(Alongside, in the Budweiser lane a guy who apparently 31 years ago got beat by a young
upstart driver from Canada.
He drove the big, bad Chi-Town Hustler he pulled into the lanes looked over and said,
"Dale Pulde's War Eagle".
Ladies and gentleman, this is without a doubt one of the coolest race cars ever to go down
a race track, and I've got to tell you it's awful cool looking at it right now.
I'll tell you a quick story.
Back in 1981, my father pulled me out of school for a week...I was I don't know, 6th grade
or 7th grade, we were getting ready for our first national event.
So, it's about two o'clock in the morning, we had this old broken down truck with no
doors on it, and back then we had to spray and apply the glue by hand.
I was driving and spraying, and then he was driving and spraying, so it was about 2:30
in the morning and out of the darkness appears this guy and he said, "Hi, I'm Dale Pulde."
Dale, I don't know if you remember that but I sure do.
Ladies and gentleman, three time world champion, Mr. Dale Pulde! (crowd cheering) Dale, I'll
tell you what it is do darn cool to look at this car sitting on the, when was the last
time you were anywhere close to this race track?
I actually uh, I came here with Scotty Cannon in '99, and by the way we beat John Force
in the first round, (laughter) , anyway I was here in '99, I raced my car here the last
time when Billy Meyer ran the IHRA and I was the driver for him in 1988.
So, it's been a long time since the War Eagle has been down this race track?
Up and down this one that's for sure.
I'll tell you what, did you see on Sunday on the NHRA broadcast they ranked your car
as one of the top five coolest cars of all time?
I thought that was really neat.
Yeah, I did too.
You know what's interesting, Hawley beat you, you beat Hawley but what is certain Force
can't beat your or got beat first round.
John paid his dues really hard.
He won a lot of championships, I remember the year we he couldn't qualify for a long
time, and then when he did qualify he he finally won a race.
So, everything John's got he worked really hard for.
Absolutely.
I'll tell you what, we're going to pair you and Hawley up in the first round, because
it's pretty unclear 31 years ago who won that race.
You say say you won, and Hawley says he won, so we thought we could settle it here tonight
at the Night Under Fire here in Norwalk, Ohio.
Yeah, it's kinda like the drag racing version of dirty old men out there racing, it's just
that we're out here having fun.
Alright, well Dale damn good to see you.
Ladies and gentleman, Mr. Dale Pulde! (crowd cheering)
Alright, up next ladies and gentlemen we have four of the quickest and fastest jet dragsters
(War Eagle vs the Chi-Town Hustler Funny Car)
(Ladies and gentlemen! Side-by-side fives!
(Dale Pulde 5.87 217 miles and hour!
(Jon Capps in the Jungle Jim Funny Car)
(Summit Motorsports Park)