Drag Racing Online - Specials: The Big Five pg.2 November 2001

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BIGGEST WIN

Glidden against Satmary in the lights at Pomona. (Photo by Norman Blake)

For me, this was an easy one. Glidden's '79 NHRA Winternationals win was the capper. Why? Because, Glidden, who had run that incredibly successful Fairmont a year earlier, suddenly switched to a Plymouth Arrow, a factory rod that he had never raced before. He swept Joe Satmary in that Pomona final, 8.49 to 8.71, and went on to six more NHRA national event wins and that year's Winston Pro Stock title. In fact, in 10 total races, Glidden made the final-round in nine of them. Even more amazing, Glidden was again, pretty much by himself in choice of conveyance. Save for Ronnie Sox's '79 Omni, Randy Humphrey, and a few other diehards, the Pro Stock world was bulging with GM cars.

FINEST MOMENT

I'm not trying to be different here, but I thought Glidden's Pro Stock debut at the '72 NHRA Supernationals was most impressive.

Two days before the opening day of qualifying for this race, I went to a Wednesday night Pro Stock match race at Orange County. A lot of the Eastern cars were in attendance, getting ready for Ontario. One of them was Glidden, although no one knew who he was at the time. Sometime during qualifying, a little red Ford Pinto with Ed Martin Ford on the rear quarter panels pulled out onto the pad and just limped down the track and disappeared. Never saw it again that night.

At the Supernationals, it was discovered that the driver was an Indiana Super Stock racer named Bob Glidden, who went on to take runner-up honors to Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins' legendary '72 Chevy Vega. In that race, Jenkins got the holeshot to win as Glidden actually outran him, 9.37 to a winning 9.38.

WORST MOMENT

Gotta be the '76 U.S. Nationals. Glidden showed with a CHEVY! A '76 Monza that he failed to qualify with. His 9.00 best was only good for first alternate status. That was the last time for him and the Monza. He sold it to fellow Hoosier John Lingenfelter, who ran it as an econo altered and won a number of NHRA national event Competition Eliminator titles.

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