Celebrating Dodge//Mopar_® Milestones in NHRA’s Past 75 Years – Part 3: The Eager ’80s

When the 1980s arrived, a new president was in the White House, and the world was changing. NHRA attacked the new decade with increased TV coverage and added more races across the country. Chrysler Corporation had filed for bankruptcy, and under the leadership of Lee Iaccoa, virtually all race support was cut. Now, the hard work the Direct Connection engineers and marketing folks provided drag racers was compromised. However, as the 1980s progressed, Chrysler regained financial health. Both the Dodge and Direct Connection brands got back into the fast-paced environment of NHRA Drag Racing. Before the decade would end, Mopar_® racers would once again claim NHRA World Championships.

Going into the 1980 NHRA season, Shirley Muldowney was in a heated four-way fight to earn her second Top Fuel Championship title during the NHRA World Finals at Ontario Motor Speedway. They included Gary Cornwall, Marvin Graham, Gary Beck and Connie Kalitta. In 1982, Muldowney was already a two-time Top Fuel World Champion and winner of 15 national events, and she was poised to make an unprecedented run for three-time Top Fuel World Champ. At an all-female Top Fuel matchup during the 1982 NHRA Springnationals, Muldowney defeated Lucille Lee. It was at the NHRA U.S. Nationals that same year that Muldowney’s Plymouth and Pioneer Electronics-sponsored dragster defeated her former companion and crew chief, Connie Kalitta. Her stellar performance that season garnered Muldowney a third NHRA World Championship.

Long-time Mopar Sportsman Racer Marlin Bogner had been racing Mopar vehicles since the mid-1970s, and in 1978, was the NHRA Division 5 Stock Eliminator champ. However, it was two years later when he captured the World Championship in his hard-running and deadly consistent 1972 Dodge Demon 340. After winning the Mile-High Nationals in Denver and a points race in Brainerd, Minnesota, Bogner was starting to amass a points lead in Stock Eliminator, but it wasn’t a done deal. He headed west to Ontario, California, to compete at the NHRA World Finals. In a hard-fought battle, Bogner’s Demon 340 was unstoppable as he took out Jon Dusenberry’s 428 Ford Fairlane in the final round to seal the deal and claim the 1980 NHRA Stock Eliminator World Championship for Dodge and Direct Connection.

In 1982, the Chi-Town Hustler Dodge Charger, driven by Frank Hawley, stellar crew chief Austin Coil and manager/part-owner Pat Minick, took the Winston Funny Car Championship. During their run for all the glory, Hawley defeated Don Prudhomme, Raymond Beadle, Kenny Bernstein, Billy Meyer and virtually everyone they faced. The team would repeat this feat in 1983 as Frank Hawley won the Winternationals, Gatornationals and Southern Nationals. His win at the Mile-High National would be his last as a Funny Car driver. However, Hawley had the foresight in 1985 to create Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School. It was the first of its kind in teaching aspiring drag racers the necessary racing skills to earn their NHRA Competition License.

In the 1980s, Don Garlits didn’t slow down one bit during this era. He was just as innovative as he was in the 1960s and ’70s. He continued to set records and win races, and in 1985, Garlits went on a streak of record-breaking six NHRA Top Fuel titles. These included the Southern Nationals, Cajun Nationals, Grandnationals, Summernationals, U.S. Nationals and the Keystone Nationals. He also set an all-time Top Fuel speed record of 268 mph and amassed enough points to secure the 1985 NHRA Top Fuel championship. The following year, Garlits was on a mission to secure another title and came up with a slick-looking “streamline” dragster. It would combine certain Funny Car styling elements into a Top Fuel Dragster chassis. The bodywork was narrower and designed to punch a hole through the air. It had a cowl-hinged Lexan bubble canopy which enclosed the cockpit, something that’s common today on all Top Fuel Dragsters. Garlits’ quest for the 1986 title with his new streamliner was not without incident as the car dubbed “Swamp Rat XXX” pulled a massive wheelie, then flipped backwards during the NHRA Summernationals. Garlits was unhurt, and the car was only mildly bent. Garlits repaired the dragster car and won three more races in 1986 to claim the 1986 NHRA Top Fuel title.

With a racing career spanning many decades, campaigning numerous Mopar vehicles, Al Corda raced his way to the 1986 NHRA Stock Eliminator World Championship in two cars, a 1963 B/SA Plymouth wagon on the East Coast, and a 1964 A/SA Plymouth Belvedere for West Coast races. Both of these fast Mopar cars were powered by Mopar’s mighty 426 Max Wedge engine. Despite a stout season, it was not a lock for Corda until the last race of the year, the NHRA World Finals, in which he had to secure enough points to win the World Championship. Corda was no stranger to winning races as he gained his first national victory at the 1971 NHRA U.S. Nationals. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Corda won numerous events in a wide variety of Mopar machines. A mechanical engineer with a business degree, Corda applied these skills in his racing operations. Always one to research the most competitive engine and body combination for Stock Eliminator, Corda would bring Dodge and Mopar another NHRA World Championship the following decade, this time in 426 Street HEMI^® Challenger R/T.

For the first time in a decade, a Mopar Pro Stocker won an NHRA national event. With Darrell Alderman piloting the Wayne County Speed Shop/Exide Edge Daytona, he was the only Mopar car in a stout field of Ford, Chevy, Pontiac and Oldsmobile Pro Stockers. Powered by a 500-cubic-inch V8 with Mopar Performance B-1 cylinder heads, Alderman marched his way through eliminations. In the final round, Alderman faced off against Frank Iaconio’s Pontiac Firebird. Alderman was off the line first, but Iaconio was hot on his heels. The Dodge got to the stripe first with a 7.39-second ET to defeat Iaconio’s quicker 7.38-second ET. It was Alderman’s driving skills and quicker reaction time that paid off to park the Dodge in the winner’s circle. Mopar fans around the world went crazy. Darrell Alderman would finish the 1989 NHRA season fifth in Pro Stock points. Now, the racing world took notice that Dodge and Mopar was back in Pro Stock, and more wins and championships would await the team in the 1990s.