T/F turns 900 Phil Burgess article (1 Viewer)

[Cliff]

Top Fuel turns 900

This weekend’s Dodge NHRA Nationals Presented By Pennzoil at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will mark the 900th NHRA national event to include the Top Fuel class, dating back to the 1963 Winternationals. Here's a look back at the heroes and stats of the class.

www.nhra.com

 

[JON]

Cheers. An interesting read.

Comparing images of Swamp Rats V and XXX which won the Winters in '63 and '87 really highlights the progress made in that era and the innovative role that Don Garlits played.

That wing looks funny to us now but it was 3-4 years ahead of Formula 1 putting wings on their cars.

 

[vegasnitro]

That list of all 108 Top Fuel winners is an incredible collection of "oh yeah ... that guy".

 

[Cliff]

In 1948, there was what is considered the first "legal" drag race. Goleta, Calif and it was run on a public road blocked off by the police. The winner, and first Top Eliminator was Fran Hernandez, in a flathead powered Ford coupe, running on nitro. Not a big load, probably 20% max, but a nitro car was the first to win. Fran Hernandez later went to work for Mercury & was the one who was in charge of the first flip top funny car bodies, Mercury Comets, in the mid '60's. There were no dragsters in 1948, so maybe you could think of Hernandez' coupe as a "top fuel dragster" of the day. I don't know who was the first dragster to run nitro, but it was probably 1951 - 52. I sometimes wonder if Dick Kraft (The Bug - the first dragster) ran nitro in his 1951 car.