In my quest to unearth all of the old NHRA World Finals videos that I can, I have found the 1982 final rounds which is cool because it gives us a peek at the race as it finished 35 years ago at Orange County International Raceway in Irvine, California. The three finals of Pro Stock, Funny Car, and Top Fuel, are shown in their own videos and all three are cool in their own right. The pro stock finals for who is racing, the top fuel final for the relative unknown winning, and the funny car finals for the action and post race…well, you’ll see.
Younger drag racing fans may not remember the fact that the NHRA finals had a bit of a wandering lifestyle before settling down in Pomona as it has been for decades now. The race was run in Oklahoma and multiple different tracks in California before Pomona became its “permanent” home.
OCIR was a bad ass track for its day and like so many others has fallen to Southern California sprawl and the wrecking ball over the years. The track situation is tenuous here in southern California which is a shame because it is the place that served as the crucible and incubator for the sport that eventually blew up across the country and grew like wildfire. While OCIR may be gone, it is still pretty fun to relive some of its finer moments in videos like this.
Where were you in ’82? The finals were rocking.
Luv seeing Jim “Barney” Barnard with his Cocaine Fueled car win.! (Google it).