Great Article About Racing In The 80's & 90's (1 Viewer)

[Buns]

I love this article. Everything he brings up therein, really resonates with me as this is the racing I watched growing up. This is my Nostalgia.

The 60's and 70's will always be legendary. But the 80's and 90's were a whole heck of a lot of fun, too.

Andrew Wolf: The “New” Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used To Be - Dragzine.com

 

[Speed1288]

I love this article. Everything he brings up therein, really resonates with me as this is the racing I watched growing up. This is my Nostalgia.

The 60's and 70's will always be legendary. But the 80's and 90's were a whole heck of a lot of fun, too.

Andrew Wolf: The “New” Nostalgia Isn’t What It Used To Be - Dragzine.com

I don't know how old the guy that wrote that is but for someone my age (21) I agreed with everything he had to say. Yes the slingshots and floppers of the 60s and 70s are great and are what built the sport but I want to see the cars from the 80s and 90s. Those are the cars I grew up on and fell in love with and what hooked me on the sport forever.

 

[mick]

andrew wolf........i'm finding this guy, he's my long lost twin

that article says exactly what i feel about late 80's/early 90's racing;
got to see everybody still racing, showing off, blowing up, and most of all
not so PC and most likely still having a little more fun doing it..........on 100%
i miss those years a lot.

 

[Buns]

Agreed, guys. Those were fun times!

 

[mick]

trying to pinpoint a time when those years suddenly stuck out as a significantly
different time...........thinking early to mid 2000's when the likes of hill, bradley,
amato, lahie quit driving.........if i had to define technology, i'd say watching
lahaie tune dixon to consecutive titles in miller lite dragster with old style blower
maybe marked the end of this 15 - 20 year period?

 

[Toejam]

Nostalgia is a relative term, to a 21 year old the 90's is his/ hers nostalgia! Question is....when the baby boomers are gone, will Nostalgia racing still reflect the 60-70's???

 

[FuelFan13]

There was a lot of technology in a short period of time with clutches, aerodynamics, fuel systems and blowers. Racing was close and the cars were fairly safe at 280-300.

 

[NYNitro86]

the 80s and early 90s was also underrated in the match racing, the Funny car shows especially in the early 90s was dying but it was still good at E-Town, Epping, etc

 

[FC138fan]

Im a bit older at 29, and didn't start really getting into it till the mid 90's, but I agree with the gist of the article being that my favorite time were those first years I started watching.

For whatever reason for me it felt like things changed at the turn of the century. And things really got different after they ran 4.42 and 338 I think it was. The limitations that began to come into play really took away lots from the sport as far as I feel. Today I feel its really at a low with the multi multi car teams, and no variety whatsoever, short fields etc.

I'll still be at the races next year though!

 

[SDR]

What a great article. Growing up in that period was awesome!! The T Shirt tents, the Winston games, and the jolly rancher samples!! Pit areas roped off with empty nitro drums and strings of flags.

 

[Silly Savage]

Being 41 and having spent years with my dad as he ran at Irwindale, OCIR, Fremont, Sacaramento, etc for division 7, I long for the early to mid 70's cars. On the other hand, I was in my twenties during the early 90's and miss the first 300" top fuel cars. I still remember being at the Winternationals when Frank Bradley rolled his car to the line and he had one of the first 300" long cars....Eddie Hill had the 280"+ nuclear banana, etc, etc. And the F/C's of that day, still had some personality and less corporate crap.....

 

[mick]

pretty sure frank was 1st with the 300" chassis; for some reason i thought
he debuted it @ '88 gators, but you're probably rite it was 1st race of season
in pomona...........came across a photo of that car recently on an ausy
drag racing website - anyone know if someone's still racing that chassis
in australia?

 

[mike]

pretty sure frank was 1st with the 300" chassis; for some reason i thought
he debuted it @ '88 gators, but you're probably rite it was 1st race of season
in pomona...........came across a photo of that car recently on an ausy
drag racing website - anyone know if someone's still racing that chassis
in australia?

Glen Mikres ran it back here in the early 90s (92/93) After that Jim Read purchased the car and Tom Hoover drove it for a couple of seasons, Tom also won the 1995 Australian Nationals with it. It was eventually sold to a Top Alcohol team, and after that I don't know what happened to it. It hasn't been used in any competition as far as I'm aware. It probably hasn't been on a track since early 2000.

Regards,

Mike

 

[unclebob]

Doesn't seem right, but I've been around almost since the start.
The way I remember the story of 300" cars, Frank helped Dave Uyehara layout and build a long car to what looked good on the jig, and still fit on it.
It was actually 302". Debut was Pomona Winters, and startline officials were in a tither because the back wheels were still in the wet, and the flame-torch guy was running from wheel to wheel trying to dry the asphalt, because the concrete pad wasn't long enough! Needing to do something before the trend really got started, officials wrote a quick rule at 300", without really measuring Frank's car. When they did, they quitely grandfathered that car until the end of the season. It was then shortened to 300".

Mike V; I think Hambridge modified for a three speed and ran it until he bought the O'Bannon car in about "05 ?

 

[Silly Savage]

Bob, that sounds right, because I recall being up near the line when the car rolled up there...everyone had this confused look when he was pulling to the line. Frank's was the first and it was his idea he took to Uyehara I believe. I recall Hill's car was 282 or 288" and Gene Snow had a Gaddy chassis that was close to that wheelbase...I believe that was the car he went 4.99 or 98in also.

 

[mike]

Bob, Haimbridge purchased the ex Larry Miner Mcdonalds car that Santo had. Dean Oakly used the ex Frank Bradley car till he got what I believe was the ex Stan Tindal car that you made?

That was also a neat story that you wrote about the 300' pipe.

Regards,

Mike.

 

[mw6789]

Excellent read. I made my first NHRA national event in 1981--The CajunNationals in Baton Rouge. Best I remember, Snake, Beadle, Bernstein, and Billy Meyer had semis, as did Bob Glidden and I am pretty sure Frank Bradley. The rest, including soon to be world champ Jeb Allen, Reher Morrison, and all the other pro racers were using dually trucks and goose neck trailers. Could have counted on my fingers the sportsman racers (outside the alcohol classes) that had enclosed trailers. Have a photo of Etta Glidden rebuilding a Lenco as she visited with me. Used to go to Indy every year and I still remember the surprise I had in 1984 when I saw Garlits' dually and gooseneck trailer amongst the semis in the pro pits. I made the Winters in 85,86 and 87, and saw lots of cool stuff like Ace clearing the lights with just the front of his Olds body attached and engulfed in flames: Gary Ormsby blow the body off the Castrol streamliner: Darrell Gwynn win his first national event, and Garlits win his last. Maybe I am just getting old, but going to the NHRA national events just does not hold the same luster for me that it did in the 80's and 90's. I do love the 60 and 70 style nostalgia races, but the last decades of the 20th century were pretty cool too.

 

[vegasnitro]

I am also nostalgic for the 80s and early 90s. Kenny Bernstein's Batmobile, Eddie Hill's nuclear banana, Glidden's 7-11 TBird, WJ's Oldsmobiles, The Dodge Boys Daytonas which to my untrained eyes just never looked "right" and the Neons were even worse. Snake's Skoal Bandit flopper and later top fueler, Pat Austin doubling up, being terrified to ask for Al Hoffman's autograph even though I am a foot taller than him and later learning he was one cool dude.

With that being said, my Dad always regaled me with tales of front engined top fuelers, Jungle Jim and the Blue Max, Roland Leong's Hawaiian and the list goes on. So it is very cool to be able to go to the Patch and see reasonable facsimiles of those cars run.

 

[Buns]

I am also nostalgic for the 80s and early 90s. Kenny Bernstein's Batmobile, Eddie Hill's nuclear banana, Glidden's 7-11 TBird, WJ's Oldsmobiles, The Dodge Boys Daytonas which to my untrained eyes just never looked "right" and the Neons were even worse. Snake's Skoal Bandit flopper and later top fueler, Pat Austin doubling up, being terrified to ask for Al Hoffman's autograph even though I am a foot taller than him and later learning he was one cool dude.

With that being said, my Dad always regaled me with tales of front engined top fuelers, Jungle Jim and the Blue Max, Roland Leong's Hawaiian and the list goes on. So it is very cool to be able to go to the Patch and see reasonable facsimiles of those cars run.

Good post and it sounds like my Dad and yours are pretty similar in the way they tell old drag racing stories! It's fun to listen about a time that I wasn't even alive in, though.

 

[Toejam]

Wasn't it just 7-8 years ago that the Sport Compacts, Imports were so Popular they were going to take over the sport of Drag racing??? Talk about a Waterloo...