It is one of the coolest drag racing tales of the last 50 years and we told you the whole story of “National Challenge ’72” the rogue drag race that Don Garlits dreamed up, Jim Tice funded, and Wally Parks lamented for decades. Staged on the same weekend as the US Nationals with richer purses, the race stole many of the biggest names in the sport away from NHRA for the weekend and the race forever changed the way the NHRA paid their racers. Wally never admitted it, but that was an important moment in drag racing history and helped set the direction of modern drag racing, for better or worse. Until now, we had never seen videotape of the event, only written accounts and stories from guys who raced there, worked the race, or attended the event. And then I found these videos.
While they have no sound, fans of drag racing history will look right past that. This is unfiltered greatness. These are amazing pieces of film that have never seen the light of day until now. They were from the personal collection of a man named Bob Phelps and the three 15 minute videos document tons of great action in pro stock, top fuel, funny car, and around the pits. The carnage footage is amazing and awesome. In the second video right around 7:00 a dragster blows up at the top end. There’s footage of rods and pistons hanging out of the block and then you see a guy juggling (literally) one of the destroyed pistons between his hands! In the third video you’ll see stuff like the photo at the right of a crank that is mangled with dead pistons and rods hanging off of it. These guys killed a lot of stuff back then.
These videos are the stuff we live for. They have like 100 views on them at the time of this posting. Truly an amazing find and we’re proud to be able to share it with you!
SCROLL DOWN AND WATCH ALL THREE VIDEOS — SURE THERE IS NO SOUND, BUT THE SIGHTS ARE AMAZING!
