Drag-racing icons “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and Shirley Muldowney had matched-raced against each other dozens of times throughout the country in their heydays, but their head-to-head record in NHRA competition, surprisingly, was five and five.
After Friday’s first round of “Unfinished Business” pairings in a showdown of the sport’s legends at the 50th edition of the Gatornationals at Florida’s Gainesville Raceway, it’s Advantage Ms. Muldowney.
In identically prepared Toyota Camrys, Muldowney scored a runaway victory. She’ll meet six-time champion and 97-time winner Warren Johnson, “The Professor of Pro Stock,” in Saturday’s semifinal round. He beat Pro Stock Motorcycle class founder Terry Vance, co-owner of the Vance & Hines two-wheeled empire.
Also advancing was five-time Top Fuel champion Joe Amato, whose 52 victories still rank No. 3 on the class’ all-time list. He defeated six-time champion Kenny Bernstein, who earned his “King of Speed” nickname on this racetrack by breaking the 30-mph barrier in 1992. And in another highly anticipated pairing preceded by some pre-race trash talk, Ed “The Ace” McCulloch dismissed longtime rival Don “The Snake” Prudhomme. McCulloch, a 22-time winner, said after he outran four-time series champion and 49-time victor Prudhomme, “How cool is he now?”
Muldowney’s victory was just the way she planned it – despite the fact she said she’s “in Garlits Country,” where she said she thought upon retirement in 2003 that “I thought it was over with and I didn’t have to put up with his fans anymore.”
The three-time NHRA Top Fuel champion and two-time Gatornationals winner, said, “People came up to me in the pits [before the race, with encouragement]. If I don’t win, I’m in big trouble.” Longtime friend Darrell Gwynn suggested that this might be their last chance to square off against one another, unless the NHRA showcased them in another match-up. Shot back Muldowney, “If I lose, they’d better do it again.”
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