THE FIRST 15 YEARS OF NHRA PRO STOCK: A QUICK LOOK 

Why was old McCandless so out of breath for all he was doing was driving for high nine seconds

When a guy builds the engines and then races what he builds..IMHO Prostock lost me when they stopped racing Big Block Chevy's and Fords and came up with this custom DRE that was probably never in a production car

Yep, I grew up on east coast, Grumpy was a legend. Old Bridge Maple Grove MIR and more...

@@markcatcash4688 Butch Leal "The California Flash" Not him the car. He was from Ohio. He'd leave you welded to the tree.

Yea but without rules Changes Glidden was unbeatable. He wasn't the most friendly guy at the race because he was always working on the car.

Thank you for your contribution to drag racing Gerald . You may be planning to 'retire' from racing , but keep sharing the experiences . I just 'pip you' at 70 , but you've been drag racing . Unfortunately , it's only bench racing for me being unable to drive through ill-heath . I've been a keen fan since '56-7 . I had the privilege of meeting Ronnie Sox here in the UK in '64 . I genuinely believe the American hot-rod , custom , and drag racing scene has kept me alive . Chronic ill-heath , mum (mom) dying when I was 11 . This was ,and still is , a great distraction for me . Keep these things alive , eh ?

@@peterbellwood5412 Unfortunately I'm also having health problems, including bad joints and fairly severe arthritis, and it is affecting my reaction times. I have actually been on disability for the past 3 years, and am having trouble working on cars anymore. People may not think of drag racing as a very "physical" sport, but it does take quite a bit of physical effort to both drive the car and keep it going.

@@geraldscott4302 I fully appreciate your difficulties attempting to work on your car , Gerald . Think about your wealth of experiences , though . Treasure them and share with as many people who are humble enough to listen . As a bench-racer , I love it . Please may I share an uplifting scripture that I find genuinely comforting and encourages me ? It's at Isaiah 33 verse 24 , where it says " no resident will say "I am sick" ." For many years I assumed it meant in heaven . I was wrong ! Evidently the 'residence' is here on the Earth restored back to perfection . Hang in there , my friend . 🤓

Gear head 🤩 At least your aware of reaction times slowing with age. I watched many videos of older guys wrecking their rare, expensive muscle cars showing off on the road and losing it. At show and shine car shows. We aren't 20 year olds anymore. "Caution, Senior on board!!!"

keep grinding gerald

Amen.

And chris economacki (sp)

70 to 96 for me

Love the racing we got to relive,,, Pro Stock has roots Ford Thunderbolts.. Dodge /Plymouth Hemi Ramchargers.. 409's ,, Olds Rockets.. Buick Nail heads Pro Stock goes back to the roots

Indeed. It was the era of built not bought. Now there are so many off the shelf parts that few people fabricate much of anything these days. Kinda crazy because we have better and cheaper access to tools and machine tools than ever before.

Dear old mom had a '63 390 Galaxie convertible. What a car. Then she got a '67 Fairlane 390 convertible. I ended up with her 73 Mustang convertible. Miss her, miss those cars!

Glidden was the best cheater NHRA never caught. When rusty showed up a Gainesville and blatantly showed them how they been cheating with nitrous, they snatched his license and banned him for life. But let Bob's wins stand.

@@sc2958 - wrong. It was Bob Glidden who proved to NHRA that nitrous was in Pro Stock when officials denied it. The Glidden’s only did the nitrous deal to prove to NHRA tech they was having the wool pulled over their eyes. Bob didn’t believe it at first when his sons told him it was being done. They plumbed a car and got it through tech, and revealed it to NHRA afterward. Even if Bob had run nitrous, like another well known team had, having nitrous wasn’t in the rule book as illegal. It was actually Glidden who exposed it and got it put in the rule book where it had been inexplicably removed. Sorry if that spoils the alternative facts narrative.

@@sc2958 Educate yourself!! B4 making such comments.

@@CompetitionPlusTV as usual your correct, about the above statement, them mopars needed to laugh, Gm guys liked to use "The paste", but like I said the best they never caught, ford's had very tricky carbs, I learned the trick from some comp guys, in the mid '90s. It's still very common today.

@@sc2958 😂😂😂😂😂 So they let Glidden cheat but also made him carry an extra 250 pounds to make it fair for the competition ? Your funny.

Dear Bob ..I'm sorry you lost interest in P/S especially since Mr Bob Glidden Dominated P/S for so long and driving a FORD .

@@TheRoguelement while being penalized

Each guy needs more than a simple mention those guys made the sport what it is today. They sure were more exciting and creative than the modern racers. No one even has a Nick name they are known by like the good old days when you had Gene Snow the Snowman, MadMax, Flying Hawaiian, The Snake, The Mongoose, Big Daddy, TV Tommy Ivo, cars & drivers that needed no introduction after the announcer called out their cars. They all need a movie made for them to do it justice.

Bill Stepp

And Riverside. They used that back pit access road for the drag strip. That's the road AJ Foyt crashed on going into the dogleg.

Whoa lemme tellya we got Bob Glidden over here in the near lane anda big Larry Christian in the far lane and when I say big I mean whoa nelly big. Talkin' 'bout bustin' your britches down there in Tuscaloosa. WHOA! and Christian FUMBULLS the start and get a red light.

@@bbigjohnson069 As a Buckeye fan, my favorite was when he'd start an Ohio State broadcast with "on the banks of the Olentangy" He was great at motorsports broadcasting. It was a sad day when he passed. I really enjoyed hearing him again in this video. I can tell you appreciated him as well, you had him down.

@@dsgp7835 I'm sure you know how ESPN's Chris Berman would imitate Keith Jackson or Howard Cosell. In the 80s&90s the Eagles had a TE named Keith Jackson. During the highlights one time he made a big play and Berman said, "Oh lemme tell ya 'bout Keith Jackson." The last game he ever broadcast was the 2006 Rose Bowl with USC and Texas. He and Dan Fouts. At the end of the anthem there was a flyover by a B-1 bomber and they hit the afterburners. After Jackson said who the 2 pilots on board were and what base it was from he said, "And I wanna tell ya when they lit the candles the crystal rattled." Fouts had this big grin like yeah that's KJ. "I've seen Vince Young play in three Rose Bowls and he is yet to get his britches dirty."

@@bbigjohnson069 When I read the quote you wrote about what he said when the B1 hit the after burners, a tear came to my eye in rememberance of Keith. It was so Keith. Thanks man!

@@dsgp7835 I'm a huge USC fan so I taped that game and my tape starts right as the plane is flying over. Last time I checked none of the videos on Yt have that part of the broadcast. I think he lived in So. Cal. somewhere here. I think that's why he did a lot of USC games toward the end of his career. You're welcome no problem. Keith Jackson was to College football what Vin Scully was to baseball.

Didn't they call the Fairmont, the Doomsday Fairmont? Great looking but how areo was it? It was my favorite of Bob's Ford's.

@@dsgp7835 I'm not sure about the name. I don't believe they were starting to look at aerodynamics a whole lot right then. Well that's Captain Obvious. Very early 80s? Not quite yet. Remember TF still running a low wing even for most of '84 until Amato/Tim Richards thought about sticking it up in the air? And that really wasn't for aerodynamics because lets face it there isn't a whole lot of drag on a dragster. What the high wing did was give them a shitload of downforce on the rear tires towards the top end. Now they could put more power to the ground down track. ET went down a little and top speed gained about 10 mph just like that. I don't recall what race that was. I want to say Gators. But in a sport where you'd kill just to pick up .05" or .10" or 3-4 mph and you bolt a high wing on, not highly sophisticated engineering, but it adds 10 mph. That's a "Holy Shit" moment. That sent everyone scrambling for aluminum tubing to fabricate struts to move the wing up immediately. A gotta doing, have it moment.

@@dsgp7835Don Hardy ran it and a pinto in a wind tunnel the Fairemont was shockingly better.

Sheppard had the BBC conventional heads as far as he could go they didn't do much after his untimely death but warren Johnson got alot factory backing but the heads and stuff he ran was nothing like BBC heads I liked it when they ran real Chevrolet Chrysler and Ford engines with factory blocks heads this nowadays is just different too much money and knowledge in prostock no fun watching one car win all the time I would like to see some nhra guys and gals run ihra mountain motor with carburators

@@markntexas8265 Sometimes square is better NASCAR in '69 comes to mind for Ford. You'd think the Torino would obviously be the better choice and only a complete fool would run a Mercury Cyclone with that hideous front end. But the Cyclone was faster, a lot faster. Rear window shape is a huge factor as it relates to drag. The air flowed much better around the back of the Cyclone than the Torino.

I was thinking the exact same thing. 😩

I forgot how much fun & competitive Pro Stock used to be. Shame on you NHRA

Warren Johnson said it. They weren't even prepping the tracks for them in the 2000's.

@@rickyrudd28texacohavolinef2 Pro Stock is probably at their most competitive point in history, with cars only being about a tenth off from each other. In most races nowadays, it all comes down to reaction time, which idk how that isn't as competitive, but I guess being competitive has different meanings to some people. As much as I love the older generation of vehicles (pre 1985), those cars were less competitive and less aerodynamic.

As Glidden and Johnson put it "nhra themselves ruined the class". Remember there was a time when not even enough Top Fuel Dragsters showed up to fill the brackets. No need to qualify to get in. Just qualify to set the brackets. It's always the top brass messing with class rules that pisses off the drivers and fans.

Grumpy ran a 327in his vega

High reving too bad he wrecked

Bill ordered that car went through the assembly line with just a body

Pretty sure the Chevy LS heads are based on his chamber design

And don't forget he had a little Nitrous hidden in the Roll Cage.

​@@6StrngWzrd like the tech guys wouldn't have found that lol

@@timmebruer5205 research it. It's how he beat Buddy Ingersolls V-6 Buick.

@@6StrngWzrd yeah right. You're just jealous of someone else's talent. Go cry somewhere else

Thank you for your contribution to drag racing Charlie . Been a serious fan since '56-7 . Keep it alive by sharing your experiences . Stay safe . Pete from UK . 🤓

@@peterbellwood5412 Thank you, Peter !

Isn't that cool ? Not illegal ( , yet ? ) Fine , more power to hot rod ingenuity and imagination . Hot rod 'enginuity' was the word used back then , but apparently we can't use it here because it's a 'business' !! Mustn't offend the easily offended , right ? 🤔.............or get sued ! 🤯

Fantasy

@@michaelraddish7898 What part is 'fantasy', Mike ?

@@michaelraddish7898Hey Mike , what part do you think is fantasy ?

Nuts.

How about some specifics. Exactly how does the NHRA keep the other manufacturers down? I distinctly recall them letting Darrel Alderman win multiple titles using nitrous oxide.

Chevy sucked then and still sucks today

@@timsharpe3498 Some examples I can think of are: In 1970 and '71 the Sox and Martin team running Mopars dominated pro stock. In response, NHRA imposed a weight penalty on the Chrysler cars. When Bud Martin met with the NHRA to find out what was going on, Jack Hart, the exec director of NHRA told Bud Martin that they didn't care what happened to Chrysler as long as they could get Ford and Chevy racing each other. NHRA did the same thing to Mopar in the Factory Stock Showdown (FSS) class in 2018 adding a weight penalty to the Mopar while lowering the minimum weight limit imposed on the Fords and Chevys. Sanctioning bodies routinely handicap certain cars and/or manufacturers for a variety of reasons. Some other examples that aren't NHRA: NASCAR banning the hemi engine from racing. NASCAR banning the Superbird/Daytona cars.

@@glennmuir5617 NASCAR banned special racing engines like the HEMI and the SOHC. I don’t have any problem with that because NASCAR has always been low tech. There’s nothing unfair about racing regular production engines but it is unfair to have production engines competing against very limited production race engines.

Calling the HEMI an special race engine is convienient for Chevy boys when they know no Bigblock GM made could beat them. HEMI SPECS: :Overhead valve pushrod :Two valves per cylinder :90° V8 design :In other words the HEMI had the same design as all the other engines of that time howeve had SUPERIOR cylinder head design. F. A. C. T.

I was working @ Booth-Arons when Lee was killed and I remember how much Wally was deeply affected by Lee's death.

you must be watching a different video because even the opening is in the 1970s.

It is!!!!

It used to be,until it became an all Chevy show!🤬👎

Totally agree with you.

So you were there James! I remember Nicholson had that 494" inch, all aluminum CanAm mtr, using the Ford road race components that were very limited production, in Boss 429 cyl head configuration. Leading to the 1st - 7 second door slammer pass in history. What an iconic run that was. Golden age of Pro Stock from the early 70s to the mid 1990s. As iconic a pass as Eddie Hills 4.99 run at the Motorplex, to be the 1st to break thru the 5's.

if there had been footage of the 70 Winternats available there would have been

There is Ronnie at.24 seconds in,

@@55chevytruck That's Herb McCandless in the number 2 car.

@@boataxe4605 Jungle Jim was funny car.

@@55chevytruck I know . Couldn't help but smile . I met him in '64 in UK , no less !

Yep! The cars look stupid with no scoop also

Hopefully AFX replaces PS,but we all know,as soon as a Mopar or Ford dominates,they'll get penalised - it happened in the early 70s to Mopar,and again in FSS when Leah dominated in that first season of FSS,Mopar again got penalised,Ford got the advantage,then they got hit,and as usual,GM dominates,like PS

Very true. In my day (Early 70's) the only way to beat the Hemi cars was NHRA making them carry so much extra weight, they could no longer compete. With the same weight to cubic inch ratio, the HEMI cars ate EVERYBODYS' lunch !!!!!

Next thing ya kno, they will have TOYOTA P/S car. Hell been in CRAPCAR for years now and F/C uses the body so wouldn't surprise me a bit. Honestly kinda surprising they haven't been in it already... smh.

Maybe Gm is just kicking ass

Yes it was Doug. I remember when they filmed that. I don't recall exactly but I think Chic Brignollo's wife produced a show up here in Massachusetts that it was filmed for.

@@tomorlowski9302 Thanks, those were the days!

Wasn't Bob Glidden's Fairmont cool , too ?

Yes NHRA did. By 1972 everytime the Chrysler Cars won NHRA added weight to them eventually making the HEMI uncompetitive.

The hemi wasn't produced after 1971 and couldn't be used due to the rules...

Sorry grew up with a lot of they're kids,we had no sponsors

GM??? I would say Toyota has.

Say no more

@@dougwagner3392 @ 20:09 watch him drop laundry at the front side of the traps after putting a fender on him 🐐🐐🐐🇺🇲🇺🇲🤌🤌🤌