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Houston memories: First NHRA four-second Top Fuel pass (1988)

The upcoming NHRA SpringNationals is scheduled to be the final NHRA national event at Houston Raceway Park, which hosted its first event in 1988. As a salute to that long history, we're taking a look at some top moments in track history. Today: NHRA's first four-second Top Fuel pass.
07 Apr 2022
Phil Burgess, NHRA National Dragster Editor
Great moments in Houston history
First NHRA four-second Top Fuel pass

When NHRA reinstated the event name of "Supernationals" for the inaugural NHRA national event at all-new Houston Raceway Park in 1988, no one knew that they’d see history repeat itself in other ways.

At the 1972 NHRA Supernationals held at Ontario Motor Speedway in Southern California, Mike Snively clocked the first five-second Top Fuel run at an NHRA national event, a 5.97, on Nov. 17, 1972. There had been other claims on five-second runs, but none of them under the NHRA verified timing system.

Flash forward more than 15 years to April 1988. Eddie Hill recorded the first four-second Top Fuel pass in drag racing history at a non-NHRA event at Texas Motorplex, but it was fellow Texan Gene Snow who six months later earned the honor of the first four-second pass at an NHRA event during qualifying at the inaugural Supernationals.

The new track lived up to almost everyone's expectations. A new 400-foot concrete launch pad did a fine job propelling the cars downtrack, and the super-traction asphalt seemed to lock them down as they traversed the Houston quarter-mile. Add in A-1 race conditions, with temperatures in the low 70s, low humidity, and altimeters that generally read well below sea level, and the recipe was there.

On Thursday, Oct. 6, at 4:07 p.m., Snow, qualifying alongside Frank Cook and the "Gunite Express" dragster, ripped to a mind-boggling 4.997 to become the first racer to break the four-second barrier at an NHRA event.

Snow's 4.997 led Top Fuel qualifying, but right behind him were Joe Amato (5.006), Hill (5.036), Connie Kalitta (5.060), and Frank Hawley (5.061). The field sported a record-quick 16-car Top Fuel bubble of 5.227, anchored by Shirley Muldowney.

Snow did not win the event, falling in the semifinals to eventual winner Hill on a wild, wheelstanding, tire-smoking pass, but Snow's mark on the NHRA and Houston Raceway Park history books is indelible.

To purchase tickets to the final NHRA SpringNationals at Houston Raceway Park, call 281-383-7223 or visit www.HoustonRaceway.com. Children 12 and under are admitted free in general admissions areas with a paid adult.