Ihra 1970 nova stock2/9/2024 Rick Ramsey drove John Keeling and Jerry Clayton's beautiful California Charger slingshot – which also was judged the meet’s Best Appearing Car - to the Top Fuel win with a string of steady 6.60s and 6.70s, capped by a 6.70 to defeat tire-smoking Gerry Glenn. ![]() Among those not making the 32-car 6.93 cut were Tommy Ivo, Chris Karamesines, newly crowned world champ Ronnie Martin, “Sneaky Pete” Robinson, Kelly Brown, Indy runner-up Jim Nicoll, and many more. Butch Maas was the low qualifier at 6.68 in Prudhomme’s Indy-winning Wynn’s Winder but was upset in round one by “the Loner,” Tony Nancy. A number of drivers had run in the low 6.40s in 1969, but the best anyone could run in Ontario was 6.56, recorded by Danny Ongais in Carl Casper’s Young American in round two. The event also was aired live to television viewers in more than 70 cities on the American Telesports Network.Īlthough fans and racers were wowed by the facility, with its enclosed garages, restaurants, theme-park-like spectator parking-lot shuttles, and the like, the first event – in fact, the first two – did not showcase the type of jaw-dropping performance with which the track would soon be associated.Īlthough the dragstrip had been coated from start to finish with a sticky resin traction compound sprayed from a helicopter, the hoped-for 6.3-second runs never materialized. NHRA also decided that because points were not on the line, the event was the perfect place to test its new ProStart system, which featured one amber light instead of the traditional countdown Christmas Tree. (Throughout his life, Parks was a big advocate of getting NHRA recognized internationally, beginning in 1958 when he selected Ed Cortopassi’s streamlined Glass Slipper and Calvin Rice's 1955 Nationals-winning dragster to compete for FIA International Acceleration Records at March Air Force Base in Riverside, Calif.)īecause the event was held after the points-scoring season finale, the World Finals at Dallas Int'l Motor Speedway, entry to the event didn't need to be open to all, and a selection committee was charged with picking the 350 to 400 “top performers” and “superstars” who had the privilege of participating in the event. OMS President David Lockton and NHRA President Wally Parks also saw to it that the event received a full international listing on the world racing calendar. The event featured the richest purse in drag racing history, with a minimum base purse of $50,000 and contingencies and other prizes surpassing the record $225,000 offered at the U.S. 20-22, was sponsored by Mattel and its brand of miniature hot rods, then in its first full season of turning Don “the Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “the Mongoose” McEwen into household names with kids across the country. The NHRA Hot Wheels Supernationals, scheduled for Nov. The Keeling & Clayton team originally wasn’t even part of the invited teams for the 1970 Supernationals, but got in when others could not attend, and Rick Ramsey made ‘em all pay by driving the California Charger, near lane, to the Top Fuel win. This week, the Supernationals events, 1970-73 next week, the World Finals, 1974-80.ġ970: Inaugural event a big deal, e.t.s not so much Here’s a race-by-race look at the events that cemented “The Big O’s” place in drag racing lore. In its short 10-year run as an NHRA national event venue, Ontario Motor Speedway became known as the place to set records, an amazing feat considering that the soon-to-be-hallowed dragstrip also doubled as the pit lane for the oval track. The Ontario event, being the finale to the “Super Season,” was, appropriately enough, named the Supernationals, and, as you will read in this column, it proved more than an apt name. In 1970, the NHRA national event schedule also nearly doubled, from four events in 1969 to a whopping seven for what quickly became billed as NHRA’s “Super Season.” NHRA added two more season-themed events – the Springnationals and the Summernationals – to complement the well-established Winternationals as well as the cutely named Gatornationals in Florida and a second California event to be held at the newly constructed Taj Mahal of tracks, Ontario Motor Speedway, 50 miles outside of Los Angeles but just about the length of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" down Interstate 10 from Pomona, home of the Winternationals. It marked the first season for a new class, Pro Stock, and the first time that a season champion would be crowned in a fledgling class known as Funny Car, which until then had run only sporadically – six times, to be exact - since its inception in late 1966. The 1970 season was, by many accounts, one of the most important in NHRA history.
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