When was the "Golden Age" of Stock Eliminator

Neil Smedley · 03-30-2009, 01:06 PM

I have been involved with drag racing since the very early 60`s........When stock eliminator started I think there were only 4 or 5 classes....the class winners were brought back to race each other HEADS UP to determine Stock Eliminator... Of course that was done with a flagman start...,,racers bitched so they began to give the slower cars a 10 foot per class standing head start......then the christmas tree came around the cars were then handicapped off of the National record in their class....during this time bracket racing was born for the racers who could not run with the big dogs......and dont forget a lot of these big dogs were privy to parts and knowledge that the average Joe was not.....back then Stock was much more a performance base class.....then NHRA in their infinite wisdom decided to introduce the class index system to give every racer a FAIR chance........This worked great untill the cost got out of control.......In my estimation racing has never been FAIR and I never expected it to be.....It was a challenge with many obstacles to overcome......So, in answer to your question, the Glory days for me included all 40 yrs that I was able to race............

03-30-2009, 01:06 PM	#8
Neil Smedley Member Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Phoenix, AZ Posts: 163 Likes: 32 Liked 22 Times in 7 Posts	Re: When was the "Golden Age" of Stock Eliminator I have been involved with drag racing since the very early 60`s........When stock eliminator started I think there were only 4 or 5 classes....the class winners were brought back to race each other HEADS UP to determine Stock Eliminator... Of course that was done with a flagman start...,,racers bitched so they began to give the slower cars a 10 foot per class standing head start......then the christmas tree came around the cars were then handicapped off of the National record in their class....during this time bracket racing was born for the racers who could not run with the big dogs......and dont forget a lot of these big dogs were privy to parts and knowledge that the average Joe was not.....back then Stock was much more a performance base class.....then NHRA in their infinite wisdom decided to introduce the class index system to give every racer a FAIR chance........This worked great untill the cost got out of control.......In my estimation racing has never been FAIR and I never expected it to be.....It was a challenge with many obstacles to overcome......So, in answer to your question, the Glory days for me included all 40 yrs that I was able to race............