During the glory years of the sport of drag racing, match racing was as much a defining part of the racing culture as organized race events were, if not more. Unlike today’s match race landscape, all of the high profile, professional drag racers of the era made their money and sold their wares at tracks big and small all across the nation, at the same time creating a legendary status for themselves as they donned their showman caps and wow’ed the crowds everywhere they went with exciting, hyped-up contests with their bitter rivals.

A shining example of the awesome shows of years gone by is this matchup between the late Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins and “Dandy” Dick Landy, two of the most renowned and legendary Pro Stock racers of all-time. In 1975, during the earliest years of the factory hot rod category, Jenkins and Landy squared off in a heavily attended match race north of the border at the Boundary Bay Raceway in Vancouver, Canada in what’s understood to be a best-of-three contest.

After a lengthy period of track prep by Jenkins himself to lay down the rosin just as he desired, he and Landy fire their machines and engage in the sorely missed practice of high-winding dry hops that only further fueled the anticipation for the lights to drop and these two future legends to blast off the starting line.

Rather than spoil it for our readers, we’ll refrain from telling who won this particular race, but this is some truly amazing footage from the good old days that you’ll want to check out.