#CLASSICDRAGRACING

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The fourteenth running of the National Hot Rod Association's Nationals Championship Drag Races is history. Not the usual dull, musty brand that the word history usually conjures up, but exciting, dramatic and nostalgic memories that 1,500 competitors and 100,000-plus fans will recall again and again through the years.

Each year the task seems more impossible, yet every long Labor Day weekend, even though the overall scope expands, the largest motorsport event in the world seems to operate more smoothly and produce keener competition than before.

Overcoming seemingly insurmountable problems, both on and off the race track, Jack Jones, of San Diego, California, and car owner Bill Shultz, of El Monte, California, triumphed over the toughest field of Top Gas Dragsters ever assembled.

Clean cut, articulate Paul Stage, a machinist from Rockford, Illinois, scored for his second major Super Eliminator Championship of 1968 [Springnationals event to stage] and established a new Official National Class Record for AA/Competition on the final run.

A happy Sam Gianino and family accepted their share of the $150,000 posted cash purse for Street Eliminator honors. Gianino, a 28 year old mechanic from Royal Oak, Michigan, wheeled a 1957 Corvette through 5 rounds of rugged competition.

A classic '32 Ford "deuce" coupe captured Competition Eliminator laurels, driven by Harry Luzader, of Monroeville, Pa.

Despite factory meddling, particularly in the Chrysler Corporation camp, Super Stock Eliminator was a whale of a show, with likeable Arlen Vanke, of Akron, Ohio, hauling in more than $6,650 with his '68 Hemi-Barracuda. It's a shame factory pressure forced Vanke to sandbag the National SS/B record on a rich winning run.

Only 19 years old, Larry Lombardo, of Wyomissing, Pa., handled himself and his '61 Corvette stocker like a true champion, upsetting hundreds of more experienced competitors for the Stock Eliminator crown.


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