U.S. Nationals a Labor of Love for Prudhomme

The National Hot Rod Assn.’s Powerade drag racing series starts in February in Pomona and ends in November in Pomona, but its heart and soul is in Indianapolis over Labor Day weekend.

That is when the U.S. Nationals -- the World Series, Super Bowl and Kentucky Derby for hot rodders -- are run at Indianapolis Raceway Park, a few miles west of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“It might not be true now, but back when I won it, it was the race that could make a career,” said Don “Snake” Prudhomme, who won it first in 1965 and six more times before he retired -- four times in funny cars and three in top-fuel dragsters. “It was always the most important race of the year. It still is.”

The NHRA is celebrating next month’s 50th anniversary of the Nationals with a countdown to the five most memorable races in the last half century. Prudhomme, who grew up in Granada Hills, lives in Rancho Santa Fe and has racing shops in Vista and Indianapolis, was involved in several of them.

“The most memorable, from my viewpoint at least, was when I won in 1970,” he said. “I was driving my own car and I was up against Jim Nicoll in the finals. Just as we entered the [timing] lights, his car blew up, cut in half and debris was flying all over the place. I thought he was dead for sure, but he wasn’t hurt bad and raced again.”

Prudhomme had narrowly won, 6.25 to 6.45 seconds, when Nicoll’s front-engine slingshot dragster had a clutch explosion at about 225 mph.

“You always remember the first [win] too,” Prudhomme said. “That was 1965 and I was driving Roland Leong’s Hawaiian. We’d won the Winternationals at Pomona and then we won the Nationals. I think those were the only two races the NHRA had that year.

“The one in ’89 was a big one too. We won the big [Skoal Showdown] and the Nationals the same weekend in my maroon Skoal Bandit Trans Am. It was my last [Nationals] in a funny car and Wally [Parks, NHRA founder] was there at the end and I hugged him and that still means a lot to me, sort of capping my career in funny cars.”

Prudhomme didn’t win in 1982, but during qualifying he had what many hot rod enthusiasts call the greatest nitro run of all time, regardless of category. With engine oil trailing him down the strip, his time of 5.63 seconds was nearly two-tenths of a second better than any previous quarter-mile by a funny car -- at a time when records were measured in hundredths of a second. The record at the time was 5.82.

He didn’t reach the finals, however, as eventual race winner Billy Meyer got a hole-shot in the semifinals and won with a 5.944 time to Prudhomme’s quicker, but losing, 5.901. Prudhomme also won the Nationals twice as a car owner, with Larry Dixon in 1995 and 2001. Dixon, winner of the last two Powerade championships, will be one of the favorites this year, although he is not on a championship pace. With only one victory, Dixon is in sixth place with 893 points, 434 behind leader Tony Schumacher.

Indicative of how hard Prudhomme’s team of Dixon and funny car drivers Ron Capps and Tommy Johnson Jr. is working toward Labor Day weekend, is their schedule. After running in the O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals this weekend, they will head for Indianapolis Raceway Park to test Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Winning it now is more of a thrill as an owner because of how the event has grown,” Prudhomme said. “Indy is even bigger now than it was back in the ‘60s.”

Southland Scene

Greg Pursley, with a remarkable 10 victories in 14 starts, will continue his drive for national and regional honors in NASCAR’s short-track championship Saturday at Irwindale Speedway in the Lucas Oil super late model main event. The Chevrolet driver from Canyon Country has a 66-point lead over Tony Bruncati in the Irwindale track series.

Sprint car driver Cory Kruseman will take time off from racing Tony Stewart’s sprint car on the U.S. Auto Club national circuit to drive at Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday night when the USAC/CRA series returns to its home track after nearly a two-month absence. When they last raced at Perris on July 3, veteran Rip Williams held a 54-point lead over Damion Gardner, but after winning that race, and three more since, Gardner has cut the lead to 11 in the series championship race, 932-921.

The Legends of Ascot Reunion is scheduled Aug. 28 at Perris at 2:30 p.m. The program will honor such old-time favorites as Dean Thompson, Billy Wilkerson, Ron Shaver, Sleepy Tripp, Rusty Espinoza and Bruce Bromme, Sr. and Jr. Admission fee will include the evening’s racing with USAC/CRA sprint cars and Ford Focus midgets. Details: (310) 549-3562.

Lanse Haselrig of West Los Angeles, in Grand Nationals, and Steve Tustison and Jeff Hansen of Huntington Beach in Cracker Box, were national championship winners last Sunday in the Long Beach Sprint Boat Nationals. Spencer Love of Thousand Oaks, in Western Formula Light, was a divisional winner. Other winners included Ted Thompson of Phoenix, personal watercraft, and Jeff Wooten of Pasadena, pro stock.

Drifting, the motorsports import from Japan, will return to Irwindale Speedway for a national championship event Aug. 29. The Sports Car Club of America has sanctioned drifting as a national sport and labeled it Formula D. Irwindale will be the fourth and final stop of the four-event series that has been at Road Atlanta, Houston’s Reliant Center and Infineon Raceway in Sonoma.

Speedway racing Saturday night at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa will be spiced up this week with a motorcycle destruction derby.... The Automobile Club of Southern California has extended its sponsorship of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum in Pomona.

Pure stocks will race tonight at Irwindale Speedway after stock car practice. The entry-level series gets underway at 9 p.m.

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This Week

*--* NASCAR NEXTEL CUP GFS Marketplace 400

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When: Today, qualifying (TNT, noon); Sunday, race (TNT, 11 a.m.).

Where: Michigan International Speedway (D-shaped oval, 2 miles, 18-degree banking in turns).

*--* NASCAR BUSCH Cabela’s 250

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When: Today, qualifying (Speed Channel, 10 a.m.); Saturday, race (TNT, 10 a.m.).

Where: Michigan International Speedway.

*--* INDY RACING LEAGUE Honda Indy 225

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When: Saturday qualifying, 1:30 p.m.; Sunday race (ABC, 12:30 p.m.).

Where: Pikes Peak International Raceway (D-shaped oval, 1 mile, 10-degree banking in turns).

*--* NHRA O’Reilly Mid-South Nationals

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When: Today, qualifying, 1:30 p.m.; Saturday, qualifying, noon (ESPN2, 7 p.m., tape); Sunday, eliminations, noon (ESPN2, 7 p.m., tape).

Where: Memphis Motorsports Park.

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