classic video - 1982 NHRA SPRINGNATIONALS

diamond p sports presents championship drag racing from the national hot rod association the 1982 spring nationals brought to you by goodyear eagles high performance radios the racing eagles goodyear tamed for the street and by motorcraft motorcraft offers a complete line of automotive parts to fight the enemies of your engine motorcraft for sure and by budweiser the king of beers reach for that distinctively clean crisp taste that says budweiser for all you do this bud's for you [Music] the 18th annual spring nationals residing at national trail raceway just outside of columbus ohio and currently being attended by an absolutely overflow crowd for the past seven years diamond p sports has brought you this event and each year it has provided our cameras rare insight into nhra drag racing and the people of the sport this year reigning world champion jeb allen is the start of our story he has caused his peers in top fuel racing to stop ponder and then take sides at the start of eliminations this morning allen's car was being powered by the fourth motor to rest within the chassis in three days he had destroyed three previous engines and knew that the one pushing him forward was the only chance he had to defeat jim bernard in the northwind special bernard qualified easily and was not suffering from mechanical problems but the situation was a bit more complicated the motor in allen's car did not belong to him it had been loaned to him by mark danicus owner of the top fuel entry driven by lucille lee that car has carried lucille to one national event victory so far this season and she's currently second in the world championship point standings right behind shirley baldwin the race was over at the instant of his start in spite of the fact bernard got to the finish line first he left behind him a red light instant disqualification but it was then after ensuring himself of birth in the second round the jeb allen made a startling announcement he was withdrawing from further competition because of engine problems i'm i'm scared of driving the car right now at this time it's uh it's going to just blow to smithereens unless i go back to california and straighten things out and come back real strong at the end of the year which we'll do okay we'll look at this record on your trailer you'll be back we will be i hope so why all the fuss well to understand the situation let's take a look at the pairings chart for this spring nationals remember that muldowney and lee are in a tight points chase for the world championship and you see that with jeb pulling out of the next round lucille gets a bye run a free ride but muldowney has to run hard facing competition from number one qualifier frank bradley obviously a less favorable position and she's not at all happy about it i don't like it nobody no one else likes it no you should have enough faith in your car your driver and your ability to go out and run for the money like the boys do and that's what we've always done until this year so i don't know what can i say this is lucille lee the driver of the car scheduled to run against jeb allen while downey is not displeased with her fellow driver but with the owner of the car mark danicus mark i'll uh be straight up with you there's a lot of conversation that jeb allen in that he was using your engine was being used to block for lucille lee and that the car is not really broken and he has pulled out to give lucille a single and more points well steve the best way i know to put this and it it makes us look bad now but three days ago when jeb sitting over there on this on his tailgate he has no motors he's broken he's out of money nobody else in the place that helped the boy so could it be that jeb allen his car equipped with a motor borrowed from mark danekus has withdrawn from the second round to give lucille a free ride into the semifinals jeb uh you're familiar with the term blocking yeah yeah we are steve you're being uh kind of accused of that here and uh giving lucille a final and that you had uh motor out of her trailer well you know we did hurt the motor like i said earlier it could be repaired yes but i'm i'm three motors in the hole right now twenty thousand dollars a whack i could borrow one from another racer but when i had to go race them would i blow up their motor you know or what would i do go borrow somebody else's motor at that point in time so right now i just feel it's the best time to throw in the towel you know just like a fighter somebody gets a cut eye he can't fight no more i'm out of motors this is the second round of top fuel competition and this is the only car on the racetrack at the moment this is the one the controversy is centered around driven by lucille lee she is the only woman other than shirley muldowney ever to win a professional title at an nhra championship event lucille on a single run was to face jeb allen but we've told you there's a lot of controversy surrounding the fact that her competition has withdrawn from this round for lucille it's a buy run she could run the car hard take it easy but she can lose but if you cross that center line or should touch the guardrail you're disqualified so do you risk making a hard run for lane choice or you did do you just make sure you keep it between the lines well i can only run the car one way and that's how mark's got it set and i think it's set for a really good run but i'm just gonna have to really uh do my part and keep it on my own side but you're not gonna shut it off and just goes through oh no no it's hard to shut it off i do much fun yeah so lucille lee has a lot on her mind as she brings that 2500 horsepower dragster to the starting line don't cross the center line don't hit the guardrail lay down a good run but she's in trouble right off the start the car the engine exploding itself at the finish line parts coming off the engine and this presents an interesting problem can lucille lee and her car owner mark danicus come back for the semi-final round here at the spring nationals i'm dave mcclelland and along with steve evans we'll find out in just a moment [Music] as we get ready to continue in round number two of top fuel racing at the spring nationals this is the car that just exploded an engine lucille lee a big boom and a lot of fire in the lights lucille and all for nothing because the 619 is not enough to get the lane choice but you sure tried well i did let up too oh did you yeah right before i well it felt it start to lug a sign of becoming a veteran when you feel this yeah i really feel good about feeling it but i know mark's gonna be really upset meantime back at the starting line our next pair of cars getting ready for this round of competition one of them is driven by this lady shirley muldowney and i can assure you she doesn't care if mark danicus is really upset what she's concerned about is this man the number one qualifier in top fuel racing frank bradley from napa california meantime back in the pit area in the funny carpet area billy meyer's car is getting a lot of attention the crew is physically lifting an engine out of the chassis by hand just another engine problem in this long weekend of racing the burnout procedure started by our next two cars frank bradley and shirley muldowney it was way back in 1976 that shirley muldowney won her first ever nhrla national event title right here at the spring nationals for frank bradley in 1976 he won the winter nationals he has been winless since that time but at the spring nationals this year he's the best in qualifying you're qualified number one for the first time does that give you any special confidence knowing that you can out perform all these other cars and have done so for three days well uh sometimes it does sometimes it don't being number one qualifier that means you're right on the verge of probably smoking the tires or shaking a little bit uh makes me a little nervous sometimes being number one i'd rather be three or maybe four look burnouts are completed and frank bradley looking ahead as his crew member checks the car over shirley backing into her own track her crew chief ron tobler checking the engine over and now it's time to bring both cars to the starting line this is round number two racing they have both won in the previous round the winner here will advance into the semi-final the sky is beginning to get cloudy over national trail raceway possibly some bad weather starting to move in and everybody's mind is on that but everybody's eye on the starting line surely the last of stage and frank bradley smokes the tires shirley muldowney with a big lead but some engine problems at the finish line she runs 5.83 seconds her speed is only 227 miles an hour but the smoke indicating some problems for shirley muldowney the problems continuing in billy myers pit now it is a complete engine being picked up by hand and getting ready to try to lift it into that chassis that's hard work they must be having some problems with the electric winch system that is used generally to change these engines let's go to steve shirley maldonado comes out of her car and looks back at an oil soaked motor sometimes these things aren't as serious as they look as shirley wall knows so you hope that it's a blown gasket or something and not all the pistons and rods but boy when you're racing everyone qualifies you lean on it don't you slightly um i think they leaned on it a little bit put some more horsepower in it could have lost a filter the way these engines are designed though they're built to be leaned on because you can fix them in the time that you have we'll have about an hour and 15 minutes if it doesn't rain on us i think everything will be all right okay you guys are here to get dork shirley muldowney continuing to extend her lead in the world championship points chase here's the man that finished number two in the world last year and he would love to wear that big number one again former world champion gary beck driving for larry miner his competition the new driver for the team of candies and hughes news this year this is mark oswald candies and hughes out of houma louisiana a long time team in drag racing you saw them and mark oswald win the recent cajun nationals covered here on diamond b sports but now gary beck's trying to take the measure they both smoke the tires it's a close race to the finish line and it is gary beck winning it by about a half a car length mark oswald some 10 miles an hour faster but it didn't matter because gary beck got to the finish line first as we watch again smoke off the tires indicating loss of traction for both drivers at the finish line they're almost side by side but in the last second gary beck pulls it out you see the times as i told you oswald closing hard at the finish but beck the winner gary beck you've had two tough races uh those were both 590 elapsed times you qualify with 570s uh where are they i think we're turning the tires a little bit out of the gate steve it felt like it slipped a little bit just off the pad but it uh it's hard to say we're plenty glad you just went a few rounds the first two rounds we've won this year so we're happy to be right here back in billy myers pit area they've got the engine lifted up ready to drop it into the chassis by hand it seems that the other engine had a broken main bearing stud they tried to replace it were unable to do so had to change engines the winch broke and here they are here at the starting line our final two cars in this round of competition getting ready to go joe amato psyching himself up as he rolls forward into the water area to start his burnout well the burnout is exactly what you see they are spinning the tires at such a speed it literally burns the rubber on the tires to get them hot his competition gene snow doing exactly the same thing as they now back up into their tracks trying to find the best traction gene snow one of the most famous names in all of drag racing out of fort worth texas is against joe amato who's celebrating his birthday today moving up into the top fuel ranks after competing for several years in the pro conference joe amato winning his first round race with one of the quickest and fastest times ever recorded by the old forge pennsylvania driver he's got his hands full here though with gene snow the kg veteran and a tremendous red light and gene snow shuts it off he knows all he's got to do is post it across the finish line but for joe amato maybe the psych job was just a little too heavy as we look again you see him way ahead of the yellow light and the green light so joe amato out of competition then slow down gene snow didn't worry about lane choice it took him 16 seconds to get there steve dave an update on that billy meyer story we were wondering if he'd even make it into the lanes he's the first car on the lights there's nobody else even here yet how on earth have you done this so quickly practice we have to do this a lot you broke a lot of backs doing that by hand why yeah it's a we exploded the winch in my face and we went borrowed raymond's and then raymond's wouldn't work on our deal so we just had to do it by hand following the story of engine trouble here at the spring nationals a lot of activity in the lucille lee mark danica's pit area here's the engine you saw blow up and there's the rocker arm cover that lost part of its metal we'll be coming back to the spring nationals in columbus ohio with a second round of funny cars in just a moment [Music] if you get up in the morning and your engine looks like this then you've got troubles so does the lady who drove this one to destruction lucille lee well in this day of musical engines it's lucille lee's crew who is the next to change motors you've already done so the other one sitting over here just destroyed yeah we kind of messed it up on the last run yeah the last thing you want to do is change engines that's right we've got one more round to go and so it's always good to know we have a spare but these are fixable and i'm sure if they have to get them back together before another round they can do it just what you needed another unknown quantity this time the motor behind you exactly but i'm always a lot of different things are always coming up for me a lot of things are new so it really doesn't make that much difference engine problems rapidly becoming the big story of the spring nationals shirley muldowney billy meyer lucille lee jeb allen the list is continuing to grow and as we get set to go in round number two of funny car racing we may find that the engine problem story could affect the outcome of this entire race the 2500 horsepower nitro burning funny car and the long crowd-pleasing burnout and this the most famous burnout king of them all the chi-town hustler driven by frank hawley racing against hawley in this round is billy meyer and we've seen a lot of work by billy and his crew literally changing an engine by hand to get this car ready for this round of racing for the chi-town hustler team and frank hawley it's a tight race with ray beatle for the points championship lead in the world championship series for billy meyer he's taking dead aim on just getting past this round to move into the semifinals the funny cars mechanically duplicates of the top fueled ragsters utilizing the nitro burning engine the chassis configuration somewhat different with the engine in front of the driver the body of fiberglass replica in billy meyer's case of an 82 trans amp for frank hawley his body stylin 82 dodge charger a good lead for both cars frank holly and billy meyer and it is holly pulling it out at the end but he's also got a little smoke indicating some possible engine damage frank holla using the two parachutes to bring him to a safe stop this win moving him into the semifinals the next two cars ready to go and out of the burnout area comes don the snake bruto alongside of him kenny bernstein rudolph the big story of the recent cajun nationals as you watched right here on diamond p sports don prudhomme and his pontiac trans am established a new all-time speed record for funny cars 250 miles an hour for kenny bernstein it has been a trouble plague season thus far kenny out of austin texas has had lots of problems but he's getting him sorted out at this event for don brudom former four-time world champion he's ready for anything rudolf in the pontiac trans am kenny bernstein driving the mercury ln7 body creation both engines producing well over 2500 horsepower we're in the second round of the spring nationals funny car elimination on the starting line don brunom and kenny bernstein and look at bernstein leave the starting line with a tremendous lead as gradom just shuts it off bernstein may have solved all his problems at this event predom slowly coasting across but the story is bernstein at a tremendous 6.08 second elapsed time the bodies being lowered over our next two competitors it is dale paul day driving the war eagle this car has been described by many as truly a rolling work of art paulde and his partner mike hamby with the ward eagle steve well regular viewers of our diamond p telecast may not recognize kenny bernstein's face with a smile on it but we're going to see one yeah really i'm telling you it was a nice race that time she didn't move around quite as bad steve we delight with the team oh wait well it's better than i thought yeah i'm a little confused yet because when it shakes so much i can't really tell where it's going that time it didn't shake at all and it just did what it was supposed to well you loaded it for purdum yeah well we really put a lot of clutch on to see we get the shake to go away it works and kenny bernstein hopes it continues to work for two more races but the immediate thought of the moment on dale pauldy's mind is this race and he will be up against al sagrini zagreeni winner of the winter nationals thus far this season is in there in the thick of things in the points chase and one of the reasons why al sagrini has been enjoying such success was evidenced here at the spring nationals in round number one of competition when he took on the current points leader raymond beatle in the famed blue max for raymond beetle look at the smoke that is pouring out of this car as it sits on the starting line before the race is even underway lots of smoke indicating tremendous problems with the engine al sagrini he's concentrating on the tree he doesn't realize it and really raymond beatle is out of it before he ever left the line al sagrini a big win over raymond beadle david there is already an autopsy going on at the blue max pits trying to find out what is wrong with this motor raymond it appeared to hurt itself early a lot of smoke coming off the car yeah the car was dead on the burnout since we i stopped on the burnout i knew it was dead i backed up and we did the one little curve it just it was the motor was dead it already hurt one cylinder so that's why i kind of hurried up and staged the car i mean just in case [Music] he might make an error on the starting line which he didn't do i mean i might have rushed him up a little bit like i said we didn't have it i had nothing to lose and everything to gain the blue max crew hard at work trying to find out what went wrong with yet another engine here at the spring nationals in the second round of racing alisa greening having disposed of ray beedle takes on dale paul day a great start mapaldi up in smoke and sagrini his tires locked to the pavement streaks across the finish line and takes the win a disappointment for paulie he had run very good in round number one but for al sagrini he's happy as he moves into the next round already as the cars turn off the racetrack we've got another pair fired and ready to go john force and tom anderson but right now let's go down to steve evans well for a guy who got in the show at the last possible moment late saturday afternoon uh you're looking off the good now boy i'm telling you i'm telling you we had problems the whole race we're just dropping cylinders and we picked it up that last qualifying pass and it really felt good it's starting to come together now though that's where it counts the final pair of the second round of money car elimination with tom anderson driving jim women's wombat car anderson a journeyman race driver he has driven for several car owners and acquitted himself well against john brute force from california force in the 81 citation-bodied entry tom anderson driving an 82 ford exp body the car owned by jim women surprising mini eraser at various national events and i'll tell you he's got john force headed from wire to wire it is tom anderson at 6.23 seconds taking the measure of john brute force so the semifinals we find al sagrini against kenny bernstein frank hawley going against tom anderson at the spring nationals back in national trail raceway near columbus ohio i'm dave mcclelland along with steve evans and we're set to go with pro stock elimination semi-final round for this 18th annual spring nationals championship these are the factory hot rods but first steve's had a chance to catch up with tom anderson right tommy anderson's car with dual parachutes stop very quickly the turnaround crew is still pushing it off with tom's help tom out of all the funny cars that changed engines and there were three or four of them you're the only one that got the win light i think i got lucky because i don't have i don't know what we run but it didn't feel very good i think it dropped cylinders we richened it up this is our last engine we got to make it last back at the starting line the pro stocks ready to go this man has been having lots of problems all season long bob glidden is beginning though to get his ford exp sorted out here at the spring nationals for warren johnson his 1980 osmo bill starfire is in the semifinals but he's got his work cut out for him as clinton has been running exceptionally well with this shotgun motored ford 500 cubic inches for each for the osmo bill for the board the weight of the cars 2 300 pounds the driver makes all the difference and it's a red light for warren johnson he left the starting line too soon he knew he had to take a chance he tried he got there first but back at the starting line the red light in his lane indicates he left too soon for bob clinton another over 170 mile an hour pass in that 40 xp a pair of chevrolets the world champion in the far lane lee shepard driving for rare and morrison out of arlington texas will be racing the man that finished number three in the world last season that's frankie of conio he's from tottowa new jersey a perfect start the two chevy camaros leaving the line as if they're one it appears to be lee shepard by just about a few inches over frank iaconio a 7.96 second elapsed time over 173 miles an hour as we watch again there they are side by side a few hundred feet off the starting line and going to the finish line 1320 feet away by inches it is lee shepard he's a little bit slower but he got to the finish line first indicating frank iaconio late off the starting line the finals shepard versus clinton steve this is the quarter million dollar semi truck and trailer of billy meyer just loaded to the walls with parts and pieces but meyer is out of competition on the other hand we have the quickest car in eliminations the chi-town hustler what year is this truck gosh i almost forgot i think it's a 66 or 7 or something around there well it's quite a contrast to the semi of myers in fact it's got a 1968 lions dragster decal on the window but you're low e.t you could leave here with a point sleet but if you make a mistake anderson's going to get you he worried me all weekend when we qualified he you know he run a couple o's and and we've run on a couple national events he's really quick on the lights i mean 480s and 90s which is unheard of in a fuel car and uh you know maybe i can be that sharp and maybe we'll just outrun him and uh it's really getting important at this far into the season the top fuel semifinals shirley muldowney against gene stone a pair of veterans as gene snow takes on the lady that has won the world championship twice for snow he was instrumental in funny car racing in the mid to late 60s helped develop the cars as we know them today steve this is gene snow you haven't seen him on diamond p sports because when he was the first of the big funny car stars they didn't televise drag races back then you raced for a living for so many years ned you retired from racing uh winning the oil business have done well you're back racing for the fun of it now yeah that's really nice for a change where if you can't make a race while you're going home and worry about the next time now you race shirley yeah now we're right shirley she and i have raced three times she's won twice i've won once i'm hoping i'm going to even end up this time the prototype of the laid-back texan from fort worth gene snow but he's going to have every bit of concentration that he can muster to try to get ahead of this woman at the finish line shirley muldown as we said she has won the world championship title twice the only person ever to do that in top fuel racing for g snow a return to the sport after several year layoffs instead of money cars he's encased in the roll cage of that top fuel dragster and a great start for shirley ball downey she builds up a big lead at the middle of the course and there's a 5.87 second elapsed time or speed 232 miles an hour surely with a wave to our diamond b cameras as back on the starting line the possibility of an all-woman final grows even greater this woman lucille lee coming into the sport just a year ago has already won one major nhra title steve's caught up with shirley chairman of donny's comment david she rose out of the cockpit looked at the motor and said wonderful a picture-perfect pass the prototype of a good run a 587 and the reaction timers told us you had a full tenth of a second advantage off the line oh that does help sometimes but that's like it's like a needle in a haystack you know taking a new pump off the shelf and runs off it's like a heart transplant unbelievable i'm impressed myself right we've got lucille and gary beck on the starting line what do you think beck of course steve it's obvious who she wants to race in the finals and that would be gary beck but one thing's got to happen gary beck has to win this race against lucille lee car owner mark danica's checking things over on the lucille lee car for gary beck patiently concentrating creeping his way up to the starting line lucille lee as you remember had lots of problems in the previous round in fact they had to put a whole new motor in this could make a difference for her mark dannick is giving her the okay as they approach the electronic themes across that starting line the lightning marking the official starting line and up in smoke goes lucille lee gary back has got it and his parachute comes out it is lucille lee smoking out another mudder and what an unbelievable series of events as lucille lee using up another motor in the race against gary beck as we watch again look at her lose traction the tires just smoking like it is a burnout the race is over at that point gary back has it won but look at his parachute come out it's getting warm down here david as lucille lee removes a wet tile she had tucked under her nomex fire suit her helmet comes off when it's your day it's your day when you smoke the tires you thought you were through oh i did i really did when i seen the shoot come out that was great well parachute had to shake them out probably yeah more than likely i'm sure it did with gary it looks like mark dennis and the crew have a lot more work to do because you had to stay with it this time they can't criticize you for winning the rice and staying on the motor oh that was great well here we go the moment a lot of people been waiting for an all-girl final yeah i'd like another shot at that no that's just what she said for the first time in history at an nhra national event two women in the finals of top fuel eliminator lucille lee and shirley muldowney we're coming up next with bunnycar semifinals don't go away we'll be right back at the spring nationals like a modern-day gladiator clad in his coat of armor al sagrini climbs astride his charger to get ready for the semi-final round of funny car racing at the spring nationals but first steve evans is with gary beck well the story of gary beck's defeat by the tire smoking lucille lee is right here an empty parachute pack at half track gary yeah steve it's uh certainly uh disappointing for us you know to uh lose that way but it was uh you know an unusual run for me everybody's been asking why how come what happened you know and why how come what happened and i've been telling them you know that i that i don't know but i might buy myself a little time here but i know exactly what happened i pulled the parachute at half trick i went for my manual high speed and i missed the lever and i hit the i hit the parachute lever unintentional unintentional and and it hit and i wasn't sure i would confuse me because i thought i'd hit the high speed and i the shoot hit and uh the engine pulled down and i thought the engine nosed over like it was burning up and before i realized that i had actually hit the parachute lever then she had come up on me and it was too late to regroup because i think i probably could have beat her pulling the parachute to the finish line if i hadn't known what was going on this race in funny car eliminator will match kenny bernstein against al sagrini but before we get to that let's take a look at some action that took place earlier today here at the spring nationals in sportsman competition in stock eliminator alan peters against tex miller with tex miller the champion super stock eliminator saw don wolfe defeat bob michael in super gas competition dave blazier and steve cohen the winner dave blazer [Music] competition eliminator of first time winner johnny holloway defeating bob newberry in pro stock motorcycle racing a big ups and joe folgore defeating the favorite terry vance in pro comp eliminator it's the funny car of bob gotcha victorious over the dragster of dan nimmo diamond p sports congratulates all the champions here at the 18th annual spring national [Music] the crew under the fiberglass body getting ready to go as funny car racing coming up next but first let's join steve trying to keep raymond beetle out of trouble is no easy matter so i've cornered him here and we'll have having a little forecasting for us on the funny car semi-finals to come all right uh what do you think of the kenny bernstein also grinning race here on the ladder well kenny's got the momentum now that he beat for dome and uh over sagrini i'll probably give bernstein the favorite about three to one okay now the other half of the semis we've got frank holly the chai town hustler and tom anderson i think you have almost an identical uh situation holly with austin paul there they run awful good and i'm gonna give about three to two over anderson all right thank you raymond the greek steve will be keeping track of raymond's predictions uh in these next two races al sagrini and kenny bernstein completing their burnout and backing up into the tracks left after their burnout a lot of rubber down on that concrete starting line pad here at national trail raceway providing of course the traction that moves these cars off the starting line and of course that traction all important putting the power to the ground and the clutch is one of the areas where it's most important and maybe some problems with kenny bernstein's clutch no one is finding any consistency today no they're not at all it's because the racetrack is as you know and we know a shaker right now and until you find the combination that can get down the shaker track that's what happens one runs good one one's bad hopefully that one will teach you something kenny's last run very good he's hopeful that all the clutch works between rounds will pay off al sagrini in this field on the last qualifying attempt has done very well for himself thus far and look at this a race in the semi final is al sagrini wins the race al sagrini over kenny bernstein remind me steve not to use raymond beedle as my handicapper al sagrini moving into the funny car finals for the second what's going on in the lucille lead pit area it's jeb allen's car and obviously the engine is out of the car and there it is on the hook that is mark danicus the owner of lucille lee's car and that is the engine that jeff allen said was no good and that's lucille lee's car and it looks like they're getting ready to drop jeb allen's engine in the car let's go to steve well elapsed times don't really matter as long as you're in a berth in the final round it was like a 627 to a 632 but you got there first in a lot of smoke that's all right we'll we'll hurt a couple it don't matter as long as we're in the final right now you probably won't get lane choice with that 27. that's okay i told you earlier i'm not worried about it i mean we didn't run that lane ever so it seems pretty tight really okay let's go back to the starting line of dave mcclellan and see who alexa greene's opponent will be in the funny car final right jar steve and it'll be one of these two it'll be frank hawley at the wheel of the chi-town hustler or it could be tom anderson driving jim humet's car frank hawley has a lot of respect for young tom anderson he regards him as one of the quickest drivers in the sport off the starting line both drivers taking their good sweet time and getting into the staging beam doesn't appear to be any great psychological battle they're just getting everything set to their liking before they pull into that light beam that indicates they are properly stayed the two cars leave the starting line as one as frank hawley pulls ahead at the finish line tom anderson possibly sensing something going wrong with the car shuts it off early and frank hawley moves into the spring nationals funny car finals jeb allen is hard at work in the pit area he's preparing the engine that he declined to run in the second round of competition obviously getting ready to drop it into lucille lee's car remember this engine is the one that is owned by mark danekus he had previously loaned it to jeb allen for his use jeb declined to run it after thinking he had hurt the motor in round number one not only is the engine gone out of jeff allen's car but the wheels and tires too steve has caught up with frank hawley wait the 611 gives you lane choice boys you're looking awfully good well i don't spawn the tires a lot i don't know if we want to stay there or go over there or maybe we'll just let al take his pick can they get lucille lee's car ready for the finals we'll find out in just a moment as we return to the spring [Music] in the nationals lee pitt the final preparations are being made to get this car ready for the finals steve evans is there the lucille lee car david is now being rolled under the hoist the engine out of the jeb allen machine you'll recall the one that was withdrawn from competition well they feel it must have one more in it because it is being slid into the frame rails right now the tires in place in the car are even off of the jeb allen car and it appears that an awful lot of teams have pitched in to help here to defeat shirley muldowney hi shirley muldaney have you seen what's going on down the road here i know exactly what's going on they are taking the motor out of jeb's car right the motor that would not run the round he had to race lucille and they're putting it in lucille's car so it's another buy there's an awful lot of people that are helping out down there is it are the people that got beat they have nothing to do with their time so they are over there that's a good place for them they enjoy being part of that thrash or do they want to see sherlock well down he loose i can't believe that i'm sure they want to see me lose but you've got to be rather happy looking at the difference in the two operations here's your guys so organized the car made a prototype pass we have class there is a big difference while the action continues in the top fuel pit area on the starting line it is the finals of pro stock eliminator ford versus chevrolet and this is the best bob clinton has run all year long for lee shepard his normal consistency in the camaro of rare and morrison the reigning world champion lee shepherd matched against his nemesis bob glidden clinton has got the new ford exp he finished number two in the world while lee sheppard proudly wearing the big number one indicating the world champion title it appears to be a slight lead for shepard but it's so close it's impossible to call it at this point and the win light shows bob clinton takes the victory 792 at 170 miles an hour as we watch again you see two great drivers doing their job to perfection side by side at that point side by side as they enter the speed trap and just by inches it is bob clinton their first the clock showing how close it really was at the finish line let's go down to steve evan bob glidden and his board exp have triumphed at an nhra major event over his chief rival the reigning world champion lee shepard you see the two of them everybody enjoys a good race win or lose you didn't think you won close i i was the closest it was thousandths of a second between the two lifestyles it was very close and it was a one thousandth of a second different reaction time i'll tell you i'm just a darn happy to be here to win a race for a change i've been such a sour puss i'm happy too oh i haven't i've just it's been a long dry spell we're not used to going so long without at least a little bone and uh we're see we're just so darn happy we can't hardly stand it right now well congratulations to you and you know uh 792 i believe it was to his 793 but if you have used the third digit you know just thousands that's wonderful yeah drove beautifully too thank you bob clinton winning his fourth straight spring nationals title funny car on the line frank hawley and the chi-town hustler al sagrini coming into this race nobody figured that it would be al sagrini in the final frank holly that's a different story he has recorded low elapsed time his eliminations thus far sagrini and hawley the 18th annual spring national title at stake in 20 car eliminator and frank holly to a good lead sagrini going out of control so lightly and paulie straight to the finish line to a 6.07 second elapsed time and you see a slight wheel stand by al sagrini the rear tires breaking traction he losing control and the race going to frank hawley steve you know one thing a lot of people spectators in the pits like they can at the dirt they look at those big semis and they can't even fantasize owning something like that they look at your old truck and you guys ain't nothing fancy about you and you go out and whip the best well it might not look too fancy but then the knowledge is there plenty sophisticated that's it that's it i mean the car is as good as any and it proves it just the way it runs and the crew and stuff and and uh i'm running out of words steve okay i don't believe in austin coyle farconas calaminic the owners of the car from chicago illinois the chai town hustle can do a lot more than just long smokey burnouts the second win of the year for frank hawley the war of words and wrenches is over the responsibility now rests on the shoulders of these two drivers the first all-female final in the history of professional drag racing we'll be back in a moment after all of the hard work all of the tension that has been building in the pit area we are to the finals in top fuel eliminator and for the first time in history two women drivers are meeting to take home a national event title lucille lee will be in the near lane shirley muldowney who practically owns national trail raceway in the right-hand lane car owner mark danicus has worked hard and lucille lee is pointing to something in the cockpit mark danica says it's okay bring the car to the starting line the motor beginning to show a little oil smoke earlier it could possibly be just residue left after all the work to get that engine change out of jeb allen's car having a little difficulty staging lucille lee for shirley muldowney she is concentrating on the christmas tree thinking only about running her own race this is it top fuel final at the spring nationals and shirley muldowney pulls a big lead off the starting line and she is never to be headed as the engine goes away in lucille lee and shirley muldowney wins her fourth spring nationals title with her hand in the air she waves to the diamond p camera and you can see she left lucille lee sitting at the gate shirley muldowney continuing to extend her lead marking the fourth win ever for the spring nationals title david shirley muldowney came to the quickest hall i have ever seen she was already clapping her hands together before she ever made the turn off another thing i have never seen from this professional race car driver but she is pumped 577 for shirley multani did she like that or what huh let her get the pink helmet off as soon as she possibly can and and surely you're an emotional lady you wouldn't deny that and even in a situation where you honestly felt maybe people were ganging up on you you kept your cool i had to i i knew if i lost this one everybody in the world especially in schenectady new york would be mad at me other than the bonus points for winning the event though she keeps pace with you as far as that title chase is concerned but we got a long ways to go lucille has a long ways to go but i think she is a credit i like her she's a nice lady and i she should be able to do her own thing i think she'd be better off a fitting climax to this great race for steve evans i'm dave mcclellan saying so long from columbus ohio the 1982 spring nationals has been brought to you by goodyear eagle high performance radios the racing eagles goodyear tamed for the street and by maguire's car wax for over 50 years mcguire's quality waxes and polishes have been the choice of car care experts and by english leather get an a in english with english leather and women will never fail you after shaving cologne for men promotional consideration provided for and a fee paid by trustworthy hardware stores the problem solvers do-it-yourself hardware professionals supplying your needs with quality products and expert advice trustworthy hardware stores and by bard all world famous bar doll makes your car last longer run better bardal saves you money available at kmart in most auto parts stores and by the mvp microwave oven from magic chef the combination microwave oven vent hood that rises above the problem of where to put it furnished by magic chef and by i'm very handy thanks to three in one oil it fights right lubricates stop squeaks three in one oil is so easy even you guys can use it i do home repairs with plastic wood i fixed my chair molded my baseboard built holes in my wall plastic wood is so easy even you guys can use it coverage of the 1982 national hot rod association spring nationals is a diamond p sports presentation

Channel: CompetitionPlusTV

Views: 4,291

Keywords: drag racing news, drag racing, nhra, funny car, top fuel, pro stock, kenny bernstein, Joe amato, national trail raceway, nhra springnationals, Jeb allen, Lucille Lee, Raymond beadle, billy meyer, bob glidden

Id: 6FcttJoU7QI

Length: 46min 15sec (2775 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 20 2021