supernationals at ontario motor speedway footage

[gassersrule_196]

not sure if you all have seen this, but check out this awesome footage of the supernationals at ontario motor speedway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g0BsgTRXiw pt.1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxtxJBdF1e8 pt.2

hey jerry, your famous

[jerry clayton]

Yep---thicker darker hair, 50 pounds lighter---------


If anyone wants to see my car, its in the second video, at 3.27-3.46 and again at final run starting 5.34-5.43 to the end at 6.20-------


and that's the truck I put the 460 Lincoln in and it was 1970, not 1971 as indicated at the start of films----


Lots of Ford engineers came to the races and looked at truck and drove it later in the week (after races over)




Thanks Scooter

[gassersrule_196]

Reprinted from the Dec. 4, 1970 issue of National DRAGSTER

ONTARIO, Calif. -- The first Annual NHRA Supernationals were a fitting climax to the 1970 "Super Season," where spectators and contestants alike were treated to the many conveniences of the fantastic Ontario Motor Speedway, and were a part of drag racing history! Superlative after superlative can be utilized to describe the $25.5 million edifice to motorsports, but it wasn't just the facility that made things as great as they were ... it was the people and ideas behind the race that contributed to the end product.

For the first time in history, a drag race was televised "live" on a national scale, as millions of people were exposed to the fastest growing sport in the nation!

Most amazed by the whole race were the seasoned veterans, who can easily recall days when a makeshift shack and an abandoned airbase were considered the epitome of a drag strip. The sport has indeed come a long way, baby, as witnessed by competitors working on dragsters ... each in their own individual garages! A Disneyland-type shuttle bus, taking spectators on motorized strips through the pits. A restaurant overlooking the strip, where one can dine in a fashionable manner while watching the races! These and many other facets made the inaugural Supernationals the hit it was.

The racing itself was of the hard-fought and close-knit variety that has made NHRA major events the thrilling spectacles they were during the entire "Super Season."

Rick Ramsey was the man of the hour in the Top Fuel ranks, as he guided John Keeling and Jerry Clayton's beautiful "California Charger" to an impressive win by virtue of a string of steady 6.6s and 6.7s, the final conquest being a 6.70 over Gerry Glenn.

In Top Gas, the battle between the singles and the doubles raged hot and heavy, but when the smoke cleared the final round found the nearly identical machines of Hadford & Maxwell facing Pusch & Cain, with Don Cain picking up the win right on the starting line as Ray Hadford red-lighted.

For a while, it looked like Funny Car eliminator would be decided not by who had the quickest car but who made it to the starting line first. The unique situation occurred when semifinal winners Larry Arnold and Gene Snow both encountered severe engine problems in their victories and neither car was ready when the time came. With the time stretched an additional 15 minutes, both cars rolled into the staging lanes with only seconds to spare. The final itself was rather anticlimactic as Snow and Arnold snorted and popped down the strip, with World Champion Snow lasting the longest at 7.49 to Arnold's 8.68 in T.B. Smallwood's "Kingfish."

Pro Stock, as usual, provided the fans with round after round of fender-to-fender action, In the end, it was a repeat of the recent NHRA World Finals as Ronnie Sox and "Akron Arlen" Vanke squared off for the money. History repeated itself as Sox pushed the Sox & Martin entry across the finish line first, 9.85 to 9.92.

In Comp, old master Gene Adams had his A/FD tuned to perfection and Don Enriquez responded accordingly with a big win in the final at 7.33 over Roy Rastetter. Modified Eliminator was decided between the California street roadsters of Jim Stevens and "Sunshine" Kaneshiro, with Stevens taking the win. World champion Ray Alley pushed his heavy Chevy to the Super Stock crown while Marv Ripes captured Stock when Joe Allread missed a shift.

[gassersrule_196]

jerry, wasnt that the truck that had the 360 in it that could barley get the dragster push started? just curious as to why they kept saying you guys were longshots to win? seems like you guys were always right there giving it hell.

[jerry clayton]

That's the truck!!!!!seems like somebody had put on the parking brake and John didn't release it------------


We were longshots to win because we had 3 drivers that year and the points were to the drivers, so even tho we had a god year, we didn't have enough drivers points to get in the race--It was invitation only to the high points people-------Bernie Partidge didn't want to let us in because we only had a short body and he wanted only full bodied cars---------Yes, we were in the process of getting the body done, but he didn't know that--------


He had to go to Hawaii to clean up a funny car accident deal and Steve Gibbs put us in as a replacement for someone back east-------


Well, Mr Partridge, all the folks voted us as the best appearing car----------so take that for your idea that our car didn't look good enough to suit you!!!!!!!!!!!!


So , the longshot comment came about because we weren't invited---------we crashed the party!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NTFDAY]

NHRA has always been "a good ol boy" deal. one of the reasons I spent most of my time at Lions

[gassersrule_196]

jerry thats an awesome bit of triva. and crash the party you did! always have been curious, why did you guys run the "barndoor" injectors as opposed to the hillborn 4-pot or bugcatchers?

[jerry clayton]

The Barndoor had more inlet area and resulted in higher boost with less overdrive---Van Luven had done a lot of testing when he worked at Isky, and none of the others had as good results---


However, the throttle blades had a habit of sticking shut at the engine idling would frost up the housing and it would shrink shut against the blades which didn't happen with the Hilborn and Endele round blades---we solved that by chroming the housing and hard anodizing the blades---------


of course tho later on in the funny car, couldn't see around it, ended up using a bored out Crower 8 port------

[gassersrule_196]

cool!!!!!!!!