Celebrating 60 years of drag racing
It doesn’t happen as often, but still some people will see a member of the media and ask, “Hey, where’s your hat that says ‘Press’ on it?”
Um, that was 1938.
Seven-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher of Park Ridge completely understands.
“Even when I tell my friends or I meet new people out to see a drag race, they picture a guy in a white T-Shirt with a pack of smokes rolled up in their shirt like James Dean,” he said.
Um, that was so 1950s.
But, in fairness, that’s actually kind of an accurate description of what the NHRA was like in the early days of its existence.
“A lot of people thought this sport would never amount to anything,” admitted “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, a pioneer in the Top Fuel class “that it was just a bunch of hoodlums in black leather jackets. But it took Wally Parks to organize it and put it all together and put that professional touch to it which is what has made it great today.”
And today and for the rest of the 2011 season, the NHRA and many of the big names that made it famous will be celebrating its 60th anniversary.
“A lot of people in the early days didn’t think it would fly, you know. It just wouldn’t happen; there was no money in the sport and we were all running junkyard parts,” said Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, who won six titles in his 32-year career. “To see where it’s at today is quite amazing, you know.”
It’s because of guys like “Big Daddy” and “The Snake” that the sport even entered the national consciousness. But it wasn’t easy.
In the early years, drivers such as Garlits and Prudhomme did all the work on their cars, including paint jobs. Eventually, though, they hit the big time.
“Yeah, I knew exactly when it was,” Garlits said. “I won that Winter Nationals in 1963. They put me on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine, and my phone was ringing off the hook for appearances. And I didn’t have to change the rod bearings in the 6-cylinder Chevy anymore or paint a car. I could actually tour and make a living, and that was the start.
“Then the following year in ‘64, I won the U.S. Nationals and that was the icing on the cake. I never had to do a regular job again. I was a professional touring drag racer.”
For Prudhomme, it was a sponsorship deal with Hot Wheels that changed everything.
“I knew I could set the spray can down or spray gun down and wouldn’t have to paint cars anymore, and I could make a professional living out of the sport of NHRA (thanks to) Hot Wheels and everything it brought me,” he said.
These days sponsorships are more lucrative, the cars are much safer, and the crowds are bigger and in bigger stadia.
“I think the racing is terrific now,” Prudhomme said. “I think the people that are doing it are more fit. They’re younger, they’re professional drivers. They’re not crew like when Garlits and I drove, and I think that was the beauty of it, what I enjoyed the most, you jumped out of the car at the other end, and you know exactly what to do at the next run.
“Nowadays a driver gets out of the car, and he pretty much doesn’t want to say anything because the computer’s going to tell him something different when they’re back at the pits. So it’s all up to the computer. All those drivers drive the same down the course nowadays.
“But back then it was way more involved with Garlits and myself. We would tune the cars and drive the cars. It’s a completely different world, but I think it’s a lot safer situation now. I think the racing is tremendous.”
But it could be so much more, according to Schumacher, who will run a 23-event schedule this season, including a stop in Joliet (June 3-6).
“I swear, I wish it was just bigger,” he said. “It blows my mind. As cool as our sport is there are so many people that haven’t been out to one. It’s so … when they come out for the first time, they’re in awe.
“They go home and tell ten of their friends and those ten people take five years to come out because it can’t possibly be that cool — it’s drag racing, you’re only going straight. But they get out there and it’s mind-boggling.”