This is one of the coolest vintage drag racing videos we’ve dug up so far in our years of trolling YouTube. It features never before seen footage of some legendary altered wheelbase Mopar products, many runs from the US Nationals circa 1966 and 1969, and it also includes what we believe to be the only video tape of John “The Zookeeper” Mulligan’s fatal fire at Indy.
All the big names are here. You’ll see the Tasca Ford Mustang, Garlits, The Ramchargers, et al. You get an awesome picture of what top fuel runs looked like near the end of the front engine dragster period and before slipper clutches became the order of the day. Watching the massive plume of smoke fly off the slicks of the slingshot dragsters brings a whole new element to the nitro fueled theater. Today’s smokeless runs seem tame in comparison.
The match between Pure Hell and The Winged Express is worth the price admission alone.
The tragic and truly jaw dropping part of the video comes in at about the six minute mark. It shows the final run of John “The Zookeeper” Mulligan, one of the sports fastest and most popular fuel pilots of the day. The film has been slowed down to show the ferocity of the fire that caused Mulligan to perish a week later in an Indy hospital. Mulligan went out on top, literally. Earlier in the meet he had run more than two tenths of a second quicker than any man had ever gone before. His death marked a turning point in the history of the sport. The carefree days of 1960s drag racing passed away with Mulligan.
Here’s the video!
