Wed, 13 Oct 2004, 07:02 PM Fans to Vote for Top 20 Auto Club NHRA Finals Memorable Moments

Courtesy of NHRA Communications

GLENDORA, Calif. -- NHRA officials announced the 20 most memorable moments from the 39-year history of the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, which were released today in chronological order on nhra.com, the official Web site of the NHRA.

Following the success of a similar fan-voting program held earlier this season for the 50th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals outside of Indianapolis, NHRA fans will again decide the final order of the top 20 memorable moments through a special voting process on nhra.com. Fans can vote for their favorite memorable moments starting at 3 p.m. (ET) on Oct. 12. The fan vote will close at 3 p.m. (ET) on Oct. 22.

Based on the results of the online-voting process, one memorable moment will be unveiled in order of popularity on nhra.com beginning with No. 20 on Oct. 23, followed by one moment a day until the No. 1 memorable moment is revealed on Nov. 10, the day before the start of the 40th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, Nov. 11-14, at Pomona (Calif.) Raceway.

Some of the prominent memorable moments from the past 39 NHRA Finals include Bennie "the wizard" Osborn becoming the first driver to win back-to-back Top Fuel titles by winning the 1967 and 1968 NHRA Finals; Don Prudhomme recording the first-ever five second Funny Car pass en route to his sixth victory in the eight-race 1975 season; Shirley Muldowney's jump from No. 3 in the standings to the No. 1 spot during eliminations at the 1980 NHRA Finals then capping off her second series title with an event victory; The 1990 Top Fuel championship battle between Joe Amato and Gary Ormsby with the drivers meeting in final round at the final race of the year to determine a season champion; and Cory McClenathan's 1992 NHRA Finals victory which left him 92 points shy of the title after he opted to skip a race in Canada earlier in the year where he would have earned 100 points just for making one qualifying attempt.