1970’s – Drag Racing 7 : 1977-1978

Another 2+hours of vintage 70’s drag racing! National NHRA events were
starting to get more TV coverage, and not just 10-minute highlight reels shot on
film, but hour long TV specials shot on video. This long DVD contains 2 NHRA
races, and excerpts from a long forgotten 1978 drag racing movie.

1977 NHRA Springnationals – Sportsman Classes Special (52 min)
Coverage of the NHRA Sportsman Classes of the 1977 Springnationals from Columbus, OH. Coverage includes
Competition Eliminator, Pro Comp, Stock Eliminator, etc. This is an early ‘Diamond P’ broadcast, and includes the
original commercials (Fram, English Leather, and many more). Some of the noted drag racing names seen in this
original TV broadcast are Don Carlton driving “The Rod Shop” Dodge Colt, Dale Armstrong in his Pro Comp
dragster, and Joe Amato in a 1977 Firebird Funny Car. Also of note is Buick turbocharged legend Buddy
Ingersoll, who was wielding a turbocharged 4-cylinder Ford Pinto here, and ends up winning the event, defeating
many big block V8 cars in the process.  Commentators are Dave McClelland and Steve Evans.

1977 NHRA World Finals (33 min)
The 1977 World Finals from Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, CA.  This is a CBS-TV broadcast, and production
values are not as good as the ‘Diamond P’ production (camera angles were more limited). Several very interesting
interviews of racers that seldom (if ever) made it on national television. On the track, John Abbott is low qualifier
in Top Fuel, and Graham Light pulls a huge upset by taking out Don Garlits. Dennis Baca and Shirley Muldowney meet
in the final round, while Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme’s U.S. Army sponsored Plymouth Arrow meets Gordie Bonin’s
‘Bubble Up’ Firebird in Funny Car, and Snake faces a very rare final round defeat. In Pro Stock, Bob Glidden
faces off against Dyno Don Nicholson. Ken Squier and Brock Yates handle the CBS broadcast duties.

Selected scenes from the 1978 movie “Burnout” (60 min)
A classic ‘B’ movie, filled with bad acting and a vanilla script, but this 1978 movie is a treasure trove of great drag
racing footage. We omitted the long, drawn out scenes of dialogue that occur on a beach, in Las Vegas, etc., just to
see the good stuff, vintage drag racing! The plot line of this movie is a standard one; a young kid, with feathered hair,
wants to race a dragster, but dad won’t let him because it’s too dangerous. He eventually has a dragster built, and
of course wins an event. On the way, we see some rare footage of Donovan Racing Engines, various tracks like
Irwindale, Formoso, Pomona, and even footage of Race Car Specialties in California. Lots of great Funny Cars and Top
Fuelers shown, including the Pisano & Matsubara car, Gary Densham, Raymond Beadle, Frank Bradley, and many more.
This movie was done with the cooperation of the NHRA, and we hear track announcer Steve Evans at times, as well as
getting a cameo by Linda Vaughn and the Hurst Girls. Again, we selected just the drag racing scenes, and cut about
30 minutes of bad dialogue, as well as scenes of sunsets and casinos, from this segment.