In the week leading up to the second annual CompetitionPlus.com War Stories we will re-publish some of the finest moments from last year's contest. You'll hear some of the finest stories laid down in competition. The program works like this: 16 figures within the drag racing community are voted on by the readers of CompetitionPlus.com to determine who they feel could tell the best story. From that voting, an NHRA professional elimination ladder pairs the contestants and they battle it out until one is left.

Today's story comes from Bob Glidden, the ten-time Pro Stock champion who drove a Pro Stocker like no other back in the day.

BOB GLIDDEN - SEMI-FINALIST - PUTTING A REAL TIGER IN THE TANK 

Championships (from the 1970's) didn’t pay a lot back then, but neither did the races. I have to tell you that I was very fortunate that I finished runner-up in my very first Pro Stock event.

Every time we won a race, we’d buy a new machine for our business. That’s how we accumulated all of our equipment. We also did quite a bit of match races as well.

Thanks to Grumpy Jenkins, we afforded to do what we did by match racing him two or three times a week. That’s how we bought parts and had what we needed to be competitive.

When it came to our three runs, we were fierce competitors. I’ll never forget the first time, I had the chance to run Grumpy. My car was at Hooker Headers and they were making a set of headers. Jenkins walked in and looked at our car and grumbled and said it looked like an erector set. I came out at the next race and finished runner-up.

Over the years, we had all kinds of weird things happen – especially at those match races. I always had the special treat, when we were in our dominating years, of pulling the parachute against him early.

Winning a match race meant more to Jenkins than winning a national event. We were booked into U.S. 30 Dragway one weekend and I caught wind that he was going to bring a big block in that weekend.

I called my buddy Dean Hill, who owned H&H Gas, and told him that Jenkins was bringing in as big motor and I needed something that would make my car run faster.

He promised to mix me up five gallons of something, and gave me the formula on how to mix the stuff up and said, this and that much per gallon.

Who in the heck measures stuff like that?

I used my standard dump it in the tank method. I was free-pouring all the way. I figured everything was measured such that the more I put in, the stronger it will be. In this case, a little dab would have done better.

We went up there and sure enough he had that big block in there. I poured this s&^% in the tank and warmed it up. By the time all of that, whatever it was, got through the line to the carburetor, it sounded like a Top Fueler.

I looked around and thought to myself, ‘What am I going to do now?”

If you’re a drag racer, you accept the fact that some rides are going to be more exciting than others. I don’t think much could have prepared me for that first run.

I got up there with this thing, cackling and popping and do a burnout. By this time, the crew is telling me that I have fire coming out of the headers.

I just sat there and braced for the green light.

So, I dumped the clutch on this thing and it screams like a banshee and it goes every which way but straight. I’m holding on for dear life with this flame-throwing Ford. That was probably a 1970s impersonation of a Pro Modified because that car went out with the front wheels up, came down, driving it sideways – off the track and back on. There was no way I was lifting. It was like riding a bucking bronco.

I guarantee that crowd at U.S 30 got more than they paid for that night and Jenkins, probably got the $%^# scared out of him.

We went out there on that first run and when I let the clutch out, it absolutely smoked the tires on the car. Somehow or another, I ended up in Jenkins lane. He had to drive around me, get back in his lane and won the round.