NHRA'S 50 GREATEST DRIVERS -- NO. 4: BOB GLIDDEN

    Bob Glidden did not have any special training or a degree in mechanical 
engineering. He even conceded that many of his competitors knew far more 
about the internal-combustion engine than he did, but none of them had his 
will to win. 

    With his wife, Etta, and, later in his career, sons Billy and Rusty by 
his side, the Pro Stock icon won an unprecedented 10 Winston championships in 
16 years, including five consecutive titles from 1985 to 1989, and amassed 85 
national event victories before retiring at the end of the 1997 season. In 
the summer of 1978, he embarked on one of the sport's legendary winning 
streaks that included nine straight national event victories. He also 
qualified No. 1 at a record 23 consecutive races, including all 14 events in 
1987. 

    When asked to what he attributed his success, Glidden once said, "Common 
sense and the will to survive. I know that I have to hustle to win and that I 
have to go all out to afford to race." 
 
   A Ford campaigner from the beginning, Glidden's success in Pro Stock 
stemmed from his apprenticeship in Stock and Super Stock. He campaigned a 
series of 427 Fairlanes before switching to the more potent 428 Cobra Jet 
Mustangs in 1968. With valuable sponsorship from Ed Martin Ford, where he 
worked as a line mechanic, Glidden became one of Division 3's most prolific 
winners before turning Pro in late 1972. 

    Glidden sold his two Super Stock Mustangs in 1972 and purchased a Pinto 
Pro Stocker from Wayne Gapp and Jack Roush and made an immediate impact. 
Glidden, who left his job at Ed Martin Ford to concentrate on racing full 
time, runner-upped to Bill Jenkins at the season-ending Supernationals in his 
Pro Stock debut. The following year, Glidden broke through for his first NHRA 
national event victory, at the U.S. Nationals, where he paced the 
quickest-ever Pro Stock field with a 9.03 at a national record 152.54 mph and 
defeated fellow Ford racer Gapp in the final. It was a harbinger of things to 
come. 
 
   In 1974, in just his second full season in Pro Stock, Glidden won three 
major events, including the Springnationals and U.S. Nationals, and set both 
ends of the national record en route to his first Winston championship. 
Glidden's Pinto carried him to a come-from-behind victory over rivals Wally 
Booth and Gapp. 
 
   Glidden's late-season surge that year included a victory at his final 
Division 3 race in Bowling Green, Ky., where he set both ends of the national 
record (8.83, 154.90) to earn an extra 400 points (in those days, Pro racers 
earned points toward the Winston championship at a combination of national 
and divisional races). He ran even quicker at the season-ending 
Supernationals, where he reset his e.t. record (8.81) in qualifying and beat 
Gapp in the final. 

    Glidden won seven times in 1975, including at the Winternationals, 
Gatornationals, Fallnationals, and World Finals, to capture his second 
consecutive Winston title. He also qualified No. 1 five times, posted top 
speed eight times, and set low e.t. six times, and he did it with three 
different cars, including his old '74 Pinto, which he reacquired after a 
midseason slump. 
 
   After a disappointing 1976 season, in which he finished a distant sixth 
behind Larry Lombardo, Glidden rebounded to finish second behind Don 
Nicholson in 1977 before reclaiming his number-one ranking in 1978. Glidden, 
who amassed a record 16,035 points and lowered the national record to 8.59, 
fielded two winning cars that year: The first was his tried-and-true Ford 
Pinto that carried him to victories at the season-opening Winternationals and 
Cajun Nationals, and the second was his famed Ford Fairmont, with which he 
won the Summernationals and finished the season undefeated in national event 
competition. When all was said and done, Glidden had tied Don Prudhomme for 
most national event wins in a season with seven, including five straight, and 
had broken the Pro Stock single-season record of six set by Jenkins in 1972. 

    In recalling his Summernationals triumph, which he attained by defeating 
the Lombardo-driven Jenkins Monza in the final (8.55 to 8.71), Glidden said, 
"That was by far the biggest spread that I ever had over the guys in any race 
that I've ever ran. We didn't clinch the points title mathematically until 
just before [Indianapolis], but mentally, we felt that we had won the title 
right there in Englishtown." 
 
   Glidden retired his undefeated Fairmont in favor of a Plymouth Arrow in 
1979 and lost only three times all year. After finishing the 1978 season with 
seven straight victories, Glidden opened the 1979 season with a victory at 
the Winternationals and didn't lose a round until June, when a foul start in 
the second round of the Mile-High Nationals snapped his streak at 14 races 
and 50 rounds. That season, Glidden won seven national events, went 
undefeated in divisional competition, and earned the maximum number of points 
available at four national events by qualifying No. 1, setting low e.t. and 
top speed, and winning the race. He did the same thing at all four of his 
divisional races. 
  
  Unlike his 1979 championship season, Glidden won his third straight and 
fifth title in 1980 in dramatic fashion. Facing his first real challenge in 
the performance department in quite some time, in the form of the Lee 
Shepherd-driven Reher-Morrison Chevy Camaro, Glidden led the points chase 
only once all year: on the last day of the season. Glidden entered the season 
finale in Ontario, Calif., trailing Shepherd by two rounds and caught a huge 
break when Shepherd's transmission broke in the second round. Glidden went on 
to win the race, setting low e.t. and top speed in his final-round victory 
over Frank Iaconio. 
  
  After coming close in 1980, Shepherd succeeded in stripping Glidden of his 
title in 1981. Ironically, it was Glidden's incredible success that sparked 
the Reher-Morrison team.
 
   "We finally got tired of losing and of Glidden winning so easily," said 
Buddy Morrison. "We decided that we either had to make the same kind of 
commitment to racing that he did or get out. We didn't want to get out." 

    That commitment resulted in four consecutive Winston championships for 
the Reher-Morrison team (1981-1984), but the satisfaction of claiming their 
fourth title was tampered somewhat by the fact that they no longer had the 
quickest car in the country. Glidden's Ford Thunderbird, which he received in 
mid-1984, was the dominant car in the last half of the 1984 season and for 
all of 1985. In 1985, Glidden led the points chase from start to finish, 
winning five national events. 
 
   In 1986, in one of drag racing's great comeback stories, Glidden overcame 
a slow start and a horrific crash at the Southern Nationals in April to win 
his seventh Winston title. After early-round losses at the Winternationals 
and Gatornationals, Glidden was dealt a devastating blow at the Southern 
Nationals when a gust of wind caught his parachute and sent his Thunderbird 
into a tailspin following a semifinal victory over Butch Leal. After hitting 
the opposite guardrail, the car barrel-rolled six times and was destroyed.

    Miraculously, Glidden was not hurt, and he returned to competition a 
month later at the Cajun Nationals with a new Thunderbird, but his first win 
would not come until the Mile-High Nationals in July. That victory was the 
first of three straight for Glidden, who won six of the final seven races 
that season. 

    Glidden's remarkable career reached new heights in 1987, when he won 
eight races, including his milestone 60th victory. He won the last five in 
succession and reached the final 10 times. He also qualified No. 1 at all 14 
races, extending his streak to 22 over two years (his streak was snapped at 
23 at the 1988 Gatornationals), and won a record 42 rounds of competition. 
  
  Glidden's 1988 Winston championship, his ninth, followed a similar script. 
After struggling early, he won five of the last seven races and runner-upped 
at another to capture his fourth straight title. Glidden retired his 
venerable Thunderbird, which he drove to 19 national event victories, in 
favor of a sleeker Ford Probe and set the national e.t. record at 7.277, the 
quickest Pro Stock run in NHRA history, at the inaugural Supernationals, 
which he won to clinch the championship in the car's debut. He put his Probe 
in the winner's circle one more time, at the Fallnationals, for his 67th 
career victory. 
 
   The 1989 season was Glidden's most dominant campaign, in which he won nine 
times en route to his 10th and final Winston title. Unlike his three previous 
seasons, Glidden came out of the blocks flying, winning five of the first 
seven races and seven of the first 11, and he never looked back. His victory 
at the season-ending Winston Finals gave him 76 career wins, 49 in the 1980s 
alone. 

    "You know what's incredible and sad?" said Glidden. "Without question, 
[1989] was by far our best year, but I don't think we really even noticed 
that or had an opportunity to enjoy it." 

    Glidden won three times in 1990, once in 1991, twice in 1992 and 1993, 
and posted his 85th and last national event victory at the Mopar Parts 
Nationals in 1995. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of 
America in 1994. 

    Glidden, who had carried the Ford banner practically by himself 
throughout his career, retired in February 1997 to concentrate on engine 
development for some of Ford's NASCAR Winston Cup teams. That, and a 
sponsorship package that he felt was unsatisfactory, convinced him to pull 
the plug on his drag racing operation just two races into the 1997 season. 
Glidden came out of retirement to drive Steve Schmidt's Pontiac at the 1998 
U.S. Nationals, a race he won nine times, but failed to qualify.

    Today, Glidden enjoys a dramatically different lifestyle from his racing 
career. A heart attack victim in December 1994, Glidden plays a lot of golf 
and says he feels better than he has in years.

  NHRA's Top 50 Drivers are being unveiled on NHRA.com and through the pages 
of National DRAGSTER, in reverse order throughout the 2001 season, with a 
schedule leading up to the naming of the top driver at the Automobile Club of 
Southern California NHRA Finals at Pomona Raceway on Nov. 11.

    As NHRA celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2001, it has emerged as one of 
the most popular spectator sports, highlighted by a $50 million, 24-event, 
nationally televised tour. The NHRA has developed into the world's largest 
motorsports sanctioning body, with more than 80,000 members nationwide, and 
more than 140 member tracks.