Atco Dragway

It didn't even happen at the right racetrack in 1988.

Atco Dragway, the late legendary New Jersey drag plant, was always a great place, but that place stood in the shadows of other massive facilities the baddest door cars in the world had run at that year.

This is a story of near misses, outlaw race cars, and a single run that broke open a controversy that has not settled down for decades since June of 1988 and accelerated the inevitable creation of a category of drag racing that continues to thrive to this very day.

There was no name for it then, but today we call it Pro Mod.

The car had run well at the IHRA Bristol Spring Nationals that year, making repeated seven oh runs in the sometimes choking atmosphere of Thunder Valley at Bristol Dragway, and it was still seen as a novelty act.

It was also still running the Rodex of Tommy House, a smaller engine with less aggressive parts.

The next stop on the IHRA tour was ATCO Dragway for the Summer Nationals, and let's just say that ATCO in nineteen eighty-six could not have been further away from the Texas Motorplex or Bristol Dragway if it were on Mars.

But House, Stanley, and Jimmy Lyons knew it very well from all their match racing exploits and testing there.