I recently spoke with a friend about the things I miss the most out of drag racing, and without any hesitation, my answer was Pro Stock. I know it exists today…but twenty years ago, Pro Stock was a whole different animal. You knew the cars…and there was a wide array of cars to know. You knew teams. You knew names. Wayne County. The Professor. Jerry Eckmann and Bob Glidden. Oldsmobile, Dodge, Ford, Chevrolet. Drivers had attitude issues at times, would get mouthy at times, would piss off the starting line crew when staging became a stare-down, and so on and so forth. The battles through the first half of the 1990s usually lay between these two gentlemen: Warren Johnson, who ran Oldsmobile Cutlasses, and Darrell Alderman, who ran Dodge products up until that “incident”. These were the heavy hitters, the ones to beat, and when they faced off, the crowds were on their feet, waiting with baited breath. This fooage is from the 1991 NHRA Arizona at Firebird Raceway (now: Wild Horse Pass Raceway) in Chandler, Arizona and both drivers are on kill. This was a close run, but to see how close, you’re going to have to watch the video for yourself!
