1977 NHRA SUMMERNATS - COMPETITIONPLUS.COM
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- CompetitionPlus.com has uncovered another classic drag racing video gem.
This time, courtesy of Diamond P Sports, we bring you coverage of the 1977 NHRA Summernationals in Englishtown, NJ. Travel back in time when the term Summernationals was one of the major and ALWAYS meant drag racing in July at the famed Raceway Park.
You'll see the legends in action ranging from drag racing's first lady Shirley Muldowney to "The Snake" Don Prudhomme. You'll also see dry hopes and the high-winding Pro Stockers when small blocks and heavy flywheels were the norm.
Best of all you'll hear the golden tones of Dave McClelland and Steve Evans.
There just might be a cameo appearance of a teenager [55:10] in the last few minutes of the show who would go on to become an NHRA national event announcer and television entity.
I was 14 in 1977. Started at 7 in 1970' going to Drag Racing events.
Irwindale raceway
Lyons Drag Strip
Orange County Intl raceway
Ontario Motor Speedway
Pomona Fairgrounds
(Saw every Drag Racer there was, and was basically addicted to Nitro and Rubber!)
Miss Steve Evans and these days right here! Glad stuff like this is preserved on film. God bless the NHRA and Drag Racing!🔥
Love the old 70's drag racings..
Nothing better than the sound at the finish line. Saw Larry Lombardo and the Grump’s monza at Carlisle this summer. Had all his wallys on display.
R.I.P. STEVE EVANS
R.I.P. Dyno Don (1927-2006)
This was where we spent our honeymoon! OMG, the memories.
I never realized that a dirty air filter would cause you to swerve back and forth into oncoming traffic around blind corners. Now I Know!! Thank you Fram!
Great coverage. Wish the announcers now would teach more to newbies about drag racing.
They really didn't cover much then.
Excellant~Like to see more full shows from the 60's, 70's and early 80's~
I attended this event along with the one in 1976 and 1978. Me and a couple of my racing buddies would take our girlfriends, check into a local Holiday Inn and make a weekend of it. Friday night fuel qualifying under the lights was awsume! The Friday crowd was almost as large as the one on Sunday. The weather was always hot and humid but the racing was great. And heck, there was always a pool and a bar back at the Motel! Thanks for posting.
Krylo, I am now in S.C. They recently tore down the local 8th mile track here to put in a subdivision. The company went bankrupt. The area now lies abandon and overgrown. If I ever hit the powerball I am gonna build my own personal dragstrip!
Of corse you are invited brother.
another prominent voice from my childhood...Steve Evans
Prudhomme not wanting to divulge that load of nitro to Steve Evans when asked was classic Snake!
Thumbs up if you used to watch these races back in the day on TNN
STEVE EVANS INTERVIEW WITH THE SNAKE AFTER HIS VICTORY THE SNAKES COMMENTS SAY IT ALL A MAN WITH GREAT SPORTSMANSHIP, HUMILITY, AND CLASS!
Good on Fram & Ford for they're forward thinking advertising. Having people of color out front in your commercials took balls in the mid 70's! 💪😎
It didn't take balls - it was playing catch-up. That was pretty normal by then. Did you know two of the top 4 rated TV shows in 1975 were Sanford and Son and The Jeffersons? That was 2 years before this. Racism was of course still a massive problem in the US, but the presence of blacks on US TV was no longer unusual. Including black actors in commercials was an acknowledgement that companies also had black customers who bought their products. It also helped their public image to be seen as inclusive in their racial representation. It was profit-driven, and it was effective. And oh yeah, it did help Americans to see black people represented everywhere.
@@beenaplumber8379 Oh really, well Hoss I grew up as 1 of 3 White kids in the entire neighborhood & I'm well aware of the landscape from 1977. I can tell you for a fact there weren't many, infact just a scant few Black folk's on our 25 inch console trying to sell anything for anybody, but hey, if it makes you feel more intelligent than the rest of us to say otherwise then knock yourself out pal 😒 smh
The HD TV picture today is far superior than the 'ole NTSC, 525 line screen.....but I'd go back to that time in a single heart-beat....old TV and superior chicks!!
I remember NY national speedway on LI in those days, now closed. I went to English town a few years ago, well worth the admission as if you miss the smell of burning rubber, new cars are faster than the old stock to stock but they don't sound the same
Nothing beats the golden era of drag racing!
This is awesome. The ads are just as good.
Especially the English leather commercial! LOL! They sponsored a Funnycar in the 70's 🤔... I think Ace McCullough drove it, Anywayz they would pour English leather in the headers before a run & when they fired that muthr up, the whole place smelled like it! 😆 They did the same with Snake's car (driven by Ron Capps) when sponsored by Brut, the Crew Chief was infact Ace himself. That Ace was a good smell'n sucker!
👋😎
being in the UK i grew up with these raves on VHS tapes. Some happy happy memories!
Funny, never heard that term.
RIP Steve Evans
Amen 🙏 He and Diamond Dave were the Very Best announcer's in the all of Motorsports 💪
Steve was taken way to soon, atleast Dave lived a Full & Long life. RIP to them both, they are LEGEND 🙏
Ted, I always thought Saturday night was better. You had alot of fuel cars desperate to make the show just detonating motors. My dad had the blue bus at the finish line every year. It was some of the best memories of my life. Glad you remember it too
very cool to see this, brought back cool memories, really liked the commerciales , the Fram "an engine like you to have repaired like this one is around $500.00," that my friends is now the cost of 3\4 of 1 of the tires on my car , thanks for sharing this
A great era with great memories attached to it.!
The ads made me howl..man I feel old!
Christ,I was old even back then!
Paisano
Little Joe was a Baddass of the highest order 💪😎👍 RIP 🙏
One of the years I didn't make it to the Summer Nats. Times and speeds sure have changed!! E. Town was always my favorite track.
LOVE the high rear end rake of the pro stockers back then
Reminds me of the student parking lot at my high school :)
Steve Evans, Paul Page, Ralph Sheheen, Bill Stephens and Dave McClelland: the best NHRA broadcasters ever!
Chris Economaki of ABCs' Wide world of sports
@@ManFa_Q Damn I totally forgot about him. He was a good one too
6 really great announcers listed in this part of the comment section.
Diamond P definitely kicked the coverage up a notch!
I was there .... the tower was so tiny then.
I can remember about late '77 or maybe early '78 my Dad having an absolute fit. Gas went up to 67 cents a gallon. "What are they trying to do, break us??!!!!"
Real cars sure miss those days
Awesome video! Thanks, I remember watching this live on TV in 77.
"pay me now, or pay me later..." Classic stuff.
27:40 John Lingenfelter racing a Ford powered Chevy Monza against a Model T with an inline 6?
I'm not a Ford guy, but that might be the coolest race ever. Its weird stuff like this that makes vintage drag racing so interesting to me.
Me too the days when the builders had balls enough to buck the norm.Nowadays it's all cookie cutter,even the mighty Chrysler Hemi is copied to the point of having Toyota Hemis.I guess if you cant beat it cheat it.
What a disappointment to see the Model T fritz out at the start though. A close race would have been so cool!!!
About 20 years ago I saw a modern racing Corvette driven by a guy who ran a Corvette customer racing shop get beaten (2 laps on an asphalt 1/4 mile oval) by a guy in a 30-year-old AMC Gremlin he'd modified in his garage! I love those races! That Model T looked like it had a chance.
The frosty beverage jingels are off the chain🎉
I wish FOX Sports would bring the old Diamond P Sports NHRA theme back for its NHRA coverage, arranged by Ashton Shepherd and Tiffany Thornton! This song rocks!
Yes, and replace the boring David Rieff with the better-experienced Rich Brennan and have him team up with Tony Schumacher and Mike Dunn with Jamie Howe, Bill Stephens and Leeann Tweeden as pit reporters.
Know what the theme was named?
Great quality Vid... I have some old Super 8 of many of those events and in the box they will stay thanks to great folks uploading the pro footage
Sometimes that old home footage is every bit as good in its own way.
awesome these are better to watch than the new cars tuned to blow almost every pass i say if engine cant hold together 1/4 mile it sucks no matter how fast it is
Was there that weekend, or all 4 days. Can't remember for sure. Pretty much every Summernationals from '76 to '82 for all 4 days or at least the Saturday & Sunday semi and finals.
Great stuff....Thank very much for posting!
I was at this race all weekend long. Does anyone remember Friday night Pro qualifying under the lights?
Hell yeah bud! The Grand Prix of Drag Racing back in the 70's, at Irwindale California, used to take like 5 days to complete!
64 AATF's, 64 AAFC's, 32 PS's 😃!! 3 day's of qualifying, 2 day's of eliminations! Man what a blast, especially for a 16yr old kid with a surfer van! 😏 It was "Bitchin" 😆👍
Got to love that theme music from those Diamond P days.
I watched these guy's at Cayuga
This is cool to get to see this thanks man :D
That was so cool thank you
Old wooden grandstands are the bomb
I was at the motocross track racing my first pro expert race and in between Motos we would sneak over the fence and watch the funny cars,best time of my life,duh I was 15 and had my girlfriend camping with us,what more could you ask for...,
@49.48....that embrace by Shirley with Connie...
Right! 😏 Shirl had some shady stuff go'in on when it came to her love life, hell just there was her impassioned embrace with Conrad, while 3ft away was a very young Rahn Tobler! Rahn was/is "15yrs" younger than Shirl, but that didn't stop her from marrying him 11yrs after this race took place in E-Town, yeah Ol' don't call me "Cha-Cha" was quite the pot stirrer! 😉
My pops and I know Bob Ingles as well, he once built the engine for my pops's 71 noval a long time ago.
awesome video.....
No computer Bull crap.Tech.here.Loved the 70s
I've got my English Leather cologne on, just for Shirley Muldowney. 😮
"all my men wear english leather, or they wear nothing at all " lol
Did anybody notice the lack of fire and safety gear on the driver during the Pro Stock ridealong? Button down shirt, open faced helmet, no gloves...... That. Is. Awesome.
MUSTANG II WHAT A GREAT CAR TO RACE!
Cool show
I still have the factory race book from AMC,AMC really had some great engines.
Their 305(?) V8 Spirit AMX came in 1st & 2nd in their class at the 1979 24h Nurburgring. I know they had a great deal of success with the Javelin for many years before then. My first car was a 71 Hornet with a 258 and a 3-speed. That thing had more torque than anything I've owned since. I have a huge place in my heart for AMC. Their designs were so intelligent.
The old days of spinning a wingnut off, to replace an air filter. Miss those days.
Love the old commercials!!! Where can I get Cam2 motor oil? What if Shirley red lighted in the final would Jeb Allen win?
No! If Shirley had red-lighted, hit the wall (of course no wall then at E-Town) or crossed the centerline, the win would go to the quickest ET from the semi-final...I think away 🤷🏻♂️ LOL 😂👍
Good old days.i miss are KCIR Closed
The Hemi was used in aircraft engines since the 1904. As a V-8 Hemi engine for a vehicle it was done by Ford. It had tapered and floating wrist pins. The connecting rods were bronzed bushed. The crankshaft throws were drilled out for lightness. It had double splayed 4 bolt main caps. Its was all aluminum 1 piece block design. The heads were all aluminum Hemispherical design. This is all the bases and foundations of your modern racing engines. All modern day V-8 engines are based on this design.
Mopar won because Chrysler was the one who banned the 427 Cammer. The Cammer was a NASCAR engine and when they banned it is how it made its way to 1/4 mile.Then Chrysler had the superbird with the wing. What that wings function was, was not at high speed but allowed them to enter into the turn at higher speeds where other cars had to slow down. Then in 1970 Ford had the boss 429 and NASCAR implemented the restictor plate to stop FORD and has been doing so till this very day.
This is so cool! I used to race my '72 GS Buick at "E" Town in the early 80's when I ws just a pup. I wanna go back! Anybody got a time machine?
love seeing a amx in ps
Jenkins Wins!
yes i had front runners those skiniest kind of tires on thohose thin aa/f type fronnts in 70 they drove exactly right like radial i know i drove it to college
I was there....Couldn't find myself in the video thou...
Since the vid only goes to 53:06, you'll have to tell us plainly.
The 351 Cleveland changed the face of prostock drag racing. The percentage of Chevy vs Ford would give Chevy the clear advantage to dominate this sport. Yet Ford in limited low numbers dominated Prostock. The Cleveland was unbeatable. They made the Ford's carry more weight and they still beat the Chevy's. This is the reason NHRA mandated the 500ci rule. CHEVY HAS BEEN CHEATING THERE WAY TO THE FINISH LINE FOR DECADES.
I'm a MOPAR guy. And although Chrysler was the first with the altered wheel base cars, it was FORD who built the first flip top funny car as we know them today. Using your logic, the Wright Brother invented the jumbo jet..
1. In 1964 the Ford thunderbolts with the 427 high riser engine laid waste to everything that came up against it. Chrysler protested the car and had it banned. NASCAR then releases a statement: WHAT WE DO NOT WANT IS A 1 WINNER AND THIS IS WHAT FORD IS EASILY CAPABLE OF DOING.
2. In 1964 the Cammer was introduced in NASCAR and once again it was Chrysler who protested it and had it banned.
3. Dyno Don Nicholson's 427 Comet station wagon was protested once again by Chrysler and was banned.
Technically they worked for Ford. They had foundry knowledge that they learned from their fathers business. The rest they learned from Henry Ford. By building parts for Ford they absorbed Henry Fords knowledge of automobile design which later enabled them to start there own company after there contracts with Ford ended. Henry Ford is considered the greatest mechanical genius of modern times.
Prostock AMC :D ahh memories
Out of curiosity, What race and year was the first covered by Diamond P Sports? Thanks for posting these great races!!
Listen to how Mr Baldy describes burn out's As they "Heat up" those Big wide fat round drag racing slicks specially designed for drag racing so they get hot N sticky for traction .then we have Bob Glidden from nowhere Indiana which is a suburb of Indiana .. Daaa atta boy Bob..
Chevrolet and AMC prostock seem to be the only cars running in the 60's
the cameo....let me go out on a wild limb and say....Lewis Bloom???
Why were brown jackets and flared beige trousers ever thought to be stylish?!!! Love the racing though, so real.
At 20:10 you gotta love the ace with the big fucked-up afro LOL
Make his hair red & he's Bozo the clown!
🤔...of course, this Bozo would kick your ass! 😆 Ace is a Baddass 💪😎👍
1977: when men were men, and the chicks had huge shrubs on their "downtherea", and Budweiser was an actual American beer, and not some stupid assed multinational piece of shit lame excuse for beer. Cars were cars when they were 5 year old cars. Pintos blew up on impact from behind, there was EDB in our mom's "home made" brownies, A green machine was a bad ass big wheel made by an American company called Matelle, and not some stupid tree hugger gimmicky eco friendly hipster gizmo of the day. You kicked your neighbor's ass when he started shit with you. You wore your Irish sunglasses with pride when you went to schoolthe next day, and you could give someone a complimentary pair of their own behind the school busses if they gave you shit over it.
Coke bottles were pop top, and made of glass, KISS was a bad ass band, and everyone had their face painted like Paul Stanley at the summer fair. Shirley Muldowney was hot even for a five year old kid. (she's still pretty hot today)... There was no Reganomics... You could still find a silver quarter in your change dish. You never sat in dad's "Archie Bunker chair", you could say "Budweiser" all you wanted when you were eighteen. Cigarettes didn't exactly cause cancer, and you could smoke anywhere you damn well pleased. There was a market for smoke eaters, families ate Sunday dinner every Sunday right after "Wide World of Sports". You weren't persecuted for changing your car's oil over the storm drain in front of your house. Watching a Polaroid picture develope right before your eyes just blew your mind. Weebles wobbled, didn't fall down and made a great weapon when caught in a Lego fight.
You F'n made my day!
usually run by "Wide world of sports" every saturday afternoon
It was a 6' timing chain that was in the 1966 Mercury Comet Eliminator 1 that Dyno Don Nicholson drove. It was Lincoln Mercury who invented the tub chassis flip flop funny car. This 426 Cammer was the 1st car in the 7's. It set records then broke records. The supercharged “Eliminator II,” followed in ’67, and again Nicholson led the way. Then came Don’s “Eliminator” ’68 Cougar, which was practically undefeated. THE CAMMER WAS A BAD MOTOR. GET YOUR HEAD EXAMINED!
When do YOU say Budweiser? Umm, never....
When I’m asked about the shittiest beer.
Glidden smokes the professor lol
Love Dyno! Got his autograph at the '68 Indy nays,....but that's a really bad rug !
ANYONE know the name of the opening song?? Been hunting it for years, & Shazam is worthless
The old small block Chevy also came from Ford. One engineer of a 5 man team working on variations of overhead valve V-8's after the war defected over to GM giving them the technology to create a V-8 engine which at the time was very difficult to balance. LIKE I SAID THEY HAVE BEEN CHEATING THERE WAY TO THE FINISH LINE FOR DECADES. FROM PROSTOCK TO NASCAR TO THE LS IT IS ALL FORD.
Sheesh give it a rest will ya?? Engineers, think tanks, and developers typically work for multiple companies during a lifespan this isn't anything new or "cheating" as you like to call it. For example Iacocca jumped from Ford to Chrysler, Shelby jumped from Ford to Chrysler to GM and then back to Ford again. They both did great work for all the companies involved. Switch to Decaf coffee and just enjoy the racing will ya?
freaking pro stocks look faster even though they aren't.
Come on wally!.wake up!..lol
The Ford funny cars like John Force all run the boss 500 engine. John Force has been winning for years. Read about Ohio George Montgomery. He raced a Boss 429 decades back and was banned from racing. He was too fast for the Hemi's. Ford was the first to build a Hemi V-8 in the late 30's.The GAA tank engine. During the war Zora Arkus got the idea from the GAA to put a Hemi on a flathead Ford. Several years later Zora secretly met with Chrysler and gave them the designs. IT ALL COMES BACK TO FORD.
Unless he has his facts wrong? Lets remember gas was about 45 cents a gallon, remember those days? When i got my license in 73/74 it was 35 cents, i miss those days
At 3:00 Warren johnson looks like kurt johnson LOL
1. Bill France heard Chrysler was building a DOHC which did not exist and therefore decided to ban the Ford 427 Cammer.. THE PILE OF SHIT IS GETTING HIGHER.
2. The restrictor plate was introduced in 1970 to stop the 429 Boss and has been used ever since to even Ford up with the rest of them meaning to slow them down.
3. There is no true inventor of the Hemi design. The French used it in 1904 and dates back even farther. But your modern day v-8 hemi is a descendant of the Gaa tank engine.
no 2 step
Prostock, the best of the best. Too bad Mr. 4 speed still was'nt around.
Chrysler did have the dohc but it wasn't working one exploded in dyno testing
Got any definitive proof, as opposed to your's or someone's online blog or opinion, or even hear-say and rumors?
The clowns at NHRA never got it in the brain pan that the fans who watch Drag racing would rather watch sportsman Drag racing then just the 3 top classes that we already know what a Drag slick is and what a funny car is they announce in the Mic as if we are all house wives completely clueless as to what we're watching ..I've never understood how off the mark they were in almost every aspect and yet still successful ..in spite of being clueless.
27.36 JOHN WHO?
I'm guessing your joking? Lingenfelter....Just an FYI, that Monza Lingenfelter was driving was the Monza Glidden tried to run for 1 race in Pro Stock but couldn't make a Chevy run...sold it to John.