Behind-The-Scenes Time Capsule From The 1989 NHRA Winternationals

While 1989 seems like yesterday to most of us, that was 31 years ago — the NHRA was founded in 1965, and that means 1989 was more than half its existence ago. The 4-second barrier had fallen just a few months prior (in the competing IHRA) and the 300 mph barrier was still three years from being achieved. George H.W. Bush had just assumed the presidency, the Berlin Wall was still standing, John Force had only half-sniffed a championship, and a pandemic was a thing that’d happened 71 years ago.

The NHRA campaign began, as always, with the Winternationals at the L.A. County Fairplex at Pomona that year, and a YouTuber, utilizing a camcorder with a giant VHS tape, recorded an array of amazing candid footage from the professional and sportsman pits and staging lanes at the event that year, providing what is now a time capsule look back at perhaps the sport’s most vibrant years. Eddie Hill, Conrad Kalitta, a mullet-toting Mike Dunn, Don Prudhomme, Shirley Muldowney, a young Rahn Tobler and Wayne Dupuy, puffy black leather jackets, and aviators are all part of this clip that takes us back to a time that many of us would love to return to.

For those curious, Gary Ormsby defeated Frank Bradley for the Top Fuel crown at Pomona that year, Bruce Larson ousted Kenny Bernstein in Funny Car, and Bob Glidden defeated Frank Iaconio in Pro Stock.