Well here’s a total gem to start your Thursday with. Here’s what the professional class final rounds looked like 25 years ago at the NHRA Winternationals. The names are familiar, the stories are awesome, and there’s a lot of compelling stuff to see here. From Jim Yates’ wife installing the transmission in their pro stock car to Jim Epler getting his first ever funny car win, to Mike Kloeber’s rockin’ hairdo, this video is awesome. Oh, there’s also Ashley, Courtney, and Brittany Force as little kids!
One of the best lines of the whole video is delivered by Steve Evans as he’s catching up with Toni Yates who’s in the midst of installing the transmission in Jim’s Pontiac pro stocker. He leads with, “What’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?” The pro stock final is fun to watch as the cars of the early 1990s were pretty freaking awesome in virtually every way.
The top fuel final is cool because you get to see something interesting between Jim Head and Kenny Bernstein. Remember, it would only be a scant few months before Bernstein and Dale Armstrong would make history at Gainesville with the sport’s first 300mph run.They were really hellbent on doing it and they are trying lots of stuff, including header angle apparently. Look at the flame pattern between Head’s car and Bernstein’s on the starting line during their run. VASTLY different.
Finally, the funny car final is a gem of a matchup between Jim Epler and John Force. Both of them had young daughters so the broadcast gave that angle some airtime with the Force and Epler girls getting some face time. The best quote came through Evans from John Force who told him that he and Coil were going to try and crush it every run because, “consistency is boring.”
The lead voice on this one is Joel Meyers who in 1992 when the race was going on had just gotten a gig with the Lakers. He lived in LA and was tapped by NBC to be their network guy. Evans and Don Garlits round out the broadcast team. Man, I love this stuff.
