Way back in the heyday of drag racing and before the NHRA marathon schedule there was match racing, which in some ways a precursor to the grudge racing that exists today. Your local drag strip would book some big names to come race a best two-out-of-three series as a feature that would often absolutely pack the house. The entertaining events became a thing of legend, and during this golden age you could see a match race grudge battle between Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen, “The Grump” and the Sox & Martin duo, and countless other drag racing rivals. These races would whip the crowd into a frenzy and produce show stopping results.

Such a race (held during qualifying) went down during the summer months last season at the famed World Series of Drag Racing in Cordova, Illinois that could have very well been a match race straight out of the 1970’s. It pitted former NHRA big show Funny Car champion Cruz Pedregon in his 1977 Trans Am flopper that’s a masterful replica of the iconic Keeling & Clayton “California Charger,” alongside Bazz Young, who interestingly, is a former President of Sales at Snap-On, Pedregon’s primary sponsor on his NHRA team, in the Camaro he pilots, known as “Down Under Thunder.” Both drivers get right to it, stage up with the crowd on their feet, and get down to business as Bret Kepner, the walking drag racing encyclopedia, just kills it on the call of the race. The matchup was insanely close, with Cruz pulling out a squeaker with a 5.96 to Bazz’s 5.99. Both racers clearly had their cars set on kill as you can see the smoke pouring from the cylinders at the conclusion of the run.

That’s what match and grudge racing is all about at any level: line your ride up, let it eat, and turn on that win light no matter what. 

A big kudos to Les Mayhew from Nitro America for producing yet another amazing piece of video artwork. Mayhew does a fantastic job covering nostalgia nitro racing, and traveling the country and bringing the passion out in the racing makes a Nitro America video a true treat to watch.