Born n raised Edmontonion My mom's boyfriend took my brother(6) and I(8) to this as extras.. He was friends with Terry Capp. I went to school his son Jarrett.
I remember the crowd scene in the stands . Was 9-10 and road my bike down to Speedway Park in Edmonton. Signed up to be an extra . Took a while day to shoot people screaming at shit that wasn't there lol. It's only later I realized who David Cronenberg was .
I like how the passenger had to nudge the driver to let him know that there was a funny car next to them at the light. Should maybe lay off the beers. :D
Should say: "This was drag racing" "drag racing evolved from a late night criminal activity on the streets" - Yeah?... what was so criminal about it? Fucking brainwashed minions crack me up!!
I wonder what they would say if you told them back then that in a few decades they would be making well over 10, 000HP. Even today it is almost unbelievable how much power they make.
I read somewhere that Shirley Muldowney was the last Top Fuel driver to use a manual clutch, instead of whatever automatic thing everyone was switching to. Bottom line, her left foot was still better than at least the early versions of those auto clutches.
This video is a bit misleading, appearing that she was racing against someone else. It was a qualifying run; she was the lone car in the left lane that went down to the little ditch that was there. The car just blew apart with parts flying everywhere. The engine ended right-side up lifting a large piece of the track owners' asphalt driveway out of place. Her severe injuries resulted when the roll cage broke off right at her knees that hammered the ground every time she made contact with it, over and over again. Oddly, there wasn't even a guardrail in place where she went off the track- it would've ended differently for sure. I was standing right at the traps and saw the whole thing happen right in front of me. It was one of the scariest things I ever saw at the time. It was like I had just witnessed an airplane crash. I ran over to within a close distance to where she finally stopped rolling through the air. She was wearing one of those rather large fire suits and was still conscious, but barely. When she saw her pit crew guy looking back at her, still in the roll cage, she said "How do I look?", and he said, "as ugly as ever!". Then, she passed out and the rescue team moved very carefully to get her out of the cage. They had to cut her helmet off because of swelling. I found it odd that she would say that, but she was probably quite concerned about any bad gashes to her face- she was an attractive woman. I didn't realize how badly she was injured because the initial crash didn't knock her out. I believe she stayed at the hospital in Montreal for quite a while (2 months?) before they would let her leave to recover in the USA. I'll never forget that crash and still can't believe she survived it....
They run to 1000 feet today instead of the full 1320 for safety.there are WAY fewer engine explosions for one thing and we are seeing speeds over 320mph can you imagine if they still ran the full quarter.
Thanks for posting this video,it's cool not only seeing the vintage cars but how far we have come seeing the times they ran compared to today..you gotta remember tho that today top fuel only runs to 1000 feet not the full 1320 but still thanks to electronics and advances in technology have produced crazy 3 sec.passes and speeds in excess of 320mph.
In those days, if I racing were in that first round, and I looked over there and saw Beadle in the Blue Max, I wouldn't remember my own name, much less how to shift my car. lol
