All of the pictures on this page were taken by Roger Phillips,
I am very grateful to him for the opportunity of reproducing them here.
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(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO SEE A LARGER VERSION) |
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TOP GAS Well we’ve had Top Fuel and we’ve had Funny Car, what next Pro Stock? Wrong! Up until the end of 1971 every NHRA race placed Top Gas before Funny Car and Pro Stock. Don’t forget the new professional doorslammer class was merely two years old while Top Gas had a history going back to 1963. We’re talking real history here; we’re talking flag starts, fuelers in the 8’s. We’re talking Chris Karamesines when he was in short pants. We’re talking pre-carbon dating. . . . (okay I’m exaggerating on the last two) |
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If Hollywood was writing Top Gas’ swansong their script writers were on strike in November 1971. Sure the screenplay had a villain but it was no story book ending for Bob Muravez, the class’ original winner who had reunited with John Peters to drive the Freight Train one last time. The sentimental favourites failed to qualify. Despite the end of the class evidently Top Gas was still popular, with plenty of entries as these DNQ’s testify. |
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PRO STOCK |
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With competition intense and ET’s so tight, protests, checks and counter-checks had become endemic in the class and the Supernats was no exception. |
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Mike Fons, crowned World Champion on account of his win at Dallas, was #2 qualifier and went as far as the quarter finals before making a mess of staging against Reid Whisnant and throwing away the race. #3 qualifier (9.60) Dyno Don Nicholson in his 427 SOHC Maverick beat Dave Wren in round one 9.68/142 to a 9.99. And Herb McCandless driving John Millwee’s new Sox & Martin built Barracuda impressed everyone with its maiden outing. |
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As Dyno Don had run quicker than Ronnie Sox in the first two rounds there were high hopes for Ford fans that their man might just usurp The Boss from Burlington in the quarter finals. It was not to be. Sox pulled a 9.56 out the bag to ace Nicholson’s 9.62. |
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But all this is preamble for the semi-final duel between Sox and Butch Leal. This was the race every journalist wrote about in their Supernationals reports. The late and greatly missed Chris Martin - the Lester Bangs of drag racing journalism - even wrote a whole article (on Drag Racing Online) on this single event and headlined it ‘Races We Wish We’d Seen’ . . . and when the self-confessed nitro-head devoted 1000 words to a semi-final heat in some long forgotten Pro Stock race you know this story deserves re-telling. Compared to that drama the final between Sox and McCandless was a walk in the park . . . at least for Sox, he won 9.61/143 to a losing 9.64/142. |
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But even as Ronnie Sox signed autographs in the winners' circle the protests weren’t over. Another objection was lodged claiming that the wheelbase on both finalists was too long. A quick once-over evidently wasn’t good enough as it took till Monday afternoon for NHRA to measure, compute and check everything with the rule book and factory specifications before Sox was officially declared the winner. COMPETITION It is a relief to be able to move onto Competition. |
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MODIFIED Modified was a further eclectic mix with 1920s roadsters, 1940s Anglias, 1950s Vettes, '60s VW’s and '70s muscle cars battling it out in another handicap eliminator . |
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SUPER STOCK |
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We know there is a dedicated bunch of AMX fans out there so here’s a photo for them of Jim Johnson pulling the wheels up against Judy Lilly. Johnson’s ’69 AMX was owned by Dick Steele who ran an AMC dealership in Reseda, CA. Lilly was one of at least three ladies racing at the 1971 Supernationals (Judi Boertman and Shirley Shahan being the other known two) showing that drag racing had good credentials when it came to female competitors. A regular racer - and champion - in Division 5’s Super Stock, Lilly didn’t get past the semi’s but would go all the way three months later when she won the ’72 Winternationals. Lilly’s nemesis at Ontario was Ron Mancini in the Gratiot Auto Supply ’68 Dart who beat Jim Clark in an all SS/A – no break out – final. STOCK |
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Wife and husband, Judi and Dave Boertman were part of the Rod Shop team, a concept devised by Rod Shop owners Gil Kirk and Jim Thompson based in Columbus, Ohio with backing from Chrysler’s Dodge. The team fielded cars in each of the doorslammer classes, from Mike Fons in Pro Stock through to the Boertmans in Stock. With the snazzy corporate paint design unveiled at the Gatornationals, the team got off to a great start in ‘71. Dave Boertman had won Stock at Pomona and Gainesville, Bob Riffle won Indy in Modified, Mike Fons was NHRA Pro Stock World Champion and it was an all Rod Shop and all Boertman final at the Summernationals with Judi the victor. But Judi and Dave went out in the semis at Ontario, both beaten by another team under the tutelage of engine builder Paul Dilcher. The all Chevy final - Paul Dilcher in a ’55 and Val Hedworth in a ’56 station wagon - was ended on the startline when Hedworth redlit. And so we have reached the end of the racing from the 1971 Supernationals. As already mentioned the next Supernationals was a very different affair, not least because Ontario tried an all-Pro show with only TF, FC, PS and field of Top Fuel bikes (‘Pro Bike’) invited. But the biggest news in ’72 was of course the running of drag racing first ever five. The Top Fuelers made huge strides in ’72 with ET’s down in the 6.10’s as soon as the year started (Wiebe, Prudhomme, Clayton Harris and Garlits) and down to the six-zeroes at Indy (Jerry Ruth), but it required the track at OMS to crack that magical barrier. For better or for worse, the track prep at Ontario in ’72 was the secret ingredient needed for all the horsepower fuelers were now making to be used in full effect. From that date on all tracks would have to be washed, swept and glued if they wanted the best performance out of the racers. |
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All material on this site is copyright |
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(First posted on 20 November 2011) |
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