In the annals of NHRA drag racing history, few races (if any) can match NHRA Phoenix ’92. It is referenced as an inside joke among lots of us on various race weekend and because so much crazy stuff happened and because it happened 25 years ago we dug up the live televised final rounds that aired on TNN back in the day.
Sunday was an amazing day because it was the first time that NHRA final round action was televised live on TV and the way it played out was wild. In top fuel Pat Austin and Doug Herbert were a rather unlikely pair. In funny car it got even more wild with Tom Hoover who had not won an event since 1979 facing down a young Richard Hartman who was just about out of parts, out of money, and was running on adrenaline and reflex alone. At one point Hartman tells Steve Evans that they were running two different cylinder heads on their car!
Pat Austin completed the most epic double up in NHRA history by winning top fuel and top alcohol funny car at the race. While about two dozen people have “doubled” in NHRA history, none of them did it in the style that Austin did and with those levels of cars, either.
Jerry Eckman and Don Beverly faced down in the pro stock finals with Eckman taking care of business as he had just a couple of weeks before at Pomona. This is great stuff from top to bottom and with this weekend’s weather and the early qualifying sessions we have had so far, Phoenix 2017 could be another one for the history books.
Press play below to see the dramatic finals from NHRA Phoenix ’92 –
Sundays on TNN was great. Here w/ actual 1/4 mile racing, pro-stocks w/scoops as they always had (not some awful baby bump mound) and probably the best announcing team ever for tv. Not to mention some independent teams in the mix here. They (NHRA) really needs to do something about bring the cost down for these classes, bring new compitition and i’d be quite alright if it was at the expense of speed and et records…..miss that extra 320′ too..
I bet there were several people back then complaining about the dragsters being rear engined, pro stocks not real cars, and not doing push starts.
that maybe valid Gump, before my time. guess my interest in the top 3 has soured, rather watch a broadcast of any other classes now, or old clips like this.
Yeah I\’d rather watch sportsman and pro mod eliminations on TV. In person, however, fuel cars still kill it.
Pro stock is horrid now.