In honor of this weekend’s season-concluding Auto Club NHRA Finals at Pomona Raceway, we thought it only be fitting that we haul out the vintage Fairplex footage for this – our weekly Flashback Friday feature. Now, if you’ve been watching drag racing for any length of time, or have been there in-person – you’ll be able to discern upon first glance that this footage is distinctly the Pomona Raceway in it’s earliest form. And when we say in it’s earliest form, that’s exactly what we mean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8PSNExU208

Despite the lack of guardrails or scoreboards, the quarter mile itself has seemingly always looked the same – very unique in it’s layout. But outside the confines of that strip of asphalt built in 1961, nothing looks the same. Today, a massive set of grandstands line the pit side of the track, with a smaller set down the opposite side. Behind the starting line rests a modern three-story tower, and the area surrounding the track has grown by leaps and bounds, giving the appearance that the track was plopped down in the middle of downtown Los Angeles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNvIx5R-rYQ

This footage depicts the 1962 running of the NHRA Winternationals, which if you’ve done the math, makes this just the second NHRA national event ever held at the historic facility that adjoins the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. This three-part clip showcases some of the earliest slingshot dragsters, with names like Jack Chrisman, Mickey Thompson, Tom McEwen, “Dyno Don” Nicholson, and Pete Robinson among the combatants. As can be seen in the second part of the video, Glen Ward drops fast time of the event at 176 miles per hour – a far cry from today’s performances on the very same track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgEkjwtQNVw