Thunder Valley Dragway in Marion, South Dakota is one hard hookin’ strip. How do we know? Because in the video below you are going to ride on the rear quarter panel of a screaming yellow Pinto that dead hooks and carries a freaking Picasso-picture perfect wheelstand like 350ft or so. This is an amazing thing of beauty because there’s no drama, no hard landing, no weirdness, just a near ballet type of perfection where the car launches and carries the front end in an arch that seems to have been drawn with a protractor. Outside of the wheelie, we get to see the whole run and the Pinto is a damned fast car.

Having witnessed innumerable wheelies this summer at strips far and wide across this great land, I’d still pay admission to sit and watch this launch. What you will notice about the wheelie is that it totally lacks violence. The rise is nice and gentle. When the car gets to “cruising altitude” it stays there, traveling dead nuts straight down the lane and when it comes down it is not with a crash but it is with about as gentle a touchdown as could be expected at more than 100mph. The driver then legs the car right out the back door, motor screaming its guts out the whole way.

The position of the GoPro is perfect on the rear quarter and unlike many wheelie videos that fail to convey the height and speed of the car being featured, this one delivers in spades.  I have unashamedly watched this like 10 times and I am heading back for another one now. In terms of stuff you’ll see on a drag strip, there are few cooler than the perfectly executed, comically long wheelie. Event the bloody Russian judge would score this one a 10.

Thanks for the tip BigDad!

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE COMPLETE WHEELIE PERFECTION FROM START TO FINISH!