For the most part there's always been some type of qualification for the championship. Back in the day the top xx points winners from each division qualified to enter the "World Finals" and contend for the championship. First contested at Tulsa then moved to several locations over the years. Seems like I remember 8 cars were allowed to enter from each division. They qualified 32 cars with winner take all
Prior to NHRA's season-long points chase there were only two World Finals that featured a 32 TF show. They were '71 and '72 at Amarillo TX w/ the earlier year having a half dozen singles in Rd. 1. The Tulsa years—'65-'68—were 16 car eliminations. Ditto for '69-'70 at Dallas. And the final Amarillo year before the points chase era began was a 16 car show.
NHRA didn't offer FC eliminator at the World Finals until 1970 which was a 16 car show. '71-'72 at Amarillo were 24 car fields, 12 cars from the Eastern Conference and 12 from the West. And like TF, the funny car class returned to 16 cars in '73.
(Source: National Dragster and SS&DI, DRUSA coverage of those events at that time)
It's difficult to try and compare the pre-Winston World Finals w/ today's Mello Yello series and here's why. Drag racing for professionals was so different from today. Since the pros made most of their income from contracted match races attending the NHRA Divisonal events (mandatory for World Finals entry) was not a top priority. If you look at the list of competitors at the '65 -'73 World Finals about half or more were part timers akin to the typical No.12-16 qualifiers today.
Still, the top names would race at some divisionals and World Finals but more often than not match races, AHRA and IHRA events would lure the big names away w/ guaranteed appearance money. NHRA had no such incentives. However, the one thing they had over the competition was more publicity. That is, more print media and even TV coverage for winning a major event. Winning Pomona, Indy and yes, the World Finals were all big feathers in your cap that could translate to increased bookings the following year.
Given this background the fuel winners from '65 to '73 under the old "winner take all" World Finals weren't necessarily the biggest names of the day.
TF:
'65-Maynard Rupp
'66-Pete Robinson
'67-Bennie Osborn
'68-Bennie Osborn
'69-Steve Carbone
'70 Ronnie Martin
'71-Gerry Glenn
'72-Jim Walther
'73 Jerry Ruth
Out of this list I'd call Robinson, Carbone and Ruth well known, top tier racers at the time of their wins.
The rest became known because of their World Finals wins.
FC:
'70-Gene Snow
'71-Phil Castronovo
'72-Larry Fullerton
'73-Frank Hall
Of this list Snow was the clear headliner, while Castronovo and Fullerton were in the midst becoming household names at the time of their wins.
The rising cost of fuel racing killed the match race scene in the late '70s. AHRA was gone by the mid '80s and IHRA was no longer the strong rival it once was in the '70s. Conversely, NHRA grew steadily, fueled by Winston's support and TV coverage.
Racers became more dependent on corporate sponsorship, to the point of that being their main source of income, not race bookings or winnings.
And of course, if you are a full time fuel racer today the Mello Yello series is your only place to race!
Sorry, I just couldn't resist.
