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Newly crowned Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Gaige Herrera had a season for the ages, scoring 11 times in 15 events to set a new class record and also set another record for most No. 1 qualifying efforts (14 of 15) that will go in the history books as one of the best statistical seasons on history. 

He accumulated a stunning 50-4 win-loss record (92.6%) in national event competition, and if you add his three round-wins in the non-points Pro Stock Motorcycle Callout in Sonoma, the record balloons to 53-4 and about 93%, but for this reckoning, let’s stick with the national event stats.

But how does it stack up against some of the other great seasons in drag racing history? The current records in Top Fuel and Funny Car are both 15 wins — Tony Schumacher in 2008 and Greg Anderson in 2004, respectively — while the Funny Car mark is 13, set by the GOAT, John Force, in 1996.

And, finally, we will stack them all up against Don Prudhomme’s unearthly 1976 Funny Car campaign in which he won seven of eight national events.

Let’s stack the modern four in a few ways; first, win percentage of events on the schedule:

A clear win for Herrera, but Force also had three runner-ups, Anderson had four in the Summit GTO, Schumacher had three, and Herrera had just one, so let’s look at their percentages of reaching final rounds:

So, even though Force's Castrol GTX Pontiac had less event wins than Anderson and Schumacher (13 to 15), his final-round percentage is top among all four classes, even better than Herrera, as was Anderson.

And now, win-loss percentage:

Slight edge to Herrera over Force, but how can you even call Schumacher the "loser" here after a nearly 90% win ratio with the Alan Johnson-tuned Army dragster?

And, finally, the percentage of No. 1 qualifying efforts vs. number of events:

Herrera was the clear winner here, as his Mission Foods/Vance & Hines Suzuki missed just once, in Denver, where he qualified third.

And now onto Mr. Prudhomme and the almost mythical 1976 season.

With tons of horsepower underfoot, varying track conditions, and hundreds of moving parts, perfection is hard to attain in professional drag racing. Ask the drivers and crew chiefs, and most will tell you they’ve never put together a perfect run, and certainly, no one has ever had a perfect season, though Prudhomme came tantalizing close in 1976 when he won seven of the eight national events on the schedule and was runner-up at the eighth with his vaunted U.S. Army-sponsored Chevy Monza.

Prudhomme, at that time the only driver with wins in Top Fuel and Funny Car, and largely just crew chief Bob Brandt, center,  and crewmembers Mike Peloquin, left, and Pat Galvin, entered the 1976 season as the reigning Funny Car world champions, having dominated the 1975 campaign with six triumphs in eight events to earn Prudhomme’s first series crown. As impressive as their performance had been, though, it only tied the record for most victories in a season, matching the effort put together by Pro Stock ace Ronnie Sox in 1971. The previous best Funny Car season had been a four-win campaign by Ed McCulloch in 1972.

Prudhomme, who had won the last two events on the 1975 schedule, scored at the first five races of the 1976 season and reached the final round of the sixth, the U.S. Nationals, where he was upset by Gary Burgin, ending a run of 30 straight round-wins. Prudhomme recovered from that tough loss to again win the final two events of the season and finished with a stunning 30-1 national event win-loss record and his second of four straight championships.

He set low e.t. at all eight events in 1976, qualified No. 1 seven of eight times — Burgin stopped him from perfection there as well, at the Gatornationals — had top speed of the meet six times, and reset the national e.t. record twice. Prudhomme also won three divisional events, which at the time were part of the points-scoring equation. 

As you look through the results of the individual races below, you’ll notice a few things. First, many of Prudhomme’s opponents didn’t make it down the track after failed attempts to outpower him. Second, in most cases, his car was uncannily consistent on race day. Third, when both cars made it down the track, Prudhomme’s Monza seemed to have a solid tenth-of-a-second advantage or better.

Notes: Prudhomme had been the lucky winner a week earlier at the preseason Winter Classic in Phoenix when Gary Burgin crossed the centerline in the final while well ahead of a tire-smoking “Snake.” … Prudhomme qualified No. 1 in Pomona with a 6.02, the second-quickest pass in history behind his barrier-breaking 5.99 from the 1975 World Finals, and backed it up in the first round with a 6.06 to break the old record of 6.14 held by Raymond Beadle. … Prudhomme already held the speed mark at 241.53, also set at the 1975 Finals. … Prudhomme’s driving skills were put to the test in the semifinals, where he survived a smoke-filled pedaling match with Prock that burned five pistons and broke the rear end, leading to a massive thrash before he faced McCulloch in the final. … The victory, Prudhomme’s third at the Winternationals, was his 15th win, tying him with Ronnie Sox and Don Garlits as NHRA’s winningest driver.

Quotable: “It’s always good to get things going with a record and a win since it sets the tone for the rest of the year and gives you a lot of momentum.”

Notes: This is the only event where Prudhomme did not qualify No. 1; he and crew chief Bob Brandt struggled with the humid air and finished No. 2 with a 6.31 behind Gary Burgin’s 6.29. … The team burned pistons throughout qualifying and the first three rounds and decided to make a radical change for its final-round race with 1974 world champ Greer. The result? Just as you would expect for a championship team: another win with a track record pass; Greer crossed the centerline in defeat. … The victory, Prudhomme’s 16th, made him the sport’s all-time winningest driver, a claim he would retain for more than five years and 14 more wins before Bob Glidden passed him (31-30) at the 1980 World Finals. … Prudhomme’s points score of 2,331 was already double that of second-place driver Tom Prock.

Quotable: “We kind of stuck our necks out with a lot of changes, and it was the case of either winning without hurting the engine or nothing at all. That race taught us a lot about ourselves, and we put that information to good use several times later in the season.”

Notes: After qualifying No. 1 with a 6.31, “the Snake” reset low e.t. and the track e.t. record in round one despite an early-shutoff run of just 209 mph. … The pole position marked Prudhomme’s fourth straight year as the No. 1 qualifier at the event. … Fellow Granada Hills, Calif., racer Pickett gave him his toughest battle in the second round when Prudhomme shut off early and almost gave the race away. … After making easy passes of just 209, 206, and 214 mph in the first three rounds, Prudhomme posted top speed of the meet (and another track record) in the final, where he ran 230.17 against McEwen, who experienced a small fire in his car. … It was just the second national event final between the longtime rivals and former teammates; the first was at the 1975 Fallnationals, which Prudhomme also won. … Prudhomme’s points lead over second-place Greer was nearly 2,000 points. …

Quotable: “It was one of those races that I would like to have happen all of the time. There were no major problems that came up, and nothing unusual happened all weekend long. We just went out there and did what we planned to do.”

Notes: Prudhomme finally broke his Summernationals jinx, scoring the only event win on the schedule that had eluded him until that point, but it wasn’t easy. … The team had to overcome clutch problems and burned pistons along the way but took the No. 1 qualifying spot from Gary Burgin late in qualifying, 6.13 to 6.21. … Burgin ran quicker than Prudhomme in the first two rounds (6.18 and 6.29 to 6.39 and 6.33) but got out of shape against McEwen in the semifinals. … Despite running on just seven cylinders, Prudhomme drove around a car-length final-round holeshot by McEwen to win by inches. … “The Snake’s” final-round victory over “the Mongoose,” his second straight, avenged his first-round loss to his rival at this event the year before that had ended Prudhomme’s bid for a perfect 1975 season. … Prudhomme again set both ends of the track record.

Quotable: “It was tough all the way. We lost some pistons in the semi’s, and there was a lot of hard work right up to the end. I guess you could say that we kind of lucked out at this one.”

Notes: Until the final qualifying session, Prudhomme’s low-qualifying pass of 6.18 was quicker than any Top Fueler had run, but Richard Tharp saved face for the Top Fuelers by taking the No. 1 spot with a 6.11 on his final attempt. … With only seven Funny Cars making the trip north of the border to Quebec, Prudhomme had a bye run in the first round. … In a rematch of the 1975 final, Prudhomme won with low e.t. and top speed of 6.17, 233.76, also both track records. … It was Prock’s third straight final-round loss to Prudhomme in less than two years.

Quotable: “It was a really good race. We did learn a lot from the Summernationals, and I think that it really showed up well at this event.”

Notes: Prudhomme grabbed the No. 1 spot late in qualifying, posting the quickest e.t. in class history, a track record 5.97, just the class’ second five-second pass behind the 5.98 that he had run at the 1975 World Finals. … An earlier 6.03 qualifying run backed up the 5.97 to establish the national record. … Burgin qualified No. 4 and set top speed at 238.09 in round two. … Based on the first three rounds, Prudhomme (6.05, 6.13, and 6.15) was the heavy final-round favorite against Burgin (6.12 and two 6.21s). … An oildown in the Modified final just ahead of them led Prudhomme to switch from the left lane he had been running all day to the right. The Monza shook early then hazed the tires, allowing Burgin to grab the lead he would never relinquish. ... Despite the loss and the end of his 30-round winning streak, Prudhomme earned enough points to clinch the world championship with two events remaining on the schedule.

Quotable: “It was all my fault. I knew that some of the other guys were having trouble in that lane, but I thought that I could handle it. It was just one of those things.”

Notes: Prudhomme qualified No. 1, shattering the 6.27 track record with a 6.04 that was eight-hundredths quicker than the No. 2 qualifier. … Top speed went to Pat Foster at 234.98. …Track conditions changed for eliminations, and Prudhomme and crew chief Bob Brandt had to battle to victory with 6.2s and 6.3s to launch another long round-win streak that would stretch into 1977 and reach 15 victories before a stunning red-light in the semifinals of the Gatornationals. … McCulloch smoked the tires in the final to hand Prudhomme his milestone 20th win.

Quotable: “That was a hard event for us to run. The concrete starting line made our car vibrate pretty bad, just like it did to everybody else, and it was very difficult to race. Still, we weren’t hurting any parts in the engine, and we managed to come away with the win.”

Notes: Another last-session blast put Prudhomme atop the pack with a 6.02 that supplanted Ron Colson’s 6.18 and gave him his biggest “lead” entering eliminations. … Prior to the 6.02, Prudhomme’s best run had been 6.25 but at a booming 240.00 mph (top speed of the meet), so he and Brandt knew they had the power to go to No. 1. … McCulloch exploded the supercharger on the starting line against Pat Foster in the semifinals but won when Foster crossed the centerline. Though the explosion destroyed the windshield and tin and damaged the body, the team made it to the line in time for the final but was slowed by a bad fuel leak and couldn’t stage within the allotted time, giving Prudhomme a bye, on which he ran low e.t. of eliminations.

Quotable: “We changed engines after the 240-mph [qualifying] run and came back to run 6.02. We hurt that engine pretty bad on the run, though, so we put the other one back in and borrowed some combinations from the 6.02 engine to make it run better during eliminations.” 

Those were the eight national events on the schedule, and, as you can see, they were spaced roughly a month apart, and teams like Prudhomme's kept busy between the nationals with full slates of match races and some divisional events, where "the Snake" and Brandt also destroyed the competition.

OTHER MAJOR EVENT WINS
Event	Track	Location
Winter Classic	Beeline Dragway	Phoenix
Fox Hunt	Orange County Int’l Raceway	E. Irvine, Calif.
Winston Series*	Fremont Raceway	Fremont, Calif.
64 Funny Car Spectacular	Irwindale Raceway	Irwindale, Calif.
Winston Series*	Seattle Raceway	Seattle
Manufacturers Fuel Funny Car Showdown	Byron Dragway	Byron, Ill.
Winston Series*	Edgewater Raceway Park	Cleves, Ohio
Super Stock Nationals	York U.S. Dragway	York, Pa.
Event name unknown	Quaker City Dragway	Salem, Ohio
Northeast Funny Car Nationals	Lebanon Valley Dragway	W. Lebanon, N.Y.
Pop Rod Funny Car Preview	U.S. 131 Dragway	Martin, Mich.
Popular Hot Rodding Championships	U.S. 131 Dragway	Martin, Mich.
World Series of Drag Racing (Friday)	Cordova Dragway	Cordova, Ill.
World Series of Drag Racing (Saturday)	Cordova Dragway	Cordova, Ill.
Back to School Race	Fremont Raceway	Fremont, Calif.
Funny Car Team Championships	Irwindale Raceway	Irwindale, Calif.
Manufacturers Cup	Orange County Int’l Raceway	E. Irvine, Calif.
*Points-earning event

It's worth remembering that while Prudhomme went 30-1 in national event competition, he also suffered a rarely remembered loss at one of the points-counting divisional events when he drew a red-light in the final round of the Division 5 event at Colorado’s Pueblo Motorsports Park, losing to Great Falls, Mont.'s Bill Spevacek. Because there were three months between the Gatornationals and the Springnationals, Prudhomme hit the match-race trail and also competed in a trio of divisional events, winning in Fremont and Seattle before heading to Pueblo.

"It was one of those races where they didn't have a full eight-car field, so the second round was actually the final," Prudhomme told NHRA National Dragster in his 1976 champion interview. "I had the opposition pretty well covered and somehow either the spoiler or the weight bar activated the staging beams as I came up to the line. As soon as the starter pressed the button, I got a red-light in my lane."

So, counting the six round-wins for his victories in Fremont and Seattle and one in the first round at Pueblo, I have Prudhomme's points-counting round record at 37-2, or 94.8%.

While he undoubtedly also lost some rounds at match races, his points-counting score is still one for the record books, and he also rewrote 19 track records along the way, breaking track standards at Beeline Dragway, Byron Dragway, Connecticut Dragway, Edgewater Raceway Park, Famoso Dragstrip, Fremont Raceway, Gainesville Raceway, Indianapolis Raceway Park, Irwindale Raceway, National Trail Raceway, Orange County Int’l Raceway, Madison Township Raceway Park, Pomona Raceway, Pueblo Motorsports Park, Quaker City Dragway, Sacramento Raceway, Sanair Int’l Dragstrip, Seattle Raceway, and U.S. 131 Dragway.

So, let's compare "the Snake's" numbers against the modern "winners" in each of the categories:

While Herrera's season is right there with Prudhomme's on occasion, other than his No. 1 qualifying domination — both missed just once, but Herrera's body of work spanned 15 races compared to "Snake's" eight — where he was clearly dominant.

My only lingering question is how much harder was it for Herrera to be as good as he was over nearly twice as many races, plus media and sponsor obligations? Not that Prudhomme didn't have obligations to the Army and had an overly larger season when you count match racing and divisional events, but, as we all know, it's tough to compare eras that are so dynamically different from schedule to parity to finances to travel to track preparation and the many other intangibles.

Plus, let's not forget that by the time Prudhomme began 1976, he'd been cut-throat nitro racing since 1963 whereas Herrera, despite a wealth of experience on other bikes, only had a half-season in 2022 to prepare for the rigors of a national event season.

And even though Prudhomme and Herrera's numbers are largely better than those of Force, Schumacher, and Anderson in this comparison, it also reminds me of just how great those seasons were for those drivers, and also how far the level of parity has grown. I doubt we'll ever see a Top Fuel or Funny Car driver win more than three-quarters of the season's events, just as we probably won't ever see a Funny Car driver win 10 straight championships as Force did 1993-2002 or even six straight as Schumacher did in Top Fuel in the early 2000s.

Phil Burgess can be reached at pburgess@nhra.com

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