Nitromater

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Pro Stock When It Was Fun

Love the wheels-up launches of the 80's-90's PS cars.

Also remember during the 80's they used to parade the pro stockers down the track before final eliminations. When did they stop doing that?
 
They stopped doing that about the same time they stopped driving them back to the pit area under power.

Anyone remember the time WJ lost, was pi$$ed as hell about it, and about halfway through the winner's interview, he jumped back into his car, fired it up, and rapped it off a couple of times before leaving??
 
Anyone remember the time WJ lost, was pi$$ed as hell about it, and about halfway through the winner's interview, he jumped back into his car, fired it up, and rapped it off a couple of times before leaving??
Well, not that one but still a WJ classic.
WJ vs Scott , WJ vs Buster , then WJ vs Steve Evans
 
They stopped doing that about the same time they stopped driving them back to the pit area under power.

Anyone remember the time WJ lost, was pi$$ed as hell about it, and about halfway through the winner's interview, he jumped back into his car, fired it up, and rapped it off a couple of times before leaving??

Not sure if this is the one you're thinking of because he didn't rev it up. However he did take over the putting the parachute away duties before going back to the pits. Maybe WJ was just showing off the reason they call em Door Slammers? :p

Skip to 35:55
 
I remember going to Pomona in this time frame and it usually took an hour just to run 1 session of Pro Stock qualifying there were so many cars on property.
Indy was like that through the 70s and 80s..... Seemed like 50 cars (probably not) trying to qualify, but it was everybody who was anybody - and a whole lot more!
 
Talking about remembering when Pro Stock was fun made me realize that watching it today is just not fun anymore.

It used to be very exciting and had large fields with many drivers who had colorful back grounds but all that ended for me.

Jim Hill
www.nostalgicracingdecals.com
 
What happen to the wheel standing that was promised for this year ? apparently they (NHRA) decided shortening the wheelie bars would induce wheels up start but didn't bother testing the theory! whoever is making the rules on the 2016 pro stock class is really missing the ball !!
 
What happen to the wheel standing that was promised for this year ? apparently they (NHRA) decided shortening the wheelie bars would induce wheels up start but didn't bother testing the theory! whoever is making the rules on the 2016 pro stock class is really missing the ball !!

That rule was ignorant from jump street. Should've went with a spec height instead of length, if that was their objective.

Sean D
 
I really don't understand the obsession with wheels up launches in Pro Stock. Watching some of these old videos from back in the late 70's to early 80's shows the cars weren't getting much more than 6 inches off the ground. People aren't piling into the stands to watch bumper dragging Super Stocks. Heck they don't even hang around to watch Pro Mod. I think Pro Stock lost it's way when they started using the FWD to RWD conversion with cars like Beretta's, Probe's, Cutlass', and Daytona's. I can't remember a whole lot of people wanting to see a Ford Probe race an Oldsmobile Cutlass, but they did want to see Bob Glidden race Warren Johnson. Add in the growing interest by the brands to go with Fuel Injection and the great divide kinda has it's roots. Some started loosing interest in big block carbureted V8's stuffed into mid-sized FWD replicas, and the brands weren't interested in further developing carbs anymore. The class still had a lot of momentum from diehard fans with the legendary names; so it held value with sponsors in terms of ROI. I still feel NHRA has done more harm than good to Pro Stock in the past 15-20 years. Most of it was they quit promoting it. Instead they jumped on the John Force runaway freight train with both feet. On top of his on track success Force has proven to be a great salesman and legendary persona for NHRA. But at the same time Glendora could've at least made an effort to remind people there was more to NHRA Drag Racing than the travelling John Force Road Show. In 4 years Pro Stock will be celebrating it's 50th Anniversary, if it's even around by 2020. It'll be interesting to see if NHRA puts as much effort into recognizing the drivers and cars like they're doing this year with the 50th Anniversary of Funny Cars.

Pro Stock is drawing great ire from a few journalists as well as many fans. I don't recall anyone calling for an end of the class when Bob Glidden was dominating, or when Reher Morrison Shepherd won their 4 consecutive Championships. Would folks be calling for an end to the class if Erica and Jeggie were winning like Jason and Greg are? Maybe, but I'm guessing it wouldn't be as loud. This season looks bad in a number of ways. First of which they haven't even completed a full year with Fuel Injection. Most teams have only had about 8 months with it. A far cry from 46 years of carburetors. Another factor is Elite Motorsports made a huge switch from Chevrolet to Dodge. That takes time to work out on top of going to F.I. Car counts are low, but in all honesty they've been trending downwards for the past few years. Even Top Fuel and Funny Car are seeing short fields. The cars have evolved to a form of likeness. Which makes it difficult to find appealing. Maybe once the class has regained some solid footing they can start to bring dimensions back in step with the production line models. Pro Stock has turned into a wealthy mans hobby. Very few real sponsors actually remain in NHRA let alone Pro Stock. All the legendary names that fans around my age grew up on have left for one reason or another. How do you fix that? Unless you've got millions to burn it's unlikely we'll see names like Glidden and Johnson return anytime soon. Warren and Kurt Johnson are still involved building engines as does Reher Morrison, and Frank Iaconio. There's Bill Glidden racing in Pro Mod, but outside of that nobody else remains active. Do you sit back and blame teams like KB Racing for finding the "unfair advantage"? I don't understand why anyone would do that. It's not like Greg or Jason did anything that Glidden, Johnson, Iaconio, RMS, or any other major player in the Pro Stock game would've done.
 
What happen to the wheel standing that was promised for this year ? apparently they (NHRA) decided shortening the wheelie bars would induce wheels up start but didn't bother testing the theory! whoever is making the rules on the 2016 pro stock class is really missing the ball !!

Crew chiefs will never let that happen, wastes ET. They'll just find a way to spin the tires harder and keep the nose down.
 
Ronnie Sox once told me "If you're going up, you aren't moving forward and forward is where the finish line is"
 
You could take the wheelie bars off, they will just spend another gazillion dollars on those 4 links, rear-end angles/offsets, materials, 15K shocks, etc to make them go straight at the hit. The result would be Pro Stockers blowing the tires off at the hit from time to time like fuel cars do, but they would never go wheels up.
 
the perfect run still plants the rear end, carries the front end, and sets it down gently.....soon the late model stockers and super stockers will do the same........personally, i enjoy watching cars with front end in air shifting from 1 to 2
 
the perfect run still plants the rear end, carries the front end, and sets it down gently.....soon the late model stockers and super stockers will do the same........personally, i enjoy watching cars with front end in air shifting from 1 to 2
Yeah, Modified Producteion
 

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