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Silver
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Before gold and commercialism, there was the 25 th anniversary…
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By Bobby Bennett, Jr., Photos courtesy of the NHRA, Dave Wallace |
I will never claim to have been your average twelve year old. That was when I first got into drag racing and the first premier drag race that I was exposed to was the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis . In fact, Indy was the first national event that I saw on television following that fateful first visit to my local track. I had no idea who Rob Bruins or Kelly Brown were, nor did I have a clue as to what place in the sport that Gordie Bonin or Kosty Ivanoff held. I had remotely heard of Bob Glidden, but that was only because I saw his name on the cover of magazines. However, in the days following the broadcast of that show I would soon get my education in Drag Racing 101. Just to think, I found the show on television by chance. It's incredible as to how life has a destiny for all of us sometimes.
I can remember well when I “borrowed” the copy of Hot Rod magazine that had just come in at the school library on the following Wednesday. It was the November issue and writer Dave Wallace chronicled the action of that 25 th anniversary running of the U.S. Nationals. I must have thumbed through that issue a million times, just trying to grasp every ounce of knowledge that I could draw from it. I knew the winners so very well, ranging from Brown in Top Fuel to Bobby Blankenship's stick-shifted B/Stock '65 Chevy. I didn't quite understand the significance of “Big Daddy” Don Garlits making the run in the original Swamp Rat, but I would learn to appreciate such a feat. As a kid, many of the kids I ran around with at the old Spartanburg Dragway dreamed of racing a car at Indy, but not me. I wanted to travel there and write about it. I wanted to be just like that dude Wallace that wrote the article in Hot Rod. As much as I tried to convey that dream to my dad, he just couldn't understand it. To him, paying $5 to get in the drag races was way too much money. Even though I was on the verge of being a teenager and pretending to be something was not the cool thing to do, in the secrecy of my bedroom I created my own “make-believe” magazine and the one race that I chronicled was that silver anniversary edition of Indy. I may not have been there physically in 1979, but I'm still there twenty-four years later in spirit. 
The funny thing about it all is that that Wallace fella became my mentor, and I now get paid to go to Indy. Just to think, it all started with a little of that Indy magic. There was a lot to be excited about regarding the 25 th anniversary U.S. Nationals. There was no event sponsor and in those days, not even series sponsor Winston was worthy of sharing that by-line. The NHRA was a lot less commercially desperate. They started their build-up at the beginning of the season and by the time the tour rolled into Clermont , IN. , everyone was ready to snag a bit of history. It was evident that this was the race to run as 60 Top Fuelers showed for a 32-car field. One has to wonder if there are even 60 conventional Top Fuelers in existence some twenty-five years later. Virtually every class from Top Fuel down to Comp Eliminator produced the quickest-ever fields of the era.
Both ends of the Funny Car World Record fell during the weekend courtesy of Don Prudhomme and eventual winner Gordie Bonin. There was a bit of nostalgia as Art Chrisman brought out his legendary #25 entry and “Big” Daddy Don Garlits also reminded the crowd how he used to do it with his Swamp Rat 1 digger. Of course, all of this would be remiss, if officials had not re-enacted the ribbon-cutting ceremony of 1955. Awards were commonplace for those officials that had worked the 24 events prior and to Al Brown, the one driver who had competed in all events. Each past champion gained his due recognition in a special parade.
Unfortunately, the weekend was marred by tragedy. The one sticking point of the event was the two deaths that transpired over the course of the weekend. One was that of Top Fuel Bike rider Ernie Rife in a top-end crash and the other was Joe Rooks, a cameraman who was killed from debris created from one of two Top Fuel crashes.
Having a 32-car Top Fuel field and as many entries on the grounds as there were really raised the bar. After all, this was Top Fuel at Indy and in those days a victory there ranked as high as winning the NASCAR Daytona 500. That's why 27 of the 32 cars were in the five-second zone. Two cars even crashed trying to make the show. Just how determined were some drivers to win this race? Case in point, to win the event Brown wasted two engines (unheard of in those days) and borrowed a third from a Funny Car team, which was also torched in beating Johnny Abbot in the final round. Funny Car also brought out the best of the day as Bonin had to stop Billy Meyer, Tom Hoover and Tom McEwen before stopping a surprising Kosty Ivanoff in the final round.
Ivanoff's presence in the show used a bit of the magic of Indy as he used a career best just to make the cut. He had upset such notables as Tripp Shumake, Raymond Beadle and Ron Colson to reach his first final since 1974. Just as the clock struck midnight for Cinderella, so did it for Ivanoff, who was shut off for an oil leak on the starting line.
Then there was the Pro Stock division, which had been under the stranglehold of Bob Glidden, IRP's favorite son. Glidden had won five of seven events headed into Indy. As fate would have it, Glidden stopped a red-lighting Larry Lombardo behind the wheel of the Bill Jenkins entry in the final round for a battle of nostalgic proportions. Of course the 25 th was everything that it was hyped to be. It was a different generation than today's far more advanced 50 th , but it set the stage for the NHRA to remember a bit of its past. It also left the writing on the wall that the days of the independent professional racer were seriously limited. But, the future didn't matter…this was Indy and it turned 25 years old that weekend. You know…25…the age when one's automobile insurance usually gets cheap. 25 th anniversary U.S. Nationals Champions Kelly Brown (Top Fuel) Gordie Bonin (Funny Car) Bob Glidden (Pro Stock) Roy Thacker (Fuel Bike) Terry Vance (Pro Bike) Billy Williams (Pro Comp) Bobby Cross (Comp) Don Coonce (Modified) Don Wolff (Super Stock) Bobby Blankenship (Stock)
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