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TOP FUEL | Crashes
As the decade turned drag racing began to get organized. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) was founded in 1951 by Wally Parks, and within the decade two classes of competition had developed ‘Unmodified Stock’ and ‘Top Eliminator’.
However, it wasn’t until one of the most serious accidents in early drag racing history in the 1970s that the fundamentals of car design changed. When Don Garlit’s front-motored dragster suffered a transmission explosion which split his car in half and cut off his right foot, he vowed to invent a car with the engine in the back capable of being a winner. He succeeded and within two years all car engines sat behind the drivers.