Well, I suppose you'd have to have been at
every National event since Labor Day, 1955 to know which was the best one of all.... so, since I don't know ANYBODY who's been to
all of them, I'll have to assume that this is a "my favorite national event of all-time is:" subject.
In order to qualify as the BEST EVER national event, there should be reasons listed. It's easy for me:
1962 Indy was and is, my favorite, for the following reasons:
1. There were 1,200 race cars entered!!! 1,200!!!! Amazing, to me...
2. No cookie cutter cars; there were no two Top Eliminator cars that looked very much alike at all...
3. The variety of race cars was endless; the race was won (Top Elim.) by a Pontiac with hemi heads! Not your NHRA "spec motor" of today...
4. There were NO handicapped runs; EVERYTHING was "heads-up", with NO breakouts. Pure, unadulterated, Drag Racing.
5. Flag starts were still the way races were begun, and some of those flagmen had turned it into an art. Christmas trees are barren, and incredibly uninteresting, by comparison.
6. NHRA provided a very organized, professionally-run race, and there was very little down-time, as you might imagine with 1,200 cars to run off.
7. There were NO engine "explosions" because there was no nitro (not even any alcohol,) so, no lengthy track cleanup periods, like we have today with only t-shirt launchers to entertain you. Pretty much continuous excitement.
8. No runs were aborted because somebody "went up in smoke." All good racing...
9. The "Class Runoffs" in the high-visibility "Supercharged Gas Coupe" classes were between famous racers such as "Ohio" George Montgomery, and Stone, Woods, and Cook, (and other AG/S luminaries of the day.) I got to meet my hero, Californian John Edwards (Pitman-Edwards, B/GS) who seemed to have taught Stone/Woods/Cook how to run a Blown Olds/hydro in a '41 Willys. And, taught them well... Not often you get to meet your hero... made my day!
10. I was there as a crewman on a B/Altered. Got to meet "Dyno Don", who was pitted next to us. Nice, self-effacing, very humble guy. R.I.P., Don...
11. Either Mickey Thompson or Hayden Proffitt (can't remember which) had STUFFED a 421 Super Duty Pontiac motor into a (compact) '62 Tempest coupe and was running A/FX with it, which was a "first step" on the long road to the Funny Cars that were to come, a few years later. That was pretty exciting!
12. Didn't see a single "drunk." No alcohol was tolerated on the grounds.
13. "Ingenuity in action," NHRA's slogan back then, was everywhere. For example, I saw a C Street Roadster (Jan Reidel; Tiffin, Ohio) powered by an inline six that had a one-off, aluminum billet Hemi cylinder head on a 300cid Ford six. Ran like a V8! That was the tip of the iceberg as far as weirdo mechanical innovation went, at that race.
14. Since there were only two national meets per year back then, EVERYBODY, who was anybody, showed up to race! There were a TON of California cars, even though the Fuel ban was still "on."
15. Back then, there were lots of year-long rivalries that got settled at the Nationals. (It wasn't the "U.S. Nationals," yet.... just "The Nationals.") I remember watching several nationally-known competitors who were vying to be the fastest in their class, finally getting to prove who was REALLY the fastest!
B/Dragster had been the playground for unblown, Hilborn-injected, small block Chevys, with "Cheatin' Chico Breschini" from California and "Marino Monjure" from N'Awlins, both having supporters who claimed that their guy had the fastest B/D's in the nation. But, it was the innovative team of Starkey/Jent from Ohio, who emerged as the Class Champion with a high-winding, supercharged, de-stroked 283 Chevy motor, a heretofore untried combination in the class. Back then the addition of a supercharger would move your car up one class.... The Starkey/Jent car was a C/Dragster with an added GMC blower, so, it became a "B" car. That rule didn't last much longer, after that deal....
I won't bore you further, except to say that going to the Nationals back then was a lot more exciting for me, than it is, now. There was not the Draconian rule book that nowadays prohibits the kind of variety and innovation that made racing so fresh and exciting, back then.
No red-lights, breakouts, throttle stops, indexes, auto-start, transbrakes nor timers for ANYTHING.... you had to actually DRIVE the CAR!
LOL!
Like I said; "drag racing." It doesn't get any better than that, for me.
As much as I
love the nitro cars, I can say truthfully, they weren't missed. Turnaway crowds seemed to agree... You couldn't stir the people with a stick!
Guess you had to have been there....
Bill, in Conway, Arkansas
