This beautiful reproduction poster has been re-mastered from a 1968 advertisement for the fourth annual NHRA Springnationals in Englishtown, New Jersey, held on June 14–16.
The vibrant colors and detail of this classic image have been painstakingly brought back to life to preserve a great piece of history.
The high-resolution image is printed on heavy archival photo paper, on a large-format, professional giclée process printer. The poster is shipped in a rigid cardboard tube, and is ready for framing.
The 13"x19" format is an excellent image size that looks great as a stand-alone piece of art, or as a grouped visual statement. These posters require no cutting, trimming, or custom framing, and a wide variety of these frames are readily available at your local craft or hobby retailer, and online.
A great vintage print for your home, shop, or business!
HISTORY OF THE NHRA SPRINGNATIONALS
The NHRA's national event known as the Springnationals bounced around among three different sites from 1965-1971. The 1968 Springnationals were held only once at Raceway Park, in Englishtown New Jersey.
Raceway Park was founded in 1965 by Vincent Napoliello and Louis Napoliello. The site was originally 308 acres on 230 Pension Road, just off of County Route 527 (now Englishtown Road). Since then it has grown to 500+ acres with multiple motorsports activities. The track opened with a single 1/4 mile dragstrip. Raceway Park offered two dragstrips, three motocross tracks, a 1.3-mile road course track, competition go kart racing track, autocross track, ride and drive site and adjacent Old Bridge Airport.
In the early 1970s, Wally Parks, founder and head of the NHRA at the time, decided to move the Springnationals to National Trail Raceway in 1972, based on the popularity of drag racing in central Ohio.
According to National Trail Raceway's website, "...the 1972 Springnationals drew more than 40,000 spectators and 600 cars. On both Saturday and Sunday, the (admittance) gates had to be closed while cars were still sitting on Route 40 waiting to get into the event as the grounds were already full."
In the 1976 Springnationals, Shirley Muldowney became the first female to ever win a national event in the Top Fuel Dragster category. In 1982, the Springnationals hosted the first ever all-female professional final between Shirley and Lucille Lee, with Muldowney being the winner.
For most of the Springnationals' history, the event was run in the month of June, often on or around Fathers Day weekend. But, due to Ohio's sometimes unpredictable weather, some feel this is why the performances of the race cars were usually not as quick or as fast as at other NHRA national events.
The unpredictable weather often made for unpredictable track conditions. Thus, several crew chiefs often had trouble knowing how to properly tune and prepare the race cars to run well. This led to many upsets during eliminations. In fact, several drivers scored their first, and sometimes only, national event win during the Springnationals at National Trail.
In later years, the Springnationals have been held in Bristol, TN, and Baytown Texas.
