There was a time when the only drag racing that was shown on television came in the form of coverage from ABC’s Wide World of Sports. Keith Jackson was on the call and with the resources of the network behind the production, it was pretty awesome stuff, albeit infrequent. Keith Jackson is my personal favorite sports announcer of all time (not dedicated racing announcer, that is another class entirely). Of all the old footage I have seen, Jackson seems to acquit himself nicely when doing drag race coverage. He was at Indy for several years with Wide World of Sports and he has always sounded informed, engaged, and exited to be calling the action. Jackson’s best known as a college football announcer and NFL guy but he was also a solid racing guy on TV as well.
This video takes clips from the 1970, 71, and 1972 seasons. It is truly bad ass with all the cool drivers and cars from the era that has long been thought of as the golden age of the sport. There are historic clips like the grisly Jim Nicoll wreck at Indy that famously had Prudhomme considering bailing on the drags altogether, early pro stock final rounds. Hemi cars versus big block Chevys, fans on their feet, the stuff of legend right here.
Our favorite part? Garlits in his “new” rear engine car at the end of the video. Watch it heave, bounce, and jiggle at idle. The car looks like it was made of spaghetti or something.
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As a little kid in the late 60s early 70s the world got put on hold when Drag Racing was put on TV. Glued to the TV
Today at almost 60 I still race a vintage 4 speed car.