Larry
Carrier sat in his office in Bristol, Tennessee, and looked over the receipts
from his events. The founder and president of the nearly decade-old IHRA wanted
to make a decision, but he needed a little more ironclad data before reaching a
final verdict. Carrier wanted a way to ensure that his flagship event, the
Spring Nationals at Thunder Valley Dragway, became as much of a conversation
piece as the NHRA’s heralded U.S. Nationals.
Carrier
felt it could be done, but it would take some moving here and some cutting
there. A little finessing in certain places and massaging in others could make
it happen.
In
a sense, by 1980, the event was already a conversation piece.
$20,000
to win Top Fuel and Funny Car in 1980? Larry Carrier did it.
Larry
Carrier sat in his office in Bristol, Tennessee, and looked over the receipts
from his events. The founder and president of the nearly decade-old IHRA wanted
to make a decision, but he needed a little more ironclad data before reaching a
final verdict. Carrier wanted a way to ensure that his flagship event, the
Spring Nationals at Thunder Valley Dragway, became as much of a conversation
piece as the NHRA’s heralded U.S. Nationals.
Carrier
felt it could be done, but it would take some moving here and some cutting
there. A little finessing in certain places and massaging in others could make
it happen.
In
a sense, by 1980, the event was already a conversation piece.
Carrier
knew it wouldn’t take much to improve on the previous year’s running where rain
forced a one-week delay, and then a subsequent downpour on the rescheduled
final eliminations day pushed the starting time until 7 PM on Sunday. He gave
his “come hell or high water” (he had both) speech, and at 2 AM on Monday
morning the final two cars went down the track, bringing to a close the event
which was sponsored, ironically, by local soft drink company Sun-drop.
Carrier
was not a man who stood for losing, whether it was to a financial bottom line
or to Mother Nature. There was just something about that 1979 event that stuck
in his craw.
There
was something about paying appearance money to the leading nitro racers that
had the same effect.
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DRAGGING
THE BOTTOM LINE
Carrier
had a system in place to ensure that fans got to see the same stars the NHRA
events regularly brought to town. He paid them to be there.
Bringing
in big names was one of Carrier’s key objectives. He had to have them if the
IHRA was ever going to succeed. Carrier paid appearance money to the leading
runners as an enticement. He never scripted the outcome. He just wanted their
names for advertising purposes.
No
two racers received the same incentive money. One driver might be guaranteed a
minimum amount, the equivalent of third round money, for example, or if the
posted purse was $500, a “name” racer might take home $800. That was enough
bait to lure them to Bristol.
Ted
Jones had a front row seat to it all, serving as Carrier’s second-in-command
for many years.
“It worked,”
Jones said. “He had the names to put on his advertising and that attracted the
fans. It worked very well, and for that reason the IHRA was an almost instant
success. The big names were always determined by what they did in NHRA
competition. If you did well over there – you were considered a big name.”
Carrier drew
his line in the sand when he decided to cease paying appearance money for the
Spring Nationals and instead increased the purse to $20,000 for each of the
nitro-burning divisions. In 2007 money, Carrier’s purse would equal a payday of
nearly $100,000 to win.
The 1980
event paid only $3,000 less than today’s winners take home in IHRA competition.
This year’s NHRA event in Bristol will pay $40,000.
Not to be
outdone, Pro Stock racers were taking home a cool $10,000. That was another
unheard of payday of that era.
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MOTHER
NATURE DIDN’T CARE
One thing
Carrier learned early about his traditional June dates is that he could count
on rain. The rain that fell during the 1979 running of the event relieved a
months-long drought situation in the Bristol Tri-Cities area, and one year
earlier, the race, although deemed a success, had its share of liquid sunshine
as well.
Carrier
moved his mega-event to May for 1980 – May 16th to be exact. He
should have made it a one-day affair, because that’s all the dry time he had
before he was forced to postpone things until the following weekend.
Adding
insult to injury, the rescheduled event landed on top of another, somewhat
depleting the field of a few original players.
Most of the
racers made it back, however, as did one other element – rain. It rained four
times during Saturday qualifying.
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THE PLAYERS
STILL PLAYED
Billy Meyer
paid a hefty sum of cash to Carrier to purchase the IHRA in 1987. But he was
only giving back a portion of the bundle he won from him in 1980.
Meyer drove
his Hawaiian Tropic-sponsored Chevrolet Citation Funny Car to the $20,000
payday by defeating Roy Harris, who was sponsored by Budweiser at the time.
How ironic
that Meyer’s triumph marked his second Bristol Spring Nationals win since 1974,
one of the few times the event was free of rain. Meyer’s later presidency would
be marred by frequent rainouts.
Meyer
defeated a field that also included Raymond Beadle, Rick Johnson, Kenny
Bernstein, Tim Grose, Kosty Ivanoff, and Paul Smith. The DNQ list included
Tripp Shumake, Frank Oglesby, Frank Hawley, and Shirl Greer.
Beadle was
pulling double-duty in an era that permitted dual participation. In addition to
his potent Blue Max Plymouth Horizon, he drove his Top Fuel Dragster to third
in the Pro Dragster field.
Richard
Tharp drove the Candies and Hughes fueler to the top spot ahead of Walt Barbin,
Beadle, Connie Kalitta, Jeb Allen, Bill Selley, Mark Oswald, and Bobby Hilton.
Hilton was
low man on the qualifying totem pole, but that did not prevent him from driving
the Jim and Allison Lee-owned dragster to victory. He stopped Kalitta and
Selley before taking a single in the final when Tharp’s entry broke a rear-end
after the burnout.
Just to
think, Hilton viewed merely qualifying for the event as a tougher challenge.
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THE OTHER
LARGE PAYDAY
Speaking of
tough challenges, it took a seasoned veteran to work his way past 32 entries in
order to claim the huge Pro Stock bounty. Sometimes a professor has to do what
a professor has to do.
Warren “The
Professor” Johnson was a staple on the IHRA tour in those days with his
championship-winning “Incredible Hulk” Camaro. He chose to park the ride after
winning the 1979 title to accept the driving duties for Buford, Georgia-based
contractor Jerome Bradford.
Johnson
started from the No. 1 qualifying spot, almost a full tenth ahead of sophomore
racer Rickie Smith. Worth noting is the fact that the field included Bob
Glidden (with his lumbering 406-inch Ford Fairmont), Pat Musi, Sonny Leonard
(referred to in those days as a ‘slick engine’ builder from Lynchburg, Va.),
Ronnie Sox, Roy Hill, and Harold Denton.
The one notable
DNQ was 1978 champion “General” Lee Edward, who exploded his 520-inch “mountain
motor.” In those days, 520-inches were the norm.
Johnson
worked his way past Pat Patterson, Billy Ewing, and Ronnie Sox before stopping
Rickie Smith’s Oak Ridge Boys-sponsored 1978 Mustang II.
In case you
were wondering what happened to Glidden, he lost in the quarterfinals to Smith.
Stop us if
you have heard the following before. Johnson told the media that he was $10,000
away from poverty and planned to retire for 1980 and bring back his own car in
1981. For the record, Johnson not only won the next race but he won the
championship as well.
The car
Johnson brought back in 1981? The radical Monte Carlo won the Bristol event
again (making it three in a row) and was later referred to by Johnson as the
most unsafe car he’d ever driven in his life.
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