There will be many rookie debuts in the professional ranks of NHRA drag racing this year and it will be fun to watch people both young and old achieving the dream of running a pro level class. Sometimes this debuts are wild affairs with people achieving well above and beyond their expectations for a first start. Sometimes they happen and leave very little mark in the history books. Famously, Gary Beck won the first top fuel race he ever qualified for in 1972 and got a hall of fame career off and running.
It would be years before we saw something of that magnitude again, in fact it was nearly a decade by the time Craig Epperly did what you’re about to see below. Yes, the fresh faced 24-year old kid from California took them all down in his first start at the 1981 NHRA Spring Nationals held on the grounds of National Trail Raceway in Hebron, Ohio. This video rules.
We don’t have the total story on the race’s weather situation but judging by the murky skies earlier in the video and Dave McClelland thanking the Diamond P crew for getting all the cameras up and running again, we’re guessing that there was a significant rain delay in the program, pushing the finals into the night. It looks like they are drag racing into a broom closet!
We think you will dig this feel good underdog story and it sets the scene for some of the stuff we’ll see at Pomona as some professional NHRA debuts are made next weekend!
