1962 Nationals Shirt

[Jim]

While watching the USA- Jamaica Soccer match tonight on ESPN2 they did a typical crowd shot they they pull back from. As they were pulling back they showed a guy in the red NHRA 62 nationals shirt. Who knows if he is a fan or just bought the shirt cause it was retro but I thought it was pretty cool. To bad they didn't do a promo for next race along with it.

 

[my friends call me Zappy]

Good eye Jim,

 

[Bill]

While watching the USA- Jamaica Soccer match tonight on ESPN2 they did a typical crowd shot they they pull back from. As they were pulling back they showed a guy in the red NHRA 62 nationals shirt. Who knows if he is a fan or just bought the shirt cause it was retro but I thought it was pretty cool. To bad they didn't do a promo for next race along with it.

I got one at Target about three months ago. It's red and looks liike it's been worn to death and has been through the laundry about 300 times, but it's a brand new shirt.

I bought it because I was at that race.


There was...

No Christmas tree
No handicapped racing
No indexes
No breakouts
No throttle stops
No Pro teams
No Nitro
No motorcycles (that I remember)
No turbochargers
No 60-foot clocks
No Funny Cars
No Pro Stockers
No Countdown
No corporate sponsorships
No thousand-foot racing
No limits on engine design in Top Eliminator
No brakelight racing
No AHFS

But a reported 1,200 contestants, and standing room only spectators.

Pure drag racing. Every run.

Oh, where did we go wrong????

 

[Dave]

That's evolution baby.

 

[FC138fan]

I got one at Target about three months ago. It's red and looks liike it's been worn to death and has been through the laundry about 300 times, but it's a brand new shirt.

I bought it because I was at that race.


There was...

No Christmas tree
No handicapped racing
No indexes
No breakouts
No throttle stops
No Pro teams
No Nitro
No motorcycles (that I remember)
No turbochargers
No 60-foot clocks
No Funny Cars
No Pro Stockers
No Countdown
No corporate sponsorships
No thousand-foot racing
No limits on engine design in Top Eliminator
No brakelight racing
No AHFS

But a reported 1,200 contestants, and standing room only spectators.

Pure drag racing. Every run.

Oh, where did we go wrong????

Not knocking your post but I bet if you took that crowd and put them in a modern day facility, you'd fit them all in and have room for another couple thousand.

I respect your opinion, but personally, I'd take today's show over what you were describing.

 

[Nunz]

Things always seem better looking back in them. I don't like everything about today's big show, but I was at Indy pt.1 a couple weeks ago, and we had a great time!

 

[Bill]

I am not saying what they did back then was better than what we have today. Maybe that was my implication, but that was not my intention.

But, it was different, that's for sure.

It was less complicated (no electronics, no handicapped racing,) less regulated (no restrictive rules regarding engine choices) in the really fast cars (Top Eliminator,) less parts attrition (no nitro) and a lot more entrants.

It was more of a "drag racing is something you DO," and less of a "drag racing is something you WATCH" mentality, with 1,200 race cars in contention.

Building a competitive car didn't require a corporate sponsorship, or even a second mortgage. Open trailers and a Chevy Carryall were the order of the day; no enclosed trailers/stackers or 18-wheelers.

There were no reserved seats, no VIP tower seating and no empty seats, as I recall. No shortage of spectators.

It didn't cost a million dollars a year to campaign a car in the top category.

One guy (Jack Clifford) FLAT-TOWED his Stocker ('54 Hudson) from California to Indy. He entered his TOW CAR in a different Stock Class and won both classes!

That was Stocker racing back then. Now, you have people spending $75,000.00 for a factory-built, "paper car" that you can't even register to drive on the street (no v.i.n.) to run in the same Eliminator. Some "Stocker." Don't forget the low-balled, factored HP rating bestowed on it, to make sure it will be super-competitive.

Evolution has its downside...

The Top Eliminator category featured race cars with a variety of powerplants that ranged from Hemis to Pontiacs, to Oldsmobiles to Chevys, and nearly every succeeding year, the winner would have a different kind of engine. One year (maybe 1959 or '60) the winner had a 430 cubic inch Lincoln powerplant(!)...

It took awhile for the generation II 426 Hemi-style engine to become the standard powerplant in the fastest classes. Oldsmobile (Porter-Reis) gave them a run for their money. I've seen posts from a "Norm Porter" on here and wondered if they came from the same "Porter" that ran that car; it was formidible...

But, I enjoyed the pre-cookie-cutter days, for the variety. Run, Forrest, RUN (Top Eliminator was like a box of chocolates; you never knew what you were gonna get for an engine... LOL!)

Now, the Fuel classes are so rules-restricted that even when a different manufacturer steps up with its own motor (like Force's FORDs,) you can't tell it from the generic MOPAR design because of the requisite NHRA-specified valve-angle specifications... a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

Guess you had to have been there...

I think the difference is this: what we had then was mainly "sport." What we have now is mainly "entertainment." It's a subtle, almost nebulous thing, but pervasive in the overall scenario...

How many people on this board were at the 1962 Nationals?

I'd be interested to know...

I may be just a voice in the wilderness... LOL!

Thanks for listening!!!

Bill, in Conway, Arkansas

 

[Lori]

Right now select WalMart's are selling retro Gatornationals shirts dated 1979. Very faded and old looking My husband bought several of them for friends. They were only 7.99.

 

[Muddy]

"How many people on this board were at the 1962 Nationals?"

I was at 62 but I was also at the 57-58 nationals and I agree with almost everything you said. Drag racing used to be a partcipation activity now it's a spectator activity.

 

[none]

"How many people on this board were at the 1962 Nationals?"

I was at 62 but I was also at the 57-58 nationals and I agree with almost everything you said. Drag racing used to be a partcipation activity now it's a spectator activity.

I was also at the 62 Nationals and I agree with Bill and John, It was for sure a great event.
At this event I was 23 years old and am slightly older these days, Every thing was much cooler back then and it seemed like everything was more fun and carefree at that age!
I still enjoy the drags very much and feel we are seeing some of the best racing in the Nitro classes we have ever seen.
It's All Good !!!!!!

 

[Bill]

I was also at the 62 Nationals and I agree with Bill and John, It was for sure a great event.
At this event I was 23 years old and am slightly older these days, Every thing was much cooler back then and it seemed like everything was more fun and carefree at that age!
I still enjoy the drags very much and feel we are seeing some of the best racing in the Nitro classes we have ever seen.
It's All Good !!!!!!

Paul,

I was also 23 and had also attended the Oklahoma City Nationals in '57 and '58.

I went to Indy in '61 and '71 also, but the '62 race could not be topped, in my estimation.

Looks like there were at least three of us. you, John Waters and myself.

There are probably more...

I remember sitting in a small cafe in Indy and listening to Booker T and the MG's playing "Green Onions" on the jukebox... first time I'd ever heard it.

Went back to Little Rock with it still playing inside my head and bought the single (I think that may have been all we had back then,) not realizing that the flip side ("Behave Yourself") was a better tune... IF you played it at 33-1/3 rpm... but that's another story...

Who knew that would be the last Indy with a flagman???

Time marches on...

Bill, in Conway, Arkansas

 

[DrRocket]

1 question for the old farts (me included) on this board.

WHAT do you think would happen if, tomorrow, you told the fuel teams "We've thrown the rule book away folks. It's run whatcha brung." With today's technology, how long do you think it would take before things got completely out of hand, driver-safety-wise?

I'm guessing, about 2, maybe 3 races.

That's the problem gentlemen. The posts above were made by old farts who want to go back to the "good old days, when men were men."

Wish away guys. Those days are gone, and they're never coming back.

In the era you guys are fondly remembering, fuel cars would get their butts whipped by a modern pro-stock car.

 

[Muddy]

1



In the era you guys are fondly remembering, fuel cars would get their butts whipped by a modern pro-stock car.

You're correct but so what? Drag racing was about a lot more than what happened on the track. Mostly it was about a couple of guys pooling their resources and following their dream. Then there was the activities off the track when a few racers got together or saturday night in the motel parking lot getting ready for Sunday although most didn't have a room there.

 

[Gordon]

WHAT do you think would happen if, tomorrow, you told the fuel teams "We've thrown the rule book away folks. It's run whatcha brung." With today's technology, how long do you think it would take before things got completely out of hand, driver-safety-wise?

I'm guessing, about 2, maybe 3 races.

I'm not sure I completely agree, Dave.

The closer the cars get to 0.00 ET's, the more difficult it becomes to improve. There's a point, and I don't believe we're too far from it, when performance will hit a brick wall no matter what technology is introduced. We'll still see very small improvements in both speed and ET, but they'll gradually become less and less common. So if NHRA were to remove all restrictions I'd say we'd see some improvements (and a lot of oil downs) and then it would more or less level off again. Remember, crew chiefs have a responsibility to keep their driver safe, and drivers generally won't get in a car they feel is unsafe (see: Alan Bradshaw), so even without restrictions, I think most teams would take a slow but steady approach to any changes they attempted.

P.S. Ironically, I happen to be sporting my red 1962 Nationals shirt as I type this.

 

[Bill]

1 question for the old farts (me included) on this board.

WHAT do you think would happen if, tomorrow, you told the fuel teams "We've thrown the rule book away folks. It's run whatcha brung." With today's technology, how long do you think it would take before things got completely out of hand, driver-safety-wise?


That's the problem gentlemen. The posts above were made by old farts who want to go back to the "good old days, when men were men."

Wish away guys. Those days are gone, and they're never coming back.

.

Well, David, the answer to the question you ask is not something I would, personally, advocate.

I pointed out the dearth of variety in Fuel powerplants, that was all. I mentioned that in '62 there were no cookie-cutter cars, and the current restrictive rules as regards valve angle on Fuel motor cylinder heads, but neither the cookie cutter chasses nor the near-identical engines have much to do with safety.

MY gripe was mainly about the death of drag racing as it exists in the Sportsman ranks.

In my opinion, bracket racing is not drag racing. Drag racing only exists when two cars compete without restraints on their performance; i.e., no breakouts, which come as a result of handicap-inspired indexes or dial-ins. The Super classes are a part of that, seeing as how they are restricted as to how quick they can go and still win.

Drag racing only exists in the Pro Eliminators, and in Class racing among the Stockers and Super Stock cars (and, when two same-class cars are paired in the Eliminator runoffs.)



The rest is some form of Bracket racing, wherein you can lose by going to quick.

There are those who contend thet the C.I.C. system as practiced in Comp Eliminator circumvents this issue, and in a way, it does, but it's still a handicapped race the parameters of which are fluid, based on previous rounds.

That's a gray area for sure, but until they get rid of the c.i.c penalties, I don't see how it relates to pure, heads-up drag racing.

Then there are also the legions of fans who contend (and probably rightfully so) that without Bracket racing, drag racing simply wouldn't exist today.

I can't disagree with that.

But, it didn't exist in 1962. And the stands were full... and there were 1,200 cars entered at the Nationals.

If they are really interested in slowing down these 330mph cars, just take the wings completely off of them and limit them to a 10-inch wide tire.

They'll slow down... LOL!

No, I don't want to go back to 1962.

I just would like to see more drag racing. There's not much out there for the Sportsman fan, nowadays; it's (almost) all Bracket racing.

Pro Mod is one exception I am=lmost foirgot, but it's only contested at a select
few events.

Liike I said; Bracket Racing is not Drag Racing.

By the way; I have a Bracket car that I intend to race, shortly. It's at:

Flickr: billdedman1's Photostream

The car is almost finished and should be running Brackets later this year.

I'd rather be drag racing but can't afford the travel... so, this is better than nothing, I figure...

Tempus fugit ! LOL!

 

[Mooseman]

We are in a wallet game now, technology used to be the limiting factor in that it didn't matter how much money you had you could only do as good as the technology would allow, the tech has caught up with the money now and it got to a point where if you could afford it you could do what ever you wanted.

There is a saying "Beat me, not my wallet", I think thats what changed alot of things even though I am only young and wasn't around back then it sure seems like thats whats happened.

I have seen it here in New Zealand where teams will work their butts off and save as much cash as they can to update their car to be as good as they can afford it to be then someone will bring in a ready to run top of the line car fresh from america and win with it. There is nothing wrong there or bad I mean if you can afford that then its your right to do it but that kind of thing dejects some people.

People don't like it when a hole lot of money trumps their hard work.