1979 NHRA Springnationals 720x480 PART ONE OF TWO

Hi everyone, I'm Frank Lieber, your host today on the CBS Sports Spectacular, while Dick Stockton is away on assignment, we're in Sarasota, Florida for the final stop of the PBA summer tour, the Sarasota Open. $70,000 and Dave Davis and I will be with us. in just a moment or so with the championship game live from Sarasota, but that's not all, plus the National Hot Rod Association spring nationals from Columbus Ohio, one of the most exciting sports and certainly one of the loudest in the world, and then we're going to Daytona and one of the most talked about stock car races of the year, the NASCAR sportsman 300, right?

We're at the National Trail Raceway in Columbus, Ohio for a spring ride, a gathering here in the Midwest that's coming up 60,000 people come here annually for the National Hot Rod Association competition, excuse me, sir, what Do you bring him to these endurance races? Power Power You got it, that's the full story and to tell you more about the kind of power you'll see here today Carlos, thanks Ken, the purpose of any drag racing vehicle is to go the quarter mile and no vehicle does that better than the unlimited category known as top fuel dragster. It's a 2000 horsepower aluminum racing engine and a massive set of rear wheels. tires, aerodynamic wings, a lightweight body and about 20 feet of chrome tubing, all coming together to make it the fastest accelerating vehicle in the world.

The other category we'll look at today is really the top fuel car's second cousin known as fun fuel. The car has the same engine, huge rear tires, it is a high fuel car, but it has a lightweight one-piece fiberglass body, it is much shorter, about 10 feet in total length, but is capable of reaching the same type of speeds and elapsed times as the high fuel car. In both categories, in any type of motorsport, there is a distinct element of danger. How dangerous. Look at this 41-year-old Columbus businessman. Local driver near Lane jeg Coughlin. It goes over 245 miles per hour.

The parachute deploys. At the end of the course, he heads for the barrier, starts bouncing, and takes the barrier in a terrible, wild crash. Security teams are there within seconds. This $35,000 fuel machine is destroyed. Coughlin frees himself from the machine, stands up on his own, and walks. far away when drivers handle grains, what is happening here? Kim, due to the flexibility of this machine when braking hard, begins to bounce violently. Jake is fighting for control to take that car directly into the net, but he flips the net and catches it. He makes a violent movement. snap rolled backwards and the car lands upside down local boy jeg Coughlin wrapped in the clutches of that safety net but much better than being wrapped with an arm Colbert just 60 feet away suffered a broken hand some broken ribs but that was it after this incredible 100+ mile per hour crash in another action here's the surprise of the weekend, the unsinkable Kelly Brown right here, let's start around the world, the land of Texas laid the whip, how could a guy with all the experience one of the Nationals in the role going to this? event loses like that Karl, can any good driver tell you if you don't run the red light once in a while you're just not trying hard enough?

He stepped out of line too quickly, one millisecond and he loses everything, here's Loser Kelly, you're a low qualifier and you looked like a strong contender. Tell us what happened there. Well, it just took me a long time to prepare and I was trying to get out and I made a mistake and somehow you know I didn't. No, I don't have any answers except that the guys prepared the car perfectly and it was all my problem on my shoulders and I just have to make it up again. Very bad movie, one of the good people in the world of motorsports, Kelly.

Brown got help from another neat guy, the guy who beat him, Walt Barber from Sugarland Texas and as the action progressed, that man in the blue and white shirt, Walt Barban was defeated by this man who moved on to the semi-finals, while the Bruins faced Richard. Tharp, the 1976 world champion, in short, wanted a semi-final for John Abbott, who had never won a national title. He's going against 47-year-old master Big Daddy Don Garlits, but remember Columbus is Garland's Jake's rink, okay, first semi-final for Top Fuel Eliminator and who does it. We have here the car in the blue car, Richard Clark driving for sweets and views of Houma Louisiana and on the other side Rob Bruins driving to the game market and on stage the Bruins ready to go.

I would say in trouble it looks like it lost the engine

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, the easy letter here starts doing that dangerous dance with a real bounce at the end of what happened at the beginning, it seemed like the supercharger drive belt came loose, that's usually a function of some breakage in the transmission and the engine revolutions go out. of view we are going to see in a replay Rob ruins the far lane when he comes off the line the supercharger drive belt spins around 15000 revolutions per minute it disconnects and in doing so puts Richard Tharp in the final Richard, they say it takes a break for Win a big drag race and it looks like you just got yours. 622 is not the fastest race, but you are in the final.

Well, you know Lux. If you're going to win, you're going to win. I've had some good ones. lucky, I've had a lot of bad luck: who will fight? Will it be the former world champion? This man here, Don Garlits, Big Daddy, who has never had anything happen in Columbus, Ohio, or will be his adversary, the Denver Colorado activist. who has never won a major event, but is really excited about this John Abbott, there you see him in Far Lane, the jeddaks who do you pick, Carlos and Evans have been running terribly well, but Garlotte has, if any runner racing in the world is going to be.

It's hard to caulk a eager against Garlotte for the final, they're off to a beautiful start Crosses the line with a lead of about a car length at 239 miles per hour Garlits reaches the final by upping the funny cars with a man, the snake Don Prudhomme back at National Trail Raceway, this is Carlos with Ken Squier, where a record crowd is waiting for the fun car semi-finals where we will see some of the most expensive equipment in the sport that goes far beyond what we will see in the race track and here's Ken to take a closer look at some of that equipment for those of you who think drag racing is three minutes of snap and pop for about six seconds of zoom take a look at this deck from Kenny Bernstein of Texas $265,000 home away from home in this cabin, the interior is a combination of luxury yacht and the instruments look like they came from the flight deck of a commercial airliner and this is the throne room, it has all the trimmings , all the assistance one would expect from a motorsport monarch and here are the logistical supplies to keep this machine running for 10 months on the road without returning to the local fortress, even a second vehicle to carry this car there and back to the starting line, but perhaps the most impressive is this arsenal. this engine room with enough

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s to rebuild and regroup after any skirmish and enough important parts three of these $16,000 engines to win any war all that equipment didn't help Ken Bernstein Ken and it's important to note that every Funny Car Racer here they came with that kind of investment, while here are two of the best, this is Alison Greening and the man she bases her Don Prudhomme on.

This is the elimination in the second round, as green of Utica Rome New York as the unenviable task of facing the four-time world champion snake. 127 national events there he is, but he breaks Don Prudhomme when he gets to the line, he has to be the big favorite hero. You can bet he's almost unbeatable, although he's been having some problems in recent months? Can they stay good near Al Saud Rainy in the north of the state? York bar site both jobs I'm about to unleash a horsepower year about 4,000 total can the lights are out and Sabrina upset is defeating Don Prudhomme who wanted here a year ago 226 miles per hour also green and sleek in this national championship event at Columbus Ohio Funny Car Competition Don Prudhomme is eliminated before reaching the semi-finals watch this start again raw on the near side alsa greeny a relative unknown compared to Don Prudhomme just says it a beautiful race For Al Segretti, what happened to Don Prudhomme? here's Carlson now Don, it's been a tough week, but you made it this far, how do you feel about that?

Well, you know, I'm lucky to get this part, we've really been struggling and you know, what can I say? a rookie runs well and the show is over, thank you, so the show is over for Don Prudhomme, but it certainly won't be the year or the next. He remains one of the biggest names drag racing has to offer, coming off a bad day in Columbus, Ohio. Prudhomme and the man who beat him is also a rookie who advances in the semi-finals this is the rookie Fuli faces Gary Burgin that is the winner of the 1976 US Nationals first semi-final match-up second semi-final match-up the blue beetle max ray takes on the Long Colts in the Hawaiian: excellent semi and here is Bergen, the 33-year-old Stanton California activist, summed up in his image, saw the orange Baron.

What's up with Bergen and Sabrina? These are two names you don't hear much about. It is very rare that you see any of these. The cars come this far Sabrina is really having the national event of her life. She was the fastest qualifier in this field. Bergin, on the other hand, always ran strong. He doesn't seem to have the luck to help him. What were those two machines doing? right there they are doing their burnout scam that makes the tires spin in the bleach box running across the starting line laying down a hot layer of rubber, the team then backs these cars up again in the dry, you have rubber adhesion to rubber to get off the starting line with maximum traction sticky on sticky to really get the vauquelin out of that box in the world ah, we have a player coming out of Sabrina's car outside the headers, you can see what looks like a real problem to me, here You can bet it is. and there's definitely something wrong with that car, that flame on the number looks like it's setting the side of the body, torch and car house on fire Greenies from Utica, Rome, New York and it looks like everything is going up in smoke. force a green right here on the starting line back to frustration and there's the sign that it was all over for Al's grandma before he could make the race and Gary Burton will still make his race and of course the guy who he goes the fastest if the lane choice in the final haunts him, he's sure to stay in the right place, Carl, you can bet he'll put this thing in the wood and take it out the back door because plane choice is always very valuable in the Championship Event like this, orange baron Gary Burgin to the line, solo bar, important, it's a good race, last guy, there's a lot of tire smoke, Ken, he's blown the tires and I'm sure he that will result in bad weather, that's all 6.51 is not a good time