Oddy crew member Mike Bartolotto does all he can as the team waits to see what their fate will be.

Patterson would say later that he never had felt more pressure in his life than when he staged up against McAmis.

The Oddy crew then had to watch two more agonizing rounds. Patterson won in the semis over Rick Distefano, which got him the dubious honor of meeting the dominant car of the race in the final, Von Smith. In the final it was all Smith as he ran both the low Elapsed Time and Top Speed of the meet a 6.249/228.31 that buried Patterson's 6.315/222.25.

Fred Hahn and Jim Oddy were delirious. They'd come to Vegas and against all imaginable odds won a World Championship in an ending that no one could have predicted or scripted.

Later Oddy would say, "I was part of the crew that helped Shirl Greer win the first World Championship for Nitro Funny cars. He had burned himself so bad that it took us an hour just to get him in the car that day to warm the car. He stayed in it the rest of the day. If his opponent broke or something in the final, all he had to do was stage and he was the champ. He did and I thought that was the most unbelievable thing I'd ever seen. This tops that."