SOLO FLIGHTS

The Prudhomme vs. Wiebe encounter

2/21/05

DRO file photo credit Les Welch

Dear readers,

Here is the first installment of an 11-month series on the best single side-by-sides I've seen or read about, or have seen on TV for that matter. Again, these aren't going to be an all-hot rod association or match race sweep, but rather a Whitman's Sampler of nutty and chocolate-y slobber on the rear dash of life. New or not, everything I've (Jesus Christ I hit the italics key and don't know how to get rid of it) I've goddam written (there are moments when I hate computers) is done in this form. Hang on, I think I'm going ultra-demento. Death where is thy sting. Go to hell Babe Ruth, here's the form and all its mutations.

I just noticed ...the italics ... they're gone! I'm starting to see clear pictures. There is a god after all. Wait a minute ... what an unfortunate self-exposure. Aw, to hell with it, Shakespeare drank and smoked pot and ... never mind. To quote Elvis, now and then there is a fool such as I. Glad that's all over with ... bad karma, you know.

To the issue at hand ...

New Year's Day 1972, the handwriting was on the wall. Don Garlits, in the previous year, had utterly obsoleted the front-engine Top Fuel dragster with his first rear-motored

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creation. To somewhat simplify, he could run 6.20s falling off the garage roof, while it was everything the fronties could do to run 6.40s. As most know, a better mouse trap is a death sentence for the past.

At the beginning of the 1972 season, virtually all the major Top Fuel stars had made the switch to the rear-motored configuration or were within a month or so of doing it. One of the very first was the West Coast's version of Garlits, Don "the Snake" Prudhomme, who knew a winner when he saw one. As history shows, Prudhomme's tenure with the his rear-motored Top Fueler was rather brief because his Plymouth Barracuda was far more in demand and simple capitalist economics dictated that his Hot Wheels "yellow feather" (as Garlits called it) was going to do some barn time. Despite that, this car figured in maybe the best single Top Fuel race I've ever seen.

On January 16, NHRA hosted an NHRA Grand Premiere year-opening event with an all-star cast of Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock entrants for 16-car qualified fields.

Before we start the show, let's back up and see where we've been. Yes, the quality of the competition at the 1972 NHRA Grand Premiere at Lions Dragstrip.