The NHRA Springnationals may have been named for its calendar date, but it quickly gained a reputation as being a springboard to fame, especially in Top Fuel.

For a remarkable 10-year period, beginning with the first Springnationals in 1965, when Maynard Rupp won his first title, the event was the stage for sudden stardom. Hank Westmoreland (1969), Bob Gibson (1970), Chip Woodall (1972), and John Wiebe (1973) scored their first — and only — career Top Fuel wins at the Springnationals.

Shirley Muldowney almost won her first Top Fuel title at the 1975 Springnationals, but was defeated in the final round. A year later, she joined the list of first-time winners to finally cash in at the event by denying first-time finalist Bob Edwards his first win, and she would continue her Springnationals success by winning at the upset-filled 1977 event.

The Funny Car final featured a Marines-versus-Army battle. Granada Hills, Calif., neighbors Bob Pickett, far lane, and Don Prudhomme went to war in the final round, which Pickett won, 6.22 to 6.26.

Californian Bob Pickett also joined the list of first-time winners by stunning Don Prudhomme in the Funny Car final of the 1977 event to score his first of two career titles in that class, and venerable Pro Stock pilot "Dyno Don" Nicholson ended Frank Iaconio's quest for his first slice of glory in the final round of factory hot rod racing.

Muldowney annexed her second straight Top Fuel crown, backing up her stellar 1976 performance at National Trail Raceway with yet another clean sweep. Her Connie Kalitta-maintained entry set low e.t. and top speed of the meet — 5.995 and 242.58 mph — in qualifying and went on to post times of 6.12, 6.14, 6.07, and 6.11.

Just a thousandth of a second behind Muldowney on the qualifying sheets was another surprise: Bronx, N.Y., schoolteacher Tony Ceraolo, whose Donovan-powered Traveler entry literally came out of nowhere to outqualify Don Garlits' Donovan-powered mount (No. 3 at 6.01), Pat Dakin (No. 4 at 6.02), and local favorite Jeg Coughlin, who nailed down the fifth position with a 6.06, 229.59.

Muldowney beat Frank Bradley and Coughlin, whose Jeg's dragster swerved into the other lane right behind her, and she then gained another in a growing series of victories against Garlits, who lost the engine and had to shut off, by defeating "Big Daddy's" 7.29 with a 6.07, 238.72-mph effort.

Clive Skilton, known to many as "No-Jive Clive," began his upset run by beating Ceraolo, who launched into a giant wheelstand, and Sid Seeley, who had qualified for his first NHRA national event after many hard years of trying but broke his starter while attempting to fire. Skilton then narrowly defeated Johnny Abbott, 6.08 to 6.11, to reach the final.

Skilton acquitted himself well in the final, leaving on Muldowney and hanging on until just before the finish line, but Muldowney nipped him for a 6.11 to 6.15 victory. The win was the first of three in a row for Muldowney that would help her catapult to her first of three NHRA Winston championships.

Pickett and Prudhomme battled their way through a close and quick Funny Car field to reach the final, which offered some interesting side notes. Both drivers hailed from Granada Hills, Calif., and sported competing sponsors — Pickett was at the wheel of Mickey Thompson's U.S. Marines-sponsored Olds Starfire, and "the Snake" was piloting a U.S. Army-backed Plymouth Arrow.

"Dyno Don" Nicholson denied Frank Iaconio his first Pro Stock title by beating him in the final round, 8.78 to 8.80.

Gary Burgin set low e.t. and top speed with his Orange Baron Monza at 6.10, 236.84 mph in qualifying No. 1, Prudhomme was third with a 6.15, and Pickett was sixth at 6.19. Burgin, however, red-lighted away low e.t. of eliminations, a 6.15, in round one against Gordie Bonin.

Pickett fought his way past "Flash Gordon" Mineo with a 6.25, then narrowly beat Eddie Pauling, in Johnny Loper's Arrow, 6.217 to 6.213. In the semi's, Pickett beat Billy Meyer and his SMI Motivator Mustang with a 6.19. Prudhomme trailered Raymond Beadle with a 6.27, then took a single when Ron Colson was unable to return after suffering parachute failure and stuffing Roland Leong's Hawaiian into the catch net. "The Snake" then turned back Bonin, his closest points pursuer, in the semifinals with a 6.17.

The Funny Car final was close. Pickett launched with the wheels up and Prudhomme experienced tire shake, but the win light illuminated in Pickett's lane for a 6.22 to 6.26 victory.

Fifty-year-old Nicholson used superior reaction times to compensate for his slowing Mustang II in beating Roy Hill and the AMC Hornets of Andy Mannarino and Wally Booth, the latter of which had set low e.t., an 8.64, in the preliminary rounds of Pro Stock.

Iaconio reached his second career final by disposing of Bob Gardner, Larry Lombardo, and Joe Satmary, but lost to "Dyno," 8.78 to 8.80, in the final.

Local favorite Ron Boggs' AA/Altered won Pro Comp in the quickest field in history with a string of 6.7-second clockings, and the late Don Carlton won Comp, Buddy Ingersoll took Modified, Bob Michael scored in Super Stock, and Kenny Koonce titled in Stock.