Those Were The Days....Pro Stock 1982 (1 Viewer)

Saw this on a trip through Northern NJ today.....on their mailbox at the scene of the horrible accident. So sad....

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1982....when men were men and Pro Stock went to 500 cubic inches

I was at Fremont for the Golden Gate Nationals and saw the 1st 180 mph and the 1st 7.6 et. Pretty amazing history to see. Great conditions and great track. Too bad its gone.
 
So who is the best all time driver in Pro Stock? Jenkins? Glidden? Shepherd? Or......
You will need 2 best....one for the era where there was less sponsor money, drivers worked on the car and had to shift with a clutch, and the modern era of hired drivers, clutch less transmissions and big money.
 
So who is the best all time driver in Pro Stock? Jenkins? Glidden? Shepherd? Or......
When it came to who best rowed a manual four speed transmission, Ronnie Sox was head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Until NHRA penalized the almighty Hemis, Sox was almost untouchable.
 
I agree with the "era" comment(s). I think that goes for all sports, really. I always cringe when I hear anybody talk about the "GOAT" in any sport. It just doesn't fly. So I always come back with that, while "GOAT" is the right word, it's spelled wrong. it should be "GOTE"; Greatest of Their Era.

It's always fun to discuss, though.

Sean D
 
I think you need to define the parameters. Best driver or best racer? For example Warren Johnson is not a "Great" driver and he will be the first one to tell you that. How many times has he said the only reason he drove was because when he started "Kurt was too young, Arlene didn't want to and the dog couldn't get a licence" But he is a hell of a racer! Many you have listed had a sizable performance advantage and didn't need to be a "Great" driver.
If the Erica Enders of today was driving the Warren Johnson car of the late 90s early 2000s and they would have won every race that the car didn't break.

Alan
 
I think you need to define the parameters. Best driver or best racer? For example Warren Johnson is not a "Great" driver and he will be the first one to tell you that. How many times has he said the only reason he drove was because when he started "Kurt was too young, Arlene didn't want to and the dog couldn't get a licence" But he is a hell of a racer! Many you have listed had a sizable performance advantage and didn't need to be a "Great" driver.
If the Erica Enders of today was driving the Warren Johnson car of the late 90s early 2000s and they would have won every race that the car didn't break.

Alan

Great points. There's a huge difference between driver and racer, for sure.

Today's shoes are generally rated by reaction time alone, but I would like to see some of the other stuff the ET slip doesn't show, that being standard deviation on things like shift points, total distance traveled on each pass (i.e. how straight the car was kept during the run), RPM on the burnout, etc. So many things go into making a great pass that the spectator doesn't get to see outside of reaction time.

Sean D
 
I'd rather watch that every weekend than what we have now.

I counted Camaros at the 1981 Winston World Finals, IIRC(the vid is on YouTube), and there was something like 13 Camaros, 2 Fords, and 1 other car. I'd have to check the vid again to be 100% sure but this is pretty much correct.

So it was all Camaros back then, too. But nobody complained about that. Wonder why?

 
I counted Camaros at the 1981 Winston World Finals, IIRC(the vid is on YouTube), and there was something like 13 Camaros, 2 Fords, and 1 other car. I'd have to check the vid again to be 100% sure but this is pretty much correct.

So it was all Camaros back then, too. But nobody complained about that. Wonder why?


Very simple....no leased engines and very few hired drivers.....and those drivers worked on the cars too. Grumpy's, Lee Shephard's and Frank Iaconio's Camaros were all different. Today's rules and business models have made every car practically identical.....like IROC Camaros. It took drag racing from who is the best builder/team to who is the best driver.
 
It didn't hurt that despite the overwhelming number of Camaros in the field, the Ford was still dominant, and even when he wasn't, he was still a player. Shepherd reeled off several championships in a row of his own, but Glidden was always in the hunt despite losing those championships.

Sean D
 
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