If you saw the father race back in the day, then you have an idea of why the son is regarded in such high esteem.

If you saw the look of frustration on the opponent’s faces of those who
raced and lost to the second-generation racer, then you’d get a pretty
good idea of what legends Ronnie Sox, Dyno Don Nicholson, Frank Iaconio
and Lee Shepherd experienced.

Watching Billy Glidden work tirelessly and race his way to the winner’s
circle time and time again on a modest (and we’re being generous here)
budget essentially brands him a chip off the old block.

“I learned my effort and work ethic from Dad,” Glidden confirmed. “I’d
like to believe that I’m not as impatient as he is, or was anyway. I’m
a whole lot more patient than he is, he paces and everything. It’s
funny now because I’m grown up and all but he’s still got that kick and
he still wants to do good at everything he does. He gets frustrated
when he plays bad at golf; he gets frustrated when something isn’t
going right at home. I would believe that I certainly had that seed
planted in me because of my dad.”

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The Pro Comp concept had all the makings of a great concept on paper,
but in reality the classification is one that became antiquated the
moment the 1974 season began.

Pro Comp was a star destined to shine, a bridge covering the colossal
gap which existed between sportsman racing and the nitro-burning
division.

The semi-professional division was actually a salve to ease the sting
of losing Top Gas eliminator earlier in the season while elevating many
of the “overqualified” Comp eliminator entries.

Pro Comp featured a mix of the “everything to everybody” nature of
sportsman drag racing with the cutthroat nature of professional
racing’s heads up pro-tree format. Maybe cutthroat didn’t describe the
nature of its followers, but it described the level of competition to a
tee.

Tony Pedregon knew the moment he opened his mouth that criticism would follow. He didn’t care.

This beacon for Hispanic pride in drag racing provided a “shout out”
for his brown skinned brothers in observance of Hispanic Heritage month
September 2007 during the NHRA Fallnationals in Dallas, Tex.

The two-time NHRA Funny Car champion readily admits that many didn’t
understand why he did what he did. Subsequently message boards lit up
with the suggestion if a Caucasian driver did the same – they’d be
branded racist.

Still Pedregon never relented from his firm stance that he was just honoring his Latino heritage, nothing more and nothing less.

He had the perfect platform to do such a thing.

Pedregon, the younger of two brothers in competition, said the growing
diverse nature of the NHRA’s POWERade Drag Racing Series has traveled
in areas other American-based motorsports arenas could hope for.

Bob Vandergriff Jr. is as much a drag racing purist as the next driver
or drag racing fan, but that has no bearing on his desire 

to return
nitro racing to the traditional quarter-mile race course.

Racing to the thousand foot mark, in his opinion, is hurting the sport.
He’s read the articles and watched the interviews on television and
it’s become evident to him that those who this affects the most are off
course.

“I think we have lost sight of why we went to 1,000 feet,” Vandergriff
said. “The biggest gripe I have with people praising 1,000 feet is
hearing people talk about we are saving money and the downside to that
is that was never the intention for going to 1,000 feet. We didn’t
worry about how much money we were spending before. It makes me sick to
my stomach when
I hear someone talking about how much money we are saving by racing to 1,000 feet.

CompetitionPlus.com attended all eight Flowmaster ADRL Drag Racing
Series presented by the National Guard. We brought you the inside and
outside of every event from March
until the Battle of the Belts in October. We brought you the chills,
the spills, the inside
stories and the round-by-round happenings behind the numbers.

In the recent Presidential elections, one man was thrust into the
limelight as the embodiment of the American middle class working man,
dedicated and hard-working business owner, tax-payer, and family man –
“Joe the plumber.” And regardless of the election’s results, Joe’s
brief fifteen seconds of fame changed a lot of perceptions and grounded
political idealism in day-to-day reality because people could relate to
him. In drag racing, one man has come to represent the hard-working,
dedicated, competitive drag racer, but his rise to the top is much more
than a flash-in-the-pan claim to stardom. It's more a series of years
and years of five-second runs that put bootstrapping Terry Haddock on
the top as the last man standing in IHRA nitro Funny Car.

Terry is the consummate drag racer. He makes the tuning decisions on
the car, drives the transporter, and can even be seen putting together
sandwiches for his all-volunteer crew. Affable and happy, he can be
found at the track with grease under his nails and a clutch-dust tan.
He’s not polished and quaffed, but is a sponsor’s dream because he
understands what it takes to be successful and connects with fans and
weekend racers. The journeyman from Jersey, transplanted to Seattle, is
driven by his competitive spirit and a desire to give back whenever he
can.

CompetitionPlus.com attended 24 out of 24 NHRA POWERade
Championship Drag Racing events. Logging nearly 10,000 words per event,
we brought you the inside and outside of every event from February
until November. We brought you the chills, the spills, the inside
stories and the truths behind the numbers. For the next few days we
will recap the exciting 2008 championship tour in two parts. Part 2 recaps the final two phases of the championship countdown.

CompetitionPlus.com attended 24 out of 24 NHRA POWERade Championship Drag Racing events. Logging nearly 10,000 words per event, we brought you the inside and outside of every event from February until November. We brought you the chills, the spills, the inside stories and the truths behind the numbers. For the next few days we will recap the exciting 2008 championship tour in two parts. Part 1 will recap the first 17 events up until the Countdown to One began.

The cover blurb on the October 22, 1981 issue of National DRAGSTER said it all.

1982 Rules: Pro Stock Revamped.

The NHRA decided they’d had their fill of the pounds-per-cubic-inch format which had defined the Pro Stock division since its inception in 1970.

The continual factoring of the leading Chevrolet and Ford combinations had proven aggravating at best, and controversial to say the least.

The Pro Stock division would now be based on a universal 500 cubic inch limit with a weight of 2,350 pounds.