Apologies to anyone who has been thinking that the summer has been speeding by. See, I have been looking forward to late August and early September like nobody’s business. Why? Three of my favorite events of the year are stacked up on each other. First there’s the NMCA race in Norwalk. Second there is the NHRA US Nationals in Indy. Third there is Drag Week. There’s a significance to all of those events and being able to lend my voice to them is flipping awesome. Guys who felt the same way include the people who star in the video below, Steve Evans and Dave McClelland.
These three final rounds, pro stock, funny car, and top fuel are all awesome for their own reasons. Glidden was in the midst of titanic domination of the class. As you will hear Dave Mac say, the man had appeared in 11 straight final rounds! His Fairmont, with the front tires half swallowed by the wheel well is one of our favorite pro stockers ever. In funny car it was Prudhomme and McEwen. A week before the race McEwen’s son had passed away from Lukemia and he was facing his lifelong rival in the other lane. It was an unlikely final and McClelland announces it with a flair only he had. Lastly there was top fuel. The interview that Evans does with Rob Bruins is classic, especially when you reference it against the way that the teams operate today. Just listen to him talk about pistons! Garlits is his normal intense self and the whole thing is just fantastic.
Indy is just a week away and every year the ghosts of these old finals come back to the surface and make themselves known. We talk about them all the time but to see them as they actually were in 1978 is something special. McClelland remains a gold standard to live up to and Evans just works the pits with a smoothness no one else has ever had.
Hop in the nitro powered time machine and relive the exciting conclusion to the 1978 NHRA US Nationals!
Wow, the headline was buried here. This. Was. The. Race. Snake v Mongoose right after his child died of Leukemia….