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ANYWHERE IN
EUROPE IN 1981
By Chris Martin
11/9/04
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I really pay
attention to the scoreboard at drag races. It was my good
fortune to see the first 190-mph clocking at San Fernando
Raceway at the first race I ever attended. Kenny Safford
pushed the Safford-Ratican-Gaide “Sour Sisters” Olds
Top Fueler to an 8.82 at 190.66 mph. In three words, “I
dug it,” and ever since then I’ve been a numbers
fanatic.
 Currently, my best witnessed elapsed time is a 4.47, and
my best witnessed speed is the current topper, Doug Kalitta’s
335.57 at Las Vegas. Yet, the numbers that I wish to hell
that I could’ve witnessed will likely never be registered
again. Regular readers might recall that about two years
ago I did a history on drag racing’s fastest participant,
the incredible “Slammin’ Sammy” Miller.
He was the first racer to run threes, twos, and as impossible
as it sounds, a one-second elapsed time.
To achieve these times, Miller drove the 27-foot long “Oxygen” rocket
dragster, which used a thrust rocket engine that generated
an estimated 6,100 pounds of thrust and 12,000 horsepower.
If you recall, the rockets were quite conservative compared
to other exhibition machines. No real fireworks of noise
from the jets, just a whoosh and then a scary whistle as
this frightening javelin shot past the stands. Miller said
the beast was usually shut off at half track because a full
quarter mile shot would likely liquefy him. His crew would
just pull him out of the car, unzip his fire suit, and pour
him into a Mason jar.
I remember that my pal Niles Smith and I were at the 1973
NHRA Nationals when the late Dave Anderson hurtled down the
IRP course in Tony Fox’s “Pollution Packer” rocker
dragster at a mindblowing 4.63 with a speed of 344 mph. A
wide-eyed Smith looked over at me and in all seriousness
stated, “Dude, that’s too fast.” To this
day, that pass rates as one of the most awe-inspiring runs
I’ve ever seen.
NHRA and most of drag racing outlawed rockets by the late
1970s because of the high death toll. Miller was forced to
go to Europe, where our cousins had a more liberal attitude
on such matters, to race his rocket dragster.
He ran an incredible string of runs in the years 1980 and
1981. He still holds the quickest time slip in the sport’s
history, a 3.58, 386 mph turned at Santa Pod Raceway in Bedfordshire,
England. He also ran the first three at that track in early
1980 with a 3.90. In addition, he made an eighth-mile lap
at Santa Pod that year, one that produced a heart-stopping
2.00 flat at 312 mph. That 2-second run was one of four runs
on the continent, the others occurring in Germany, Sweden,
and Corsica. The mind boggles at that kind of performance.
Indeed, as Smith said, “Dude, that IS TOO fast.” Naturally,
this was something I would have killed to see.
Yet I would’ve passed on seeing those runs if I could
have seen Miller’s most amazing moment.
The time? The winter of 1980. The place? A frozen lake
in Holland. The car? The “Oxygen” dragster with,
I was told, specially-made skates. I suppose I should find
it comforting that not many people saw the run that followed.
There were some dome die hards, press members and race officials,
I think. I don’t know all the details. All I know is
that on that cold day, Miller did the impossible.
His rocket disappeared down the icy eighth-mile course
in literally the blink of an eye, achieving a 1.606 second
elapsed time at 307 mph. No human being has ever gone that
fast on ice and I’m betting that it will be a long,
long time before it ever happens again. To my way of thinking,
it remains the most impressive single pass in the history
of motorsports.
Of course, I’m drunk most of the time. How the hell
would I know? 
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