Well, as a dyed-in-the-wool DINOSAUR, I have to tell you all that if you missed the 1961-62 Nationals (they didn't call it the U.S. Nationals, yet) at INDY, you missed a lot. Let's see, 1961 was only 48 years ago...... Hmmmm.... I was 23 at the time; ripe for some excitement; Indy didn't disappoint!!!
I had gone to the Nationals at Oklahoma City in 1957 and '58, but was not prepared for what I saw at Indy. The '61 race was the first time they ran the Nationals at Indy, and it was almost the ONLY National event.... all year. There was only the brand new Winternationals, so far as any other National events went.... It was awesome... and stands alone in my memory as THE drag race.... what all subsequent drag races should have aspired to.
As such, everybody and his dog showed up; I think there were something like 1,200 cars in competition.... and not a .90 class car in sight... lol! Of ANY kind...
ALL racing was heads-up... NO handicapped starts. Think about that for a minute... No Christmas tree! You had to actually OUTRUN everybody you beat!!!
That's the "drag racing" I grew up with.... what a concept, huh?
The race was for a CLASS WIN!!! The Eliminators were not the be-all/end-all that they are, today. Yes, there were nice prizes for the Eliminator winners (how about a new car???), but the Class winners also got bragging rights for a WHOLE YEAR!!! Magazine ads would, month after month, feature a National Class Champion who had won Indy.. because it was almost the only game in town.... heck, in the COUNTRY, with only the first couple of Pomonas to contend with.
All year long, you'd hear stories about somebody running a certain car in a certain class who was really, really fast.... but, you also had a local hero who ran that class and had run quicker, so, you couldn't WAIT for the showdown for that class winner at Indy, because you KNEW they'd BOTH be there!!! The anticipation was almost too much to bear.... really!
I remember "Cajun" Marino Monjure racing "Cheatin" Chico Breschini for B/D honors.... New Orleans vs. California for B/D national championship honors.... but a little 232 de-stroker 4-71 equipped mouse motor (Starkey/Jent from Columbus, Ohio) showed them BOTH the way home with his blown C/D (moved from C up to B because a blower advanced you one class, back then.) Or, maybe that was '62.. I've slept since then... lol!
The excitement of seeing Atlanta, Georgia's "Dyno" Don Nicholson's 409 racing the factory Mopar Dodge, and Hayden Proffitt's West Coast Pontiacs was exquisite.... This was pre-Thunderbolt, pre Mopar Hemi timeframe.... the cars were basically showroom stuff, which made it all the more exciting, because Joe Racer could duplicate it without having to have a "factory connection."
Nowdays, very few cars from California venture to Indy, because they have several National events in their back-yard... and, who can blame them?
It was a different world, back then, and Stock Eliminator was just getting off the ground... but as with any "new" entity, the excitement was rampant... LOTS of cars in each class! All heads-up!!!
Basically, it was a time when you spent all year reading about Ohio George Montgomery's '33 Willys A/GS Chevy-powered car in the magazine ads, and reading also, the Engle and B & M ads about Stone-Woods-Cook's similarly-classed, big-inch Olds-powered '41 Willys, and wondering who would prevail in Class at Indy, because you KNEW they'd both be there!
They were, and Ohio George, with the little Chevy, made them all look bad, usually.
The dragsters that ran Top Eliminator were a mixed bag of early "Chizler" Mopar Hemis, Chevy small blocks, Olds and Pontiac powered cars, a few big-block (Lincoln 430) Fords, and weird, one-off creations like Mickey Thompson's Pontiac HEMI that won the race in 1962. (R.I.P., Mickey.)
"Ingenuity in Action."
That was NHRA's motto back then. It was NOTHING like the cookie-cutter Pro "SPEC" cars running today, where so many things are dictated to the builder. If you think that T/F is an "unlimited" class, take a look at the rulebook and you'll see that the parameters for building one of these cars is almost as restrictive as the rules for building a Super Stocker. You cannot tell these cars apart, but for the paint jobs....
And with that thought, let me just say that when the variety went out of Pro Drag Racing cars, so did the excitement. It's just a tuner and driver contest, now. NHRA has effectively taken all of the imagination and excitement out of those classes by making anything innovative or "different," illegal now.
Forunately, they can't impart "SPEC"-type rules to Stockers and Super Stockers, and that's one of the reasons I have always been a HUGE fan of these cars. The variety continues to excite and fire my imagination.
There are combinations out there, still untried, that will blow our minds when they get these cars operational... and frankly, I can't wait!!!
Long live Stock and Super Stock, the essence of drag racing!
Bill