On and off the race track, only the strong survive the world’s greatest drag race. Money can help, certainly, and good luck never hurts, but endurance is everything in the United States Nationals. This was particularly true in 1981.
Nine hundred different drag racers and probably 70,000 total spectators participated in the preliminary stages of NHRA’s “Big Go” Number 27, but only a handful of each were still around for the rain-delayed Tuesday conclusion. These few ultimate survivors, eight days into the Indy activities, included about 1000 cold, tired, wind-blown, sore-bottomed race fans, and exactly one dozen weary eliminator champions: Johnny Abbott (Top Fuel), Raymond Beadle (AA/Funny Car), Lee Shepherd (Pro Stock), Brian Raymer (Top Alcohol Dragster), Ken Veney (Alky Funny Car), Tom Trisch (Competition), Cotton Perry (Modified), Ray Pacquet…