I’ll always remember the first World Nats at Norwalk 1981 for both the weather and Bader,Sr. It rained and the sportsman pits were a bit muddy, the pro pit had this golf ball size gravel that you could barley walk on. ( Watching Richard Tharp wobble around in his cowboy boots was a memory you just can’t forget)

Bill Bader stood at the head of staging with a hose and personally washed off every sportsman entry to keep the mud out of the lanes. How many track owners would go to that effort themselves? We did the winter press tour with Bill to promote the race (cowboy Tharp was supposed to but he was too important to go to Ohio in the middle of winter) cold, windy, cheap ass Holiday Inn crap with sports reporters who of course knew nothing about racing.

Turned out all right at the race, first 5 second pass for the track in 1st round qualifying, Oswald took out Tharp in the first round, Dickie L. in the second and beat Big Daddy for the win. Nice weekend.

Mark won again in T/F for Candies in ‘82 and three or four straight years in Funny Car after that. Bader used to chase Mark around trying to kiss him for good luck every year