1972 ONLY NHRA Stock Eliminator
 

I've come up with so many questions about the strange 1972 Stock Eliminator season, I've decided to start this thread, devoted ENTIRELY to the '72 season.

Hoping for input from those of you who were eyewitnesses to Stock Elim racing, in '72.

I have lots of questions about that season, & will probably come up with others along the way.

Have read that, for '72, cars older than '63 models were not allowed. Headers, soft compound tires, & aftermarket cams were not allowed. And, the cars were supposed to be driven to the track, not trailered.

With all this in mind, here are some of my initial questions.

(1) Did most tracks actually enforce the rule about driving the car to the track ?

(2) I've read that Stock was NOT run at several nat events. Is there a list anywhere of the nat & division races where Stock WAS run.

(3) Is there an online list of div & nat event Stock Elim winner/RU, & class winners. Again, this is for the 1972 season, ONLY, and for the Stock Eliminator class, ONLY.

(4) I've seen pics & a video of some '72 season Stockers, which included a 455 Buick, among others. Have only seen a pic of one Pontiac which I know ran in '72, which was Truman Fields' famous "Hard Times" '68 Bird. That one year, only, it ran A/S. So, does anybody know of any other Pontiacs that ran NHRA Stock Elim in '72 ?

(5) What interesting Stock Elim stories or info do you guys have, about that strange '72 season ?

I didn't begin racing Stock, 'til '73, & then only at our local track. So, I didn't know about the odd '72 season until recently. Would like to now learn all I can about it, from those who were there.

Re: 1972 ONLY NHRA Stock Eliminator
 

I think it would really help this thread if somebody would post the '72 Stock Elim rules, EXACTLY as stated in the 1972 NHRA rule book.

I don't have a '72 rule book. Are any of you guys who have one, willing to post the Stock rules here, for us ?

If not, does anybody have a link to a pdf version of the '72 Rule book ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/18425507162...UaAj5wEALw_wcB

http://classracer.com/classforum/sho...39&postcount=2

Re: 1972 ONLY NHRA Stock Eliminator
 

Have you seen this thread?


1972 NHRA 'Stock Class'

http://classracer.com/classforum/showthread.php?t=51198


Stan

Re: 1972 ONLY NHRA Stock Eliminator
 

Yeah, I've seen that thread. And there is some good info in it, for this thread.

But it don't answer all my questions. And it don't include the eyewitness accounts I'd like to get, of EXACTLY how closely NHRA adhered to those rules & how closely most smaller tracks adhered to those rules, especially the "No trailering" rule.

Several good eyewitness accounts should give us who weren't there, a better understanding of exactly what it was like for the Stock racer, in 1972.

Re: 1972 ONLY NHRA Stock Eliminator
 

In doing a search, I found this.

" I believe Kenny Horne set the A/S record...in a 67 GTO..."

I think '72 would be the only year a '67 GTO could have run A/S.

So, anybody here know of Kenny Horne or his '67 GTO ? :confused:

Re: 1972 ONLY NHRA Stock Eliminator
 

Tom Kasch has posted LOTS of lists of event & class winners, as well as nat record holders, from back in the '70's.

But, I just went thru the list of all his threads. Not a single thread title, that I saw, mentioned 1972.

So, again, does anybody here know where to find a list of Stock class winners and/or Stock nat record holders, for 1972 ? :confused:

Re: 1972 ONLY NHRA Stock Eliminator
 

Found this in my search. It's a post from a guy who was an NHRA tech, back then.


NHRA Junior Stock

OK, he said the '73 Stock rules were the same as '72. The class weight breaks were different, but rules the same. So, in this post you can read the Stock rules from the '73 rule book.

NHRA Junior Stock

Re: 1972 ONLY NHRA Stock Eliminator
 

Here's a quote from another article I read, about the '72 Stock Elim class.

"...if you ran a Stocker in 1972, not only weren't you allowed such basic amenities as headers, slicks, racing cams, and manifolds, but you also had to drive the car to the track instead of trailering it..."

I also thought this was interesting. I'd mentioned that all the class records were set to a minimum, at the beginning of the '72 season. It seems that they were quite soft. Don't know if this was a minimum, or a record a racer had set.

" Some of those early 1972 Stock Class records were easy targets.
I found photo's of my friend running a 1970 Plymouth Superbird 440/375 HP in
A/SA (9.00 - 9.99 wt/hp)
Window shoe-polished with a 13.12 in April 1972."

Here's a video from the 1972 World Finals race, @ Amarillo. The winning Stocker was a '72 C/SA Buick, which won the All-Buick final. That Stock final begins @ the 10:45 point of the video. That Buick was the C/SA record holder & won most of the races that year.

https://bangshift.com/bangshift1320/...-world-finals/

Here's a pictorial video about that Buick. There is a very interesting pic @ the 3:20 point. If I understand it correctly, it says that Truman Fields won @ the Summer Nats & @ Indy, but was disqualified from both wins because of tires. I've never heard of that before. I've even posted a pic of Truman & his '68 Bird in the Summer Nats winners circle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GazmEPciWFU

There is a pic of an M&H tire ad, showing that the Buick ran M&H treaded street tires that season. They are exactly the same tires I ran during my '73 season.

Re: 1972 ONLY NHRA Stock Eliminator
 

Most of us that raced during that time frame have done our best to forget these rules, a real disaster and it took 3 years or so to get straightened out.

Re: 1972 ONLY NHRA Stock Eliminator
 

Just saw this.

"...In 1972 NHRA came out with a book called the Factor Finder. That book gave all the re-factored horsepowers higher than what the manufacturer listed. Quoting from the Factor Finder book....."The 'factoring' system was developed by NHRA, defining separate performance ratings for use in lieu of manufactures' advertised horsepower listings on many cars in competition". 1972 and 1973 saw the Factor Finder books printed, then followed by putting the refactored horsepower in the Classguide below each engine column. "

So, has anybody here ever seen one of the '72 or '73 "Factor Finder" publications ? :confused:

Anybody have one ? :confused: