Well this video certainly touches ALL the right bases, huh? For starters we have Bob Glidden taking on Lee Shepherd which was a common sight not only in 1979 but in the years follow up until Shepherd was killed in a testing accident. These two guys threw haymakers at each other at strips all over the country. We see Glidden in his Plymouth Arrow pro stocker here and of course Shepherd is driving the Rehr and Morrison Camaro. As you’ll hear, Glidden has been a wrecking machine. Dave Mac tells us that this is Glidden’s ninth straight final round win, and his 16th straight final round appearance, but maybe better than the race itself is the top end interview with Steve Evans.
Glidden had bee kicking everyone’s ass so hard that the NHRA added weight to his car and not too long after they did that, Glidden began mulling over the option of going back to his Ford race car because the Plymouth was looking like it would be troublesome long term having already been weight factored once. He knew that if he kept up winning, that car would probably laden with so much ballast it wouldn’t be competitive. Unlike say, Warren Johnson who has publicly lashed out at NHRA on any number of occasions over the years, Glidden chews his tongue pretty hard rather than to say anything provocative to Evans’ line of questioning. You can almost see him working extra hard not to take a shot at rules makers for adding weight to his car, but he doesn’t. His description of his relationship with his wife Etta is fantastic and speaks to the reason that they were able to hang together and raise a family while spending the better part of their lives trucking around the country for pro stock accolades.
The car sounds great, the cars look great, and most importantly they LOOK LIKE FACTORY CARS. We want these days of pro stock back even though we know that they aren’t coming any time soon. We’s gladly hand back elapsed time records for cooler looking cars that stuck to the ethos of the class which came to life about a decade before this video was made. This is like drag racing zen. All the right pieces in place and all the right players involved!
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE GLIDDEN AND SHEPHERD LOCK HORNS IN THE FINAL ROUND AT THE ’79 CAJUN NATIONALS!
Ohhh yeahhh baby, Glidden FTW….carrying a parachute to boot!
I´m a long time fan of Lee Shepherd and it was dreadful reading about his demise.
I´m pretty sure had he not died Bob Glidden would not have ridden that winning wave so long and so far.
Two excellent racers and I too miss those Pro Stock days which I could only watch on Diamond P tapes.
Man — I remember these years — Being a big Ford fan, Glidden was the man, and after a pissing contest with Ford, he said he could win with any maker and immediately was scooped up by MoPar….. I was at OCIR with my Blown Motorcycle right before the March meet and the Winter Nationals, when Glidden pulls up a parks right next to me with that brand new never ran Arrow,,, all by himself — — We start BSing, and he’s helping me and I’m helping him. He’s cutting sheet metal off so he can get to stuff and beating on that to make it work better,,, sticking in the R-12 coil in the gas tank to cool it down, stuff that so wrong now LOL,, So he goes out and makes a pass , and immediately comes back and announces that the car is a slug LMAO — The MPH was near where he wanted, but the ET was slow,,,,,, He gets under the car and is banging away for over 30 minutes, lowers the car, and goes out a makes another pass — and with just those chassis changes, never even pulling off the hood, drops over .6 tenths and goes from a slug to .2 tenths under the prostock record — Boy, Now he was happy —
and that started, I believe, was his undefeated year ……
I was there. My home track. Still there too.
Why did´nt this get posted in the BangShift Blog on the Forum ?
Steve Evans and Diamond P –> awesome!!
Outstanding stuff…… My first shop was in the same complex as Rehr / Morrision, that was when they were racing a Maverick with a Chevy motor in it IIRC….Would have been in 73 or 74.
Reher and Morrison were my heroes and had my respect UNTIL they started doing business with allah’s boys.
Good stuff, great guys and cars. The modern cars are uninspiring to say the least. Bloated.
Drag racing at its best.I can still hear Steve Evans over the P.A. at OCIR in my head.
Talked clevelands whenever we saw him in Seattle .Glidden was always willing to give advice and tips , great guy .
8.59 ET…. most super comp cars run far faster without their throttle stops… but that few seconds of video is FAR more entertaining than today’s NHRA Pro Stocks. Go watch an IHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock race anywhere this summer…. I defy you not to be entertained.