It seems like ages ago that the all-Ford drag racing movement was in the midst of its heyday, as both the NMRA and Fun Ford Weekend were healthy and vibrant. When each year in mid May, competitors from both venues would clash in a battle known as the World Ford Challenge.  And when Drag Radial racing – at least when compared to the heights it has reached today – was still in its infancy and picking up a head of steam in the popularity department, thanks in large part to class stalwart “Big Daddy” Dwayne Gutridge.

Well thanks to Gutridge himself, we can relive some of those not-so-long-gone glory days of Drag Radial at WFC, with highlights of both the seventh edition in 2004 and the epic battle that ensued at the ninth in 2006.

In ’04, “Big Daddy” was at the top of his game and clearly the class of the field, taking WFC 7 rather handily with a dominating performance of low 8-second passes, including a killer 8.180 at 177.37 MPH rout of Sean Mulcahy in the semifinals before disposing of Bob McDonald in the final with a slower 8.22. Then in ’06, teammate and crew chief David Wolfe came out and set the Drag Radial world on its ear with 7.4-second elapsed times. The pair reached the final, squaring off in a race for the ages, as the surprising underdog Gutridge got the advantage he needed out of the gate on Wolfe, but simply couldn’t run the number, falling at a 7.81 to Wolfe’s 7.40.