Time for the Thursday edition of Classic Drag Racing Handout Of The Day! Today, I bring you Bob Glidden and his 1987 Pro Stock Ford Thunderbird. Bob Glidden was the man of drag racing. Way before John Force started winning, Bob already had a huge number of national event wins. Going into the 1987 season (the season that Force scored his first), Bob had 52 NHRA national event victories on his resume. The closest number of wins behind him (regardless of class) was 34. That winning record in itself gave Bob a psychological advantage over most of his opponents. By the time Bob retired at the end of the 1997 season, he had amassed 85 national event wins, along with 10 NHRA Pro Stock world championships. All in a car that some argue is one of the hardest to drive, as you have to launch with a clutch, shift, and put 1,200 horsepower to the ground through a suspension system. On top of that, back then, almost everyone was running a GM Pro Stocker. Bob Glidden ran a Ford, and seemed to be about the only one who could (remember.. you have to run a corporate powerplant in Pro Stock). Bob qualified #1 for 23 national events in a row back in the 80s. I am not sure if anyone, at any time, ever came close to that performance record. Before he went pro in late 1972, Bob was a mechanic at a Ford dealership, and raced Stock and Super Stock class. His first Pro Stock was a Pinto. In his Pro Stock debut, he runner upped, and the following year, he won his first national event... the biggest race of them all... the U.S. Nationals. Bob quit his job as a mechanic, and decided to race for a living. I think it paid off. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1994. Bob Glidden retired in February 1997 to concentrate on engine development for some of Fords NASCAR Winston Cup teams. That, and a sponsorship package that he felt was unsatisfactory, convinced him to pull the plug on his drag racing operation just two races into the 1997 season. Glidden came out of retirement to drive Steve Schmidts Pontiac at the 1998 U.S. Nationals, a race he won nine times, but failed to qualify. Bob Glidden is missed at the track, as he is a true racing legend. And as much of a legend as he is in the drag racing world, he has always been humble. He said that many of his competitors knew far more about the internal-combustion engine than he did, but none of them had his will to win. How cool of Bob Glidden to feel that way. One key to his success was his connection to his family. His wife, Etta, and sons, Billy and Rusty were always with him, helping on the car.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 01:01:53 +0000