or a variety of reasons, many of which nobody seems to be able to remember now, NHRA took the Sportsnationals off of their national event calendar after the 1986 race at Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, Kentucky. But now some eight years later, thanks mostly to the effort of NHRA's Len Imbrogno and the willingness of No Problem Raceway's owners to take the financial gamble, the Belle Rose, LA track was the site of the new Sportsnationals.

This version was completely different than the previous races in that the track management opted to exclude the Alky Dragster and Alky Funny Car classes and stated that financial considerations was the reason. But they did add some Sportsman classes that past versions didn't have, including Top Sportsman, Top Stock and a "Shootout" for the Super Stock AA/SA class and Stock's U/SA class. Nearly 600 Sportsman class racers came to the event.

The track also had Top Fuel, Pro Stock and Pro Stock bikes making exhibition passes in addition to the rest of the Sportsman classes on hand.

The combination must have been what the fans wanted because despite inclement weather (rain), according to track officials around 8,000 fans showed up Saturday and Sunday. Despite weather problems and all of the associated problems that come with doing a National Event for the first time racers, fans, and manufacturers have called this magazine to praise the race.

The racing actually began on Thursday with the Top Stock Shootout that was just the first of a series of heads-up races at the event. Ohio racer Joey Wilkes took the win when local favorite Floyd Russo of Gonzales, LA, who had qualified on the pole, bulbed, giving the automatic win to Wilkes. Wilkes ran a stout 10.092/130.28 to become the first winner of what turned out to be a marathon five-day event.

Qualifying was done on Friday and eliminations began on Saturday in all of the Sportsman classes as well as completing the special AA/SA, Top Sportsman, U/SA "shootouts."

Harry Holton (lead photo), who made the trip to No Problem Dragway all the way from Modesto, CA, sat on the pole for the shootout with an 8.647 but he couldn't convert performance to a win and lost to Parma, MI racer Charlie Westcott on a holeshot by Wescott. Holton ran 8.676 but couldn't cover Wescott's 8.712 (photo below). Wescott had a .024 light. Both men were driving '68 Barracudas.