D.I. COLUMNIST
On the Road
with Van Abernethy
T
here’s nothing quite like
a stack of old 35mm photo-
graphs to bring back some of
the fondest memories that chronicle
a love affair with drag racing that
spans more than three decades.
Some of my earliest national event
pics were shot at Bristol Dragway,
which was among the closest IHRA
quarter-mile facilities to my house.
Looking back, I honestly didn’t take
it for granted either, because even
back then I was convinced that
what I had in my “backyard” was
mega-special, but still, I never envi-
sioned it ending. To be clear, Bristol
Dragway is still very much thriving,
just in a different way since NHRA
took over the proper-
ty, and IHRA “as we
knew it” completely
folded.
First time I ever
stepped foot on the
property was in 1991
for the IHRA Spring
Nationals. At age 18 I
had somehow landed
a race reporting gig
for my local news-
paper, so I not only
attended the Bristol
meet as a crazed fan,
but also as a meager
reporter. As I stepped
into the restricted
photographers’ area
on the starting line,
the first pair of Top
Fuel dragsters fired
up and my attention
was squarely focused
on this amazing cack-
le being blasted from
the headers. When
those things thun-
dered from the start-
ing line I thought the
world was somehow
coming to an end!
I had never experienced anything
like it, and most anyone will share
a similar story when reflecting their
first hit of nitro. The line-up of stars
in attendance that weekend was
amazing – Kenny Bernstein, Eddie
Hill, Gene Snow – guys I’d seen on
TV were now battling it out for their
position on the qualifying sheet.
Eddie Hill’s wife, Ercie, was
someone I was eager to meet, just
so I could tell her how
much I enjoyed read-
ing her column in Super
Stock & Drag Illustrated
magazine. If memory
serves, the column was
titled “Postcard from the
Pits,” which described
life on the road chasing
races...sound familiar? For some
reason this column really spoke to
me, although I had no idea I’d be
writing one eerily similar nearly
three decades later!
In stark contrast to Top Fuel’s
elite teams, early 1990s IHRA
was also comprised of people like
the Lagana family, who famously their autographs. Quain
Stott had a Pro Modified
Chevy Beretta he named
“Grand Illusion,” which
dispelled any assump-
tions that he was rolling
in money.
The list of characters
went on and on, and
honestly, there was no better place
to watch this epic movie of life in
the fast lane unfold than Thunder
Valley, which was scenic and full of
working-class charm in the 1990s.
The weather is bizarrely unpredict-
able there in the Tennessee hills, and
seemed to change every few minutes.
As a result, the track surface could
towed their Top Fuel dragster to
the track with an old ramp truck.
There were guys like “Pontiac Jack”
Ostrander, who owned a bowling
alley, and “Diesel John” Carey, who
had a trucking company to support
his Top Fuel operation. It was pro-
level racing with a colorful, largely
underfunded cast of characters
whose struggles you could darn near
relate to, although we still asked for get finicky at times, and watching
fuel cars and powerful doorslam-
mers skate around was both exciting
and nerve-racking. The only Top
Fuel blowover I’ve ever witnessed in
person happened at Bristol in 1993
when Doug Foxworth flipped a Top
Fuel dragster over backwards going
through the finish line.
It was also Bristol that delivered
my first experience of Bob Motz
and his famous jet-powered Ken-
worth. I’ll never forget the T-shirts
Bob was peddling in 1991, which
proudly proclaimed, “I’ll huff and
puff and blow your track down!” It’s
all fun and games until he actually
does it – and believe me, Motz has
wreaked havoc and set ablaze a few
things that weren’t part of the script!
Some of my most treasured
35mm film pics were shot at Bris-
tol with a pawn-shop-purchased
Nikon...a camera that didn’t even
have autofocus! Among my favorites
is this month’s column photo, which
illustrates Shirley Muldowney boil-
ing the tires off her pink dragster,
circa 1993.
The hottest show
in town in the early
1990s was IHRA Pro
Modified, and the
cars were honestly
the coolest they’ve
ever been in the his-
tory of the class when
it was first launched.
Mountain Motor Pro
Stock racers never
questioned if they
had a place to race, as
IHRA heralded the
class as superstars
of drag racing, and
rightfully so. Guys
like Billy Huff, Roy
Hill, Harold Denton,
Doug Kirk, Rickie
Smith and so many
others brought high
drama to the quar-
ter mile while driv-
ing stock-appearing,
naturally aspirated
cars that sounded
like a symphony at
full throttle.
There’s an old
saying that suggests
“The older we get the
more we enjoy telling it the way
it used to be.” Guilty as charged, I
suppose, because “magical” is how
I look back on those days. Fellow DI
columnist Tommy D’Aprile reminds
me often, though, that “’today’ is the
good old days,” and that too is very
much true, as every stop along the
way most assuredly has something
we’ll fondly look back on as the best
of times.
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56 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
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Issue 147