on Friday alongside Terry Mullins' Top Fuel dragster, announcers misled the ESPN television audience with statements akin to "you are witnessing a first, Top Fuel dragsters versus Funny Cars." The mikesters shoulda been more specific. Maybe this was a first in an NHRA national-event-type setting, but it was far, far from a first-time meeting.

There might've been an unknown predecessor to what happened at Irwindale Raceway on April 20, 1968, but if there was, I'm not aware of it. Irwindale, located just a few miles north of NHRA's current headquarters in Glendora, California, was an NHRA-sanctioned track 31 years ago, hosting an NHRA Division 7 championship series points race among other top-of-the-marquee items, one of which was a Top Fuel vs. Funny Car show on April 20.

Booked into the track were four first-cabin Top Fuel dragsters and four hard-running Funny Cars. Making up the Top Fuel team were Roland Leong's "Hawaiian" with the late Mike Snively driving, James Warren driving the Warren-Coburn-Miller entry, "the Fighting Irish" dragster of Tim Beebe and the late John "the Zookeeper" Mulligan, and Larry Stellings' dragster with Butch Maas at the controls. The "floppers" included Dick Loehr's "Stampede" Mustang, Steve Bovan doing double duty at the wheel of Nelson Carter's Imperial Kustoms Dodge Charger and the Blair's Speed Shop Camaro, and Gas Ronda's Russ Davis Ford-backed Mustang.

Having no precedent to go on, management drew a number out of the hat and gave the Funny Cars a full second headstart. That proved to be the undoing of the fuelers right there. After two somewhat one-sided rounds, management dialed the handicap back down to a .65 lead, and things evened up a little, although not enough to prevent the "floppers" from copping a 7-5 win.

Below are the round-by-round results:

The Irwindale show was followed on the West Coast by other races featuring everything from bracket racers versus Top Fuelers to Fuel Altereds versus Funny Cars. Obviously, the rest of the country picked up on this, especially in the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

For example in the summer of 1970, York U.S. 30 Dragway in Pennsylvania, and the tracks at Norwalk and Thompson, Ohio wore out this format. On April 25 of that year at York, a three-car Top Fuel team of Chris "the Greek" Karamesines, "T.V. Tommy" Ivo, and Marvin Schwartz driving for an injured Don Garlits took a narrow 5-4 win over a Funny Car trio consisting of Larry Arnold in Royce Hutchison's "Super 'Cuda," Bryan Teal in Nelson Carter's "Super Chief," and Al Graeber's "Tickle Me Pink" Dodge Charger.

On Aug. 28 of that year at Norwalk, Larry Reyes in Leong's "Hawaiian" got revenge for the Funny Car clan, pasting Ivo three straight times with a best time of 7.32, 195.65 for Reyes and a 6.81, 215.82 for Ivo. On Sept. 4 at York U.S. 30, Ivo overcame a four-tenths handicap to beat "Jungle Jim" Liberman two straight times and a week later at Thompson he ran a best of 6.92, 203.61 to beat Tony Wahlay's "Warlord" Barracuda two in a row.

And on it went. The enterprising Ben Christ at U.S. 30 Dragway in Gary, Indiana held TF vs. FC shows from 1971 through 1973, as did the management at Maple Grove Raceway in Pennsylvania, and they proved to be very popular.

The Gary show held on August 9, 1972 was probably the way the Bristol Winston Showdown should've been hosted. Chris "the Greek" Karamesines outlasted Kuhl-Olson, Arnie Behling in Bruce Dodds' "Spirit", and Jim Bucher to qualify for a three-tenths handicap final against Tom Hoover's White Bear Dodge Charger. Hoover had beaten Mart Higgenbotham's Drag-On Vega, Russell Long in Charlie Proite's "Telstar" Charger and Gary Bolger aboard Bud Richter's "Golddigger" Mustang. In that final, Karamesines ran a 6.35, 244.00 (veteran fans no doubt remember the wacky speeds given out at U.S. 30) to just catch and pass Hoover's 6.64, 226.13.

Just expand those Fuel and Funny Car fields to eight cars and you probably had a less chaotic format than the one at Bristol.

Fans continued to support these occasional forays into the weird zone, until they and most of Funny Car match racing died in the very early 1980s.

However, even as late as April 4, 1982, Frank Hawley drove the NHRA World Champ "Chi-Town Hustler" Dodge Charger to a win over Don Garlits' seldom seen Kendall Oil sidewinder at Byron Dragway in Illinois, 6.17, 221.13 to 6.71, 205.94.

Even the sport's two geatest names of the time, Don Garlits and Don Prudhomme, took part in a handicapper. At the ’77 Super Stock nationals in York, PA, Garlits beat "the Snake's" Army Plymouth Arrow two straight witha best time of 6.5/240.

The point of all this? Before goin' and shootin' your mouth off, do your home work and keep the bean counters outa the freakin' press room. Uh, just kiddin' chums.

Next case.

photos by Jeff Burk

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