I didn’t go looking for old racing footage for nostalgia’s sake this time. Between 1990 and 1992, when this footage from the NHRA US Nationals at Indy was captured, I was a young kid who had more pressing matters on my mind than drag racing: stuff like bringing cottonmouth snakes I found at recess back into the classroom and finding out that the state of Illinois still allowed paddling for certain offenses, for example.

What was I missing in the exuberance of my youth? I was missing class eliminations at the NHRA US Nationals, that’s what! This video is a great time capsule of the not incredibly distant pass as it features super stock class eliminations from the early 1990s, concentrating on the stick shift stuff, which is radical. Big block cars, small block cars, you name it we have it right here. Thunderbolts, AMXs, Camaros, and a bunch of others machines hammer the famed strip at Indy. If you are unfamiliar with the way that the super stock class works there can be two elements of it at an event. There’s class eliminations and the actual super stock eliminator.

Class eliminations at Indy are special because the fields are massive and you see lots of great heads up racing. See, in class eliminations all the cars from each class are gathered and run heads up with the last man or woman standing at the end being declared class champion. There are lots of racers who simply want to come and win class to prove their mechanical and tuning skills against the rest of the people in the country trying to run similar equipment.

When you press play below you’ll jump back in time about a quarter century and watch some of the coolest super stockers from then and now get after it in class elms. Lots of revs, dry hops, stick shift action!