Biggest Flops


The sport's Top Ten worst tragedies, mistakes, and disasters through Super Stock & Drag Illustrated's first 30 years

The celebration of a 30th birthday is an achievement. For any individual, the road of adolescence is strewn with potholes and detours on the way to the only slightly less bumpy highway of adulthood. As this magazine reaches maturity, however, drag racing moves into its 45th year; our beloved publication is but a stepchild of the sport itself, which was a gangly fourteen years old when our first issue hits the stands.

Like the journal, the industry of straight-line racing was struggling through childhood in its first fifteen seasons, and was just breaking into the uncertainty of its mid-teens when SS&DI was born. While we have enjoyed the best possible parent-child relationship during our existence, the "Old Man" was struggling to make his mark in the world the whole time. Despite his obligation to "us", the offspring of the 1/4-mile, he blazed a clear trail through life to bring us to our current anniversary light years beyond what had been thought possible.

That 30-year journey, however, has been marked by both victory and disappointment. The lowest points of all were those in which everything that had been created was in jeopardy of destruction, sometimes by forces far removed from the sport itself. Our special commemorative issue, therefore reviews the sport's darkest moments in those thirty seasons -- not in the light of sarcasm, but in reference to mistakes which hopefully can be avoided through the next century.

The choices selected by our panel of experts were those judged to have the greatest impact on the sport's progress. The most remarkable achievement of all, however, may well be drag racing's current acceptance within the sports community itself despite the hurdles it has had to leap over the years. By the guidance of its leaders, the commitment of its sponsors, the devotion of its racers, and the loyalty of its fans, we have all shared in its success story. Still, it is important that we map carefully the path taken to reach today's multi-billion dollar pastime, and that we refer to that guide during the smallest uncertainty.

Here then are the Top Ten Debacles in Drag Racing. NOTE: To go directly to the items, click on the title.

1974 PRO National Challenge
New York National Speedway


Unanimously nominated, the '74 PRO Challenge at New York National Speedway on Long Island will forever be remembered as the race that proved the value of interests without conflict. The race itself was possibly the biggest single disaster ever staged as a major event, and its effect on the sport was long-lasting.

The brainchild of Don Garlits, The Professional Racers Association had produced two philosophically impressive but eventually demoralizing National Challenge events in 1972 and 1973, both at Tulsa (Oklahoma) International Raceway, before reorganizing into the Professional Racers Organization.

The first PRO event, staged as drag racing's first true "strike" in an attempt to raise purses at NHRA national events and scheduled directly against the biggest race of all, the NHRA U.S. Nationals, lost money due to its sky-high $25,000-to-win payout and 32-car Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock fields, but damaged the sport's most presitigious event enough that NHRA balked and increased their purses. The '73 edtion was moved to the weekend before the Labor Day classic and again drew hordes of cars for big cash but still failed to show a profit, forcing the "new" PRO to move to what would appear to have been the biggest market of all, New York City.

Lack of interest by the "straight" media in the Big Apple and the incredible expense of advertising in the City kept spectator attendance far below expectations, and rain washed out the potentially lucrative Saturday night qualifying sessions. However, less-than-full fields resulted in little qualifying action anyway, with PRO officials having to PAY a Top Fuel car to make a run Saturday afternoon for local newspaper photographers! When qualifying and eliminations resumed, however, the scope of the disaster reached unparalleled proportions.

Garlits was the acting President of the PRO and also a contestant in the event. The strain of running AND racing in the program eventually led to horrific arguments with event director Charlie Proite, and in several cases, rules infractions decisions were made, overturned, and then reversed repeatedly. Just after Garlits lost in the opening round of competition, yet another row ensued that ended with Garlits resigning from the group and leaving the track. Proite and fellow Funny Car campaigner Don Schumacher resumed the event under their own direction, but the race fell ever deeper into chaos as the day wore on.

Eliminations for the 32-car fields became a fiasco, with Top Fuel Eliminator suffering repeated miscues and misdirection, somehow ending up with five semi-finalists and three finalists. Funny Car racing was no better, with three semi-finalists and NO final round; the winner was eventually determined by the last car left running when many teams were given less than thirty minutes in which to return for each stanza of racing. Only Pro Stock Eliminator was without major flaws, but the field was only two-thirds full!

The ruckus didn't end with the racing. Serious discrepancies in the posted payout left some teams collecting less than half what they had been told was offered, leading to another melee long after the fans had departed.

The true tragedy of National Challenge '74 was in the momentum lost by the racers themselves. Initially, the PRA/PRO had made inroads to an increase in professionalism on both sides of the political "fence". The disaster in New York, however, destroyed the power gained by the group and made points decidedly against the racers' ability to promote or police themselves. Amidst loud laughter from the major sanctions, the PRO actually made money at the NYNS event, but failed in a bid to recover its lost integrity all the way to their last event, which happens to have also been nominated to our Top Ten.

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1977 PRO Nationals
Lakeland (Florida) International Raceway


The PRO had held together long enough to produce mildly successful National Challenge events at both Tulsa ('75) and Union Grove, Wisconsin ('76), and with Garlits returning to the helm, had reinstated its commitment to increasing the sport's professionalism and prizes. The group's final hurrah, however, was a planned four-event season in 1977 that lost all of its momentum after the first race.

Having survived "attacks" from racers and officials on both the association's honor and intent, Garlits steadfastly promoted the PRO's first (and eventually last) '77 event near his Florida home at Lakeland Intermational Raceway. With fields cut to only eight positions available for Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock, and two blown alcohol divisions (Pro Comp), qualifying should have been intense.

However, while 24 Top Fuelers and more than enough Funny Cars appeared, Pro Comp was eventually combined into one class when only twelve cars showed. Pro Stock suffered from a mere six cars on the grounds -- and only four for the first round!

Once again, Garlits was racing in his own show and eventually won Top Fuel eliminator, but not before again becoming involved in repeated rules conflicts with other racers. Eventually, rules became less of an issue when two separate instances of legality despite lack of compliance to PRO regulations were rushed through by event directors. Lack of competent racetrack cleanup and a slow program schedule due to the lack of entries made the event a never-ending, one-lane affair with few closes races. Pro Stock became the event's biggest embarassment when only one winner emerged after the division's first round of eliminations!

The true irony of the PRO's last event was the apathy of the professional racers who had abandoned Garlits in his attempt at elevating the sport. While virtually every top team clamored to jump on the PRA bandwagon in '72, they had eventually thrown their fortunes (and their fates) to the other major sanctions within five years, defeating Garlits' ability to make a continued impression within the sport. The lack of loyalty hurt Garlits' feelings as well as his bank account, and the final event on the PRO ledger showed only a handful of big name drivers -- the ingredient needed to draw the paying specators -- attending.

The other lesson learned from the Lakeland event was that which proves the sportsman racers' contribution to drag racing. Had the PRA/PRO included the lower categories of racing rather than attempt to present a show of less than two dozen machines on race day, could it have turned the tide? We may never know the answer.

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Houston Platt Funny Car Crash (1967)
Yellow River (Georgia) Drag Strip


While the details of the loss of control and subsequent crash of veteran southern Factory Experimental/Funny Car racer Houston Platt's "Dixie Twister" Cheverolet at the backwoods, unsanctioned, uninsured racetrack in Georgia are a moot point 27 years later, the undeniable damage beyond the eleven spectator fatalities incurred at the site will be a focal point in drag racing history discussions for decades to come.

The small dragstrip featured dirt banks on either side of the track, atop which cyclone fences were the only barriers between the vehicles ontrack and the spectators slightly beyond. When Platt's car crashed through the fence and slowed only when it began tumbling through the crowd, it sparked one of the most debilitating rampages by traditional media in the sport's history. Drag racing was still sufering from phenomenally poor publicity in 1967, and the front page headlines of "11 Dead at Drag Race" literally doomed the sport for years.

The sad fact was that, in 1967, Yellow River Drag Strip was a classically typical drag racing facility. Only a handful of racetracks featured safety standards beyond the then-extravagant single guardrail lining at least one side of the course, and few offered efficient crowd control. While other tragedies had occurred on a local level in the sport's past, few were of the magnitude of Yellow River, and none had ever received national publicity.

In fact, it was almost a decade later that truly important safety specifications, mandated by both insurers and sanctioning bodies, would make "local" racetracks as safe as the few national event facilities then in existence. Yellow River was one of drag racing's greatest disasters, but it was an unequalled embarrassment in the fact that the sport changed so little over the next few years, despite the desperate and ongoing attempts by the National and American Hot Rod Associations. The advancement made in facilities, however, was embodied in the next nominee.

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The Closing of Dallas Int'l Motor Speedway (1972)


In 1969, the crown jewels of racetracks were Bristol (Tennessee) International Dragway and Indianapolis (Indiana) Raceway Park. No other quarter-mile sites could compare to the beauty and convenience of the two racetracks designed solely to be the best in the sport.

When Dallas International Motor Speedway opened its gates in 1969, however, it was quickly pronounced the King. Featuring every creature comfort available, a massive timing tower complex, huge grandstands and an incredible racing surface, Dallas became the track to which everyone headed.

In only its second season it was granted both the NHRA Springnationals and World Finals. Its first national event, the '69 NHRA Spring Nats, featured the sport's first 6-second 32-car Top Fuel field, and by 1971 DIMS had produced the quickest Funny Car passes ever and the second-quickest Top Fuel run (Garlits' 6.44 in 90 degree heat) in history.

When the track experienced multiple rainouts of scheduled non-national events in 1971, track management asked the NHRA for help in covering a substantial debt for repaving costs. The organization declined on the grounds that the move might be misconstrued by other track operators as favoritism, forcing DIMS to move to IHRA sanction for 1972. Lack of promotional savvy by the fledgling IHRA, however, prompted even larger losses in the face of dwindling crowds during their two seasons of association, leading to the sale of the property to the Xerox Corp. in late 1973.

The closing of DIMS, assisted by the earlier bankruptcy of the massive and even more glamorous all-purpose Ontario (California) Motor Speedway, stifled the progress of the "supertrack" more than a decade before the same type of facility became the rage in the sport. Had DIMS succeeded, it may well have moved the sport into a trend toward facilities with the comfort and style now enjoyed ten years before the "megastrip" returned, ironically, in Dallas in 1986.

The most telling aspect of the impact of the loss of DIMS has come from the highest level of both NHRA and IHRA management, all of whom regret ever allowing the sport's most fashionable facility to fold.

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1984 AHRA World Finals
Acadiana International Raceway Park, Eunice, Louisiana


The American Hot Rod Association (AHRA), formed in 1956, was drag racing's stabilizing influence for fifteen years until the IHRA began sanctioning events in 1971. Even thereafter, it remained a viable alternative to NHRA and IHRA racing with a smaller but nonetheless popular and lucrative national event series.

The AHRA was responsible for a huge number of innovations, including Funny Car and Pro Stock Eliminators, the adoption of a "points system" for determining World Champions, the addition of a World Championship bonus fund, and the "Pro Start" Christmas Tree system, and was the circuit of choice for hundreds of racers nationally.

When Jim Tice, a feisty, business-savvy WW2 veteran, took over the presidency of the group in 1959, he charted AHRA's course over a 23-year span before his sudden passing from cancer in 1982. Almost immediately an underground war began among owners of AHRA national event tracks to gain control of the profitable business from Tice's wife, Ruth.

Midway through the 1984 season, Ruth Tice stunned the sport by selling the association to Florida business tycoon Mike Grey, whose Terminal Van Lines would also guarantee the season points fund. The rogue track owners split off to form the American Drag Racing Association (ADRA), and Grey produced successful events at both US 30 Dragstrip in Gary, Indiana, and St. Louis (Missouri) International Raceway before heading to a sparkling new facility in southern Louisiana for the AHRA World Finals.

Built from a defunct horse-racing park, Acadiana International Raceway Park featured the most modern tower facilities and most scenic track layout on the AHRA tour. As the southernmost stop in the series, however, the race failed to pull racers from the AHRA's northern markets. The pathetic national economy had hit the south-central states hard, and the fans in the mostly rural areas surrounding the small town of Eunice failed to part with their cash for event tickets. The race was completed, however, with strong performances and high hopes for a return in 1985.

The following morning, word quickly spread that the track owner and his investors were nowhere to be found. In the end, the vast majority of racers and employees were left holding worthless checks for their efforts. Incredibly, even Grey was stiffed by his partners and eventually covered much of the promoter's "bad paper" with checks from his own personal bank account. The understandably disgruntled Grey, however, quickly sold the AHRA name and returned to the more stable -- and honest -- business of moving and storage.

The nightmare of Eunice was twofold; the unforgivable sin of total deception was bad enough, but was compounded by the fact that nobody knew at the time that they were attending the final AHRA race ever to be held! It was somewhat prophetic that the last two racers down the track in the Top Fuel championship round were Don Garlits and runner-up Chris Karamesines, who'd battled each other for the 1958 AHRA crown.

Overnight, however, a drag racing tradition vaporized and never returned. The AHRA never reorganized, and the ADRA disbanded after only a few seasons of abbreviated schedules. Jim Tice, the racers, and the employees -- all of whom had sunk more than two decades of their lives into the association -- certainly deserved better.

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SS & DI's Econo Mod Eliminator (1987)


While drag racing's "nightmares" have luckily been few and far between, Super Stock & Drag Illustrated will never be able to "cast the first stone"; Econo Modified had all the ingredients of a full-fledged, no-holds-barred, mistake and eventually proved its point to the world.

Since the demise of weekly class-legal racing and the increasing popularity of bracket racing, SS&DI readers had flooded the editor's mailbox with letters crying out for the creation of a true, heads-up, no-breakout sportsman class which only needed to meet the criteria of "affordable and fair" to become a nationwide success. Although IHRA had designed a Super Modified division in 1975, the single-carbed class was dominated into eventual destruction by Rickie Smith's Ford Maverick and quickly dropped from their line-up. But, Super Stock could do it better. Or so we thought.

In an attempt to keep the rules of the game simple, months of research and polling created a format for both big-block and small-block players. Under 370 cubic inch engines would race at 2800 lbs., while bigger motors would run on a 3000 lb. minimum. Single four-barrel carbs were mandatory, and a 10.5-inch tire was the widest permitted. When the official rules were posted, everybody seemed happy.

The first Econo Mod event was contested at Central Michigan Dragway, selected for its midwestern location and proximity to most of the cars being constructed. While the turnout featured less cars than expected, enough cars appeared to give a basic representation of the class. True, the winner was running seven-tenths of a second quicker than any other car, but the rest of the field would certainly "catch up" in time. Sure they would.

Successive events saw only marginally improved car counts, and the small problem of NHRA/IHRA-legal A/Super Modifieds which passed tech with flying colors and ran a mere one second quicker than the best "true" Econo Modified entry probably wouldn't hurt the turnout at future racers, would it?

The fact that the editor's job is editing and not race promotion eventually helped in the sudden lack of interest in a heads-up class, but the A/SM winners probably did more to damage the new division than the incapacity of the magazine staffers who were supposedly running the series.

Just remember, it wasn't our fault. We just didn't realize that the rules were so similar to NHRA Competition Eliminator. Honest. Really. We're sorry. And by the way, we weren't the only ones.

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IHRA Factory Modified (1988)


While the numbers 1-9-8-8 and the letters I-H-R-A collide elsewhere in our Top Ten list, it was Factory Modified Eliminator that could have been the IHRA's largest mistake in recent racing history. Although they had the 1977 domination of their Super Modified fiasco to use as a baseline, somebody failed to acknowledge the other side of the sportsman equation; costs.

Again, the call for an affordable, heads-up, no-breakout category was answered by the creation of a new division and, initially, IHRA's answer looked promising. Combining the rules for C and D/Altered and C and D/Econo Altered, Factory Modified produced a small-block battleground for V8's and V6's with either manual or automatic transmissions. In true IHRA tradition, most racers picked the 4- and 5-speed tranny, small-block Chevy combination, which mandated a single carburetor. However, several teams chose to thrash the multi-carbureted 6-bangers, giving the class a variety of machinery for which the fans could cheer.

Over a period of two seasons, the cars quickly advanced from 8.90's at over 150 mph to 8.30's at over 160 mph, offering superb racing and wild 12,000 rpm audial assaults. Over forty different machines actually entered IHRA Factory Modified events in the 1988-89 seasons. Unfortunately, they were the same forty cars over and over. There appeared to be no "new blood" in the FM ranks after the first two seasons, but domination by a single team or combination was not the problem. This time simple economics were to blame.

The lack of chassis regulations forced Factory Mod to become exactly what the IHRA had promoted: "Jr. Pro Stocks" in every respect, including price. A rolling chassis for FM was fetching the same pricetag as a new Pro Stocker, and for good reason -- they were virtually identical. Although planetary transmissions were not permitted, the state of the art clutch-aided manuals were just as expensive, and the sport's best small-block engineers were getting over $25,000 for the most powerful motors, only $15,000 less than a then-competitive Pro Stock powerplant! In fact, many FM teams were upgrading to Pro Stock with a simple engine/transmission change.

Interestingly, that's exactly what happened when IHRA axed the class after two short seasons; since there were only forty teams to upset by dropping the class, resistance was minimal, and fully half the FM teams involved simply went Pro Stock or Pro Modified racing with the same cars. The rest of the FM players headed right back to the Altered or Econo Altered classes in NHRA Comp or IHRA Mod as if nothing had ever happened.

So much for the pioneering spirit.

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The Entire 1988 IHRA Season


If only Factory Modified had been the biggest problem. So much has been written on this subject, it hardly bears repeating. Unanimously voted onto the list, it was indeed the modern-day drag racing "Watergate" from which much was learned in the worst possible way: experience.

When Funny Car star Billy Meyer unveiled the Texas Motorplex in the small town of Ennis in 1986, the sport was changed forever. The racetrack by which all others would be judged is now revered as the racetrack that moved the sport into a new era.

When Meyer shocked the industry by purchasing the IHRA from its founder, Larry Carrier, in late 1987 however, many believed it was to leverage the NHRA to increase their Pro-class purses. With virtually unlimited family finances as his resources, Meyer pledged to initiate an all-out war on the association which was still the single most powerful entity in the sport.

He vowed to take the sport "to the next plateau" and, despite his lack of experience in drag racing management, set out to even the stakes by turning the IHRA's program into one similar to that of his opponent. Meyer honestly believed it was time to move the sport in a new direction, and his ideas could now be implemented.

Overnight, he wiped out the class-legal Stock, Super Stock and Modified Eliminators and replaced them with "heads-up" categories in one-second increments from 7.90 to 12.90. He added a Top Alcohol Dragster division, and escalated the Top Fuel and Funny Car field to either 12 or 16-car fields with purses far out of reach of the national event sites at which they would play.

Meyer also gave the IHRA a nationwide playing field, adding a divisional program similar to NHRA's and hired a large new staff comprised mainly of ex-NHRA employees. The solitary holdover from the Tennessee-based IHRA was the retained Top Sportsman Eliminator which, at the time, was the hottest item in the sport. Amazingly, Top Sportsman was also the ONLY handicapped eliminator category in IHRA's lineup.

Whether Meyer's vision of the move to "heads-up" sportsman racing was accurate or not, the bitterness of the "busted" class racers could not be swayed, and they refused to support the events. The new "Ninety" classes suffered from the proliferation of Chevy-powered cars in those classes; a Ford or Chrysler entry was a rare sight. In fact, the 7.90 division (none of the classes were ever "named") failed to draw anything other than Chevy-powered cars for the entire year!

The professional class racing was fantastic. Unfortunately, the purses required to draw the "NHRA racers" to IHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car were astronomical. And then there was the weather.

It rained. At every single site it rained. More than half of the events were forced into rescheduling -- instant financial death for any national event promoter. Meyer even faced the unwarranted addition of plain old "bad luck"; posting a $100,000 bonus for any pro driver who could win both of the two events hosted by the Texas Motorplex (in lieu of a points fund), Eddie Hill and Ed McCulloch BOTH pulled it off, costing Billy nearly a quarter million dollars -- far more than if he had just matched the previous season's points fund money!

While that single season will forever be remembered as that which produced Hill's historic 4.99-second record-breaker at the IHRA Texas Nationals, it will also be listed among the worst single disasters in the sport's history. By early 1989, Meyer's finances and ego were shell-shocked into submission, and he sold the association back to ex-IHRA V.P. Ted Jones and the late Jim Ruth, who managed to nurture the association back to health within two seasons. Meyer continued to operate the Motorplex and returned to NHRA sanction, secure with a spot in drag racing history.

While Billy Meyer has never been acknowledged for the guts it took to "take on California", he'll be forever be known as the man who changed too much too soon too fast. Too bad.

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The Last Outlaw
1970 AHRA Grand American, Frontier International Raceway
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma


It had never happened before at a national event, and it will probably never happen again, but it will never be forgotten by those who were witnesses to Roy Pogue's last quarter-mile run.

Roy had made it all the way to the semi-finals in Stock Eliminator at the AHRA Grand American Nationals at Frontier International Raceway, only to break out against his opponent. Roy didn't believe those new-fangled electronic timers, however, so he drove his car right back into the staging lanes, jumped out, and headed for the tower steps plenty mad. He headed straight for AHRA event director Don Wormsley, who met Roy halfway down the stairs. A heated argument and loud exchange followed, during which Roy was told he'd lost -- plain and simple.

Roy still didn't agree.

So Roy went back down the stairs, through the staging lanes to his car. He jumped in, fired it up, and launched at full throttle toward the head of the staging lanes. Cranking the steering wheel hard, Roy executed a full-throttle power drift, tires blazing, into the water burnout area. Roy kept his foot planted, despite missing several officials and crew members by mere inches. Roy straightened the car and, with tires still boiling and exhaust screaming, he took aim.

And ran straight over the Christmas Tree.

And he kept going. Running flat out to the end of the quarter-mile, Roy took a hard left turn and headed down the return road, through the entrance road and right out the pit entrance gate. He kept going right out to Interstate 40, hung another left, and headed off into the sunset with headers blaring.

That's the last anybody ever saw of old Roy. Pogue soon got that place in drag racing history he'd wanted so bad; AHRA President Jim Tice bestowed upon Roy the highest honor for any racer of Roy's ilk -- he was banned for life from all national AND local drag races of AHRA sanction. Later, he received a duplicate award from the NHRA. Roy always knew if he got the chance he could make it big.

That same event also featured the last known flag start for Top Fuel and Funny Car Eliminators. In fact, AHRA starter Pete Talmadge was forced to disqualify Gene Snow for leaving the starting line before the flag was thrown against Don Prudhomme. Folks says Gene went looking for Roy that night. Maybe THAT's why we never heard from Old Roy again.

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Canada Bans Leaded Gas (1993)


While it actually occurred less than two seasons ago and has since been resolved through tireless efforts on the parts of the NHRA and Canadian racers and promoters, it may be one of the scariest moments in motorsports history. When the Canadian government voted to ban all activities involving leaded fuels, drag racing (and many other forms of racing and transportation) virtually stopped.

While it seems inconceivable that such a ban could be implemented, it was. Overnight the NHRA was forced to cancel the only national event in the country, the Molson Grand National near Montreal, and the IHRA's plans to return to Cayuga, Ontario, for their Summer Nationals were thrown out the window. Neither sanction could afford to open the event to alky and nitro burners exclusively. Stock and Super Stock competitors, for that matter, would be completely excluded. Likewise, ever racer in the country was forced to switch instantly to methanol, ethanol, propane or natural gas in order to fire up an engine!

Only hectic work by the best legal and political emissaries changed the government decision, and that was accomplished over a period of nearly a year of constant negotiation. The question remains, could it happen here?

The answer is an emphatic YES! While the NHRA, IHRA, SEMA, and SFI organizations are constantly policing the situation, there is no question that a concentrated Federal effort could shut down motorsports in the United States. The only lesson learned in the Canadian debacle is that without eyes and ears in high places, we might never know it's coming before it hits us between the eyes. Contact any of the aforementioned associations to find out how you can help.

Despite thirty years of history, it's interesting to note that not one of our Top Ten panelists could list more than six nightmares in drag racing. If we're smart enough to learn from our mistakes, however, the chances remain good to improve on this record in the next three decades. If progress can remain at the levels we've enjoyed since 1964, however, there's no limit to what we can achieve by the year 2024. We have, at least, learned that much.
Super Stock & Drag Illustrated logo written by Bret Kepner
from Super Stock & Drag Illustrated
page 40-41; 70; 74-75; 88 - November, 1994
© Super Stock & Drag Publishing Ltd. 1994


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