Nearly year after an exploding transmission in his front-engined Top Fueler severed half of his right foot, Don Garlits won the 1971 season-opening Winternationals in the NHRA debut of a new rear-engined dragster that paved the way for today's contemporary machines. In the final round, Garlits soloed to his sixth NHRA national event victory when the front-engined car of Kenny Safford suffered clutch problems and could not run.
The event, however, was marred by the death of innovative Top Fuel racer Pete Robinson, who crashed during a qualifying run when a ground-effects device failed on his dragster.
