The 1980’s were a key time for American automakers as they found that small Japanese imports suddenly had a huge fanbase in our homeland. American automakers responded by delivering a crop of much better muscle cars than those seen in the 1980’s, among them the 3rd-generation Pontiac Trans Am and the Fox-body Mustang.

Today, both of these cars represent a performance bargain, if not exactly impressive performance. Many people still race these cars as well, often at local events with nothing but pride on the line. We’re not sure what was at stake in this next video, but judging from how the Mustang rams the Trans Am, only to be left in the dust, it may have indeed been more than pride at stake.

The race took place at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in a drag race between spectators. The two finalists, as it turns out, both represented the best of the 1980’s with the Pontiac Trans Am and Fox-body Mustang. It was supposed to be a best-of-three drag race right in front of the grandstands, but as the video shows, that isn’t quite what happened.

For whatever reason the two competitors line up right on top of each other; even the announcer thinks they’re a bit too close. The Mustang pulls ahead of the Trans Am, but the two cars get hung up on each other, turning the Mustang sideways. The Trans Am ends up pushing the Mustang forward, before slipping around it to grab the checkered flag.

Suffice to say, the Mustang driver forfeited the rest of the races. Guess he didn’t much care for getting shown up in front of a crowd of people.