20 Years Ago
October 1997 (128 pages, $3.50): Among other things, this package is notable for cover-blurbing “ass.” It’s not every issue that finds a staffer hitting 156 mph on the road in a 32-year-old Chevelle, as Executive Editor Jeff Smith did in Nevada. In Gray Baskerville’s rod test of the restored Doane Spencer roadster, “Basket Case” expressed regret for blowing an opportunity to buy it himself, 28 years earlier (“I ‘el paso’d”). Roddin’ at Random brought good racing news—and bad: Danny Thompson was updating Mickey’s last ’liner into Challenger II, while an exploding dry-sump tank earned Pro Stock teammates Jerry Eckman and Bill Orndorff two-year NHRA bans for using nitrous.
40 Years Ago
October 1977 (116 pages, $1.25): A clue that each cover went on the press weeks ahead of the inside pages is no mention of Shirley Muldowney’s recent Englishtown upset, her second-straight NHRA win. No one yet feared that the first winning female pro was en route to Winston’s 1977 title (her first of three). A continuing series showcased Illinois and Indiana bracket racers, along with rival Chicagoland promoters Ron Leek and Ben Christ. A letter in Post Entry disparaged vanners: “They are immoral, dishonest, and I fear they will all O.D. in unison. I believe they are the product of a permissive society with its decaying roots.” The very next spread was a Ford truck ad depicting an Econoline at the beach with five bikinied babes showing no decay whatsoever.
60 Years Ago
October 1957 (84 pages, 35¢): Yep, bodies alongside bodies of water is a time-honored tradition around here. Nitro-burning rails would heretofore be rejected by Petersen editors, for the duration of the infamous fuel ban Wally Parks—simultaneously HRM’s editor and NHRA’s president—and tested at this year’s Nationals (prior to nationwide implementation in 1958). Ironically, Editor Wally’s cover action depicts the Cook & Bedwell fueler whose recent string of unprecedented 160s prompted prominent California promoters to go “gas-only” back in March. The beauty in the beastly Edsel line was a new 410-inch V8.
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