FEATURE- From the Tower by Bob Frey

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Thu, 27 Aug 2009, 07:00 PM

A Little Bit of History

By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2009 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Fritz Voight

It's strange how these things happen, but a few years ago I was reporting about the 2001 MAC Tools U.S. Nationals and I was saying how it was NHRA's 500th national event. Well, just a few short years later as we head into Indy for the annual "Big Go" I am reporting that this will be NHRA's 700th national event. That, of course, includes national events featuring the professional cars and all of the Sportsnationals that have taken place over the years. Since I had a few moments (a very few) I went back through the archives and thought I would mention at least a little something from the previous races, at least the milestone events. So here goes..

Of course everyone knows that race number one was the NHRA Nationals in Great Bend, Kansas. Not to make a big deal of it but as I write this I am looking at a mint condition program from that very first race. The original dates were September 29, 30 and October 1, 2, 1955, but when rain forced postponement of the event it was eventually finished in Arizona in November. That's where Calvin Rice beat Fritz Voight for the first national championship. I never met Calvin but I did have the pleasure of meeting Fritz at his induction into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame this year in Florida and I have to tell you it was quite a treat. The man has so many great stories and, as a fan, it was a joy to hear some of them. You can read more about Fritz in the new book by Eric Arneson about Mickey Thompson, the man that Fritz worked for for many years. By the way, I always get a kick out of the fact that one of the many prizes that was presented at that inaugural race was a brand new Nash V-8 engine that went to the "contestant achieving the highest speed in the quarter-mile using an engine of the same make." Cool.

Gordie Bonin from Seattle '77.
Race number 100 on the NHRA calendar came at the 1977 Fallnationals in Seattle, Washington. The race, which was originally scheduled for September 16-18 was, believe it or not, rained out after three pairs of Top Fuel cars ran in eliminations and it was finished one week later. Gee, it seems that some things never change. Anyway, after qualifying it was Gary Read who was the top qualifier and Graham Light, in the Pacemaker / Bubble Up Top Fuel car, had top speed. In Funny Car Tripp Shumake, in the Powers Steel Camaro, was number one while Bob Glidden set the pace in the Pro Stock class and some guy by the name of Warren Johnson recorded top speed. When it was all over Stan Shiroma won the Top Fuel final, a final that featured a first as two Chevrolet-powered cars would meet for the TF title. As it turned out, the final actually only featured one Chevy car when Rance McDaniel was unable to get his "Valley Fever" car to start. Billy Meyer, you remember him don't you, won his first NHRA Funny Car race when he stopped "Big" Jim Dunn in the FC finale. Bob Glidden went wire-to-wire to take Pro Stock, beating Warren in the semi-finals and Frank Iaconio in the final round. Among the sportsman winners at the 100th race were Dale Armstrong in Pro Comp, (you remember Pro Comp, don't you?), Joe Williamson in Comp, Larry Kopp in Modified, Margaret Glembocki in Super Stock and Don McElroy in Stock.

Don Garlits vs. Dick LaHaie
at '86 Gatornationals.
Race number 200 came at the 1986 Gatornationals and it featured professional wins by Don Garlits, Ed McCulloch and Don Campanello. Yes, Don Campanello. Oh, by the way, did I mention that the race was delayed one week because of rain? See a pattern developing here? Anyway, the win by "Big Daddy" featured the sport's first 270 mile per hour run and it gave Don a sweep of the event. Ed's win in the FC class was one of several wacky final rounds that he would have at Gainesville (can you say '89 Gators), and he won the 200th NHRA race when his final round opponent, Tom McEwen, was unable to answer the call for the final round. Campanello, meanwhile, won his first and only national event when Butch Leal fouled out against him in the final round. And yes, that field did include a guy by the name of Warren Johnson. The sportsman winners included a couple of Canadian drivers, Kirk Lawrence in Top Alcohol Dragster and Wally Clark in Super Stock. Lawrence beat defending World Champion Bill Walsh for his title and Wally stopped Jim Boudreau for his. Gene Boul won TAFC over one of the best fields ever assembled, a field that included Lou Gasparrelli, Frank Manzo, Bob Newberry, Pat Austin, Vern Moats and more. In the final Gene edged Danny Townsend to get his first NHRA national event trophy. Jeff Zimmerman beat Larry Morgan for the Comp title while Al Corda in Stock and Dave Edwards in Super Gas rounded out the list of sportsman winners.

Jim Epler vs. John Force
at '92 Winternationals
Next up, race number 300, also known as the 1992 Winternationals. This race produced some of the quickest and fastest runs in history in the fuel classes, with Pat Austin leading a record-setting field with a 4.893 in qualifying and Doug Herbert making the quickest run ever at 4.880. In the end, though, it would be the eleventh qualifier, Kenny Bernstein, who got the TF win when he beat Jim Head in the final round. The Funny Cars, which included Cruz Pedregon, John Force, Del Worsham and others, was won by Jim Epler when he beat John Force in the final round. Jerry Eckman, who qualified second and later recorded low elapsed time of the meet, beat Kenny Delco, Bruce Allen, Bob Glidden and Jim Yates to take the Pro Stock title. In the sportsman classes, Bernie Plourd, known today as Brad's dad, won his first and only NHRA national event when he surprised a field of alky dragsters that included Blaine Johnson, Rick Santos, Jay Payne and Bobby Taylor to name just a few. Bernie beat Dennis Allen, who fouled out, to get the win and that came after beating Bill Barney in the semi-finals and Blaine a round earlier. The final in the TAFC class featured two of the best to ever race in that class, Bob Newberry and Pat Austin. Bob made the journey all the way from his New York home and he made it worthwhile when he beat Pat, 5.937 to a losing 6.072. Bob beat Lena Williams, Bucky Austin and Lou Gasparrelli before meeting Pat. Bill Maropulos and David Rampy were the top two qualifiers in Comp at the 300th NHRA race, but neither were around for the final round. Jeff Gillette, driving the Mattie Family dragster was, and he beat Jeff Krug for the title. For Jeff, his big break, so to speak, came in round two when he broke right off the starting line, but his opponent, Kip Martin, fouled out and Jeff was back in the chase, a chase he eventually won. Ron Zoelle has won five national events in Super Stock and three of them have come at the Winternationals. He won in 1978 and again in 1990 before driving his 1967 SS/HA Camaro past Chris Werner in 1992 for his third Winternationals' crown. Gary Sutton, who had been racing at every Winternationals since 1964, finally closed the deal when he beat Gregg Luneack for the Stock Eliminator crown in 1992. Gary, who had been to finals at Pomona in 1979 and 1981, beat Luneack in an all-Mopar final round, his 1970 Barracuda beating Luneack's 1964 Plymouth. Don Cumby beat the veteran Ted Kellner for Super Gas honors and Scotty Richardson stopped Dan Dickey for the Super Comp crown.

Scott Kalitta at
'97 Heartland Park Topeka.
The 400th race in the NHRA record books took place in Heartland Park Topeka in 1997. The Western Auto Nationals included professional wins by Scott Kalitta, Whit Bazemore and Scott Geoffrion. Scott beat Larry Morgan who now entered the record books as a runner-up at two of these historical events. Hey, I guess it's better than not being mentioned at all, isn't it? The alky classes at that race were won by Jay Payne and Cy Chesterman. Jay beat Frank Pedregon for the TAD honors while Cy beat Lou Gasparrelli in the alky Funny Car class. Buddy Nickens, whose cousin Bo had won the Comp world championship a year earlier, took Competition Eliminator honors by beating John Frech in the final round. In the semi-finals Buddy beat Bill Henderson who was driving the C/SR that was formerly driven by David Nickens, while Frech beat a young driver by the name of Jeg Coughlin. Edmond Richardson, who had won a bunch of races in the "90" categories, finally closed the deal in Super Stock when he beat Rene Garza's classic '55 Chevy in the final round, while Jim Cimarolli beat Kevin Helms to take his first national event win in Stock Eliminator. Two of the sport's best drivers went at it in the final of Super Comp when Matt Driskell beat Tommy Phillips for the win. Among those that Matt beat along the way were Gary Stinnett and Sheldon Gecker, not bad for a day's work, is it? A guy who really earned his win was Lloyd McClure, who beat Tommy Phillips, Marlin Snyder and Sheldon Gecker before stopping Marvin Rouse in the money round of the Super Gas category. Mark Hackett rounded out the list of winners by taking Super Street honors over Steve Wolf.

Greg Anderson vs. Mark Osborne
at '01 Indy.
As I already mentioned, the 500th national event took place at Indy in 2001 and it featured every class known to man. OK, so maybe not every class, but in the end there were twelve drivers who took home "Wallys" after winning the event and that included five professional classes. Larry Dixon won in Top Fuel, Whit Bazemore in Funny Car, Greg Anderson in Pro Stock, Angelle Sampey in the bike class and Mike Coughlin took the Pro Stock Truck honors. In the sportsman ranks, Keith Stark and Frank Manzo were the big winners when they beat Bill Reichert and Jay Payne in the finals. One of the most exciting finals came in Competition Eliminator when Santo Volpe, driving a supercharged A/A Corvette, beat Robert Bailey's dragster for the win. Earlier Santo had stopped some of the best drivers in the class, including Jeff Taylor, David Rampy and Brian Olson before squaring off with Bailey's six-second dragster in the finals. The "Terminator," Peter Biondo, picked up his fourth Indy crown when he beat Jerry Jenkins SS/AA car in the Super Stock final round. Rene Garza, remember him from race number 400? Well, he was Peter's first round opponent while Jenkins would be his last. In between Peter beat, among others, Dan Fletcher and Norman Hall. The Stock final was a family affair, a Waldo family

Santo Volpe
at '01 Indy.
affair. Son, Eric, beat his dad, Jim, when Jim broke out in the final round. The race marked the first time in the history of the U.S. Nationals that a father and son had met in the championship round. Along the way Eric beat the 1967 Indy champ, Ben Wentzel, in the fourth round while dad's toughest challenge may have been from Don Little in round five. The other winners at Indy in 2001 were Damon Dabbs in Super Comp and Larry Edmoundson in Super Gas. For both it was their first Indy win and for Larry, who was driving a Ford Probe in Super Gas, it was his first national event win of any kind.

That brings us to number 600, the 2005 AC Delco Nationals in Las Vegas. Tony Schumacher, Ron Capps, Kurt Johnson and Chip Ellis took the professional wins, and Ron's win set up a great final race at Pomona for the Funny Car championship. In the sportsman classes, one of the very best had a great weekend in Las Vegas. David Rampy won both Comp and Stock Eliminators and, in the process joined a very select group of racers. Not only did David pull off the double, but it marked the second time in his career that he had done that and not many racers can make that

Ron Capps at
'05 AC Delco Nationals.
claim. In Comp, he beat Bo Butner for the title while the Stock crown came at the expense of Don Wann after David had beaten Don's son, Steve, two rounds earlier. Oh, did I mention that in the final round David ran a perfect 11.500 on his 11.50 dial-in? Matt Constant, one of the best of the west coast racers, finally hit the big time when he beat Jason Kenny for the Super Comp title at Vegas. The final sportsman title at that race went to Robert Coleman who was making a real charge for the Lucas Oil Championship. When he beat Jon Brazeau in the final round Robert became the first Super Gas driver all year to win two national events. He had earlier won in St. Louis and that just happened to be the only other national event he entered all year long.

That's a brief, and I mean very brief, look back at some of the races that have made up the previous 699 NHRA national events. I was there for a lot of them and remember them vividly, while others I just read about and enjoy. Congratulations to all the winners over the years, and just for kicks, that would include 123 drivers in Top Alcohol Dragster, 81 in Top Alcohol Funny Car, 250 in Comp, 306 in Super Stock, 316 in Stock, 265 in Super Comp, 317 in Super Gas and 125 in Super Street. Now let's see who wins race number 700 at Indy.