WHAT'S THE POINT?

Words and photos by Ian Tocher

I recently read that 2001 IHRA Pro Mod champ Mike Janis wants to make an attempt to be the first to drive a doorslammer into the mythical five-second zone. He hopes to turn the trick at a pre-season testing session scheduled for Mar. 7-10 at Virginia Motorsports Park. That's all well and good, but in a CompetitionPlus.com press release Janis also admitted plans to make the attempt using "a loose interpretation of the IHRA rules" including increasing the supercharger overdrive and one could speculate that the rear gear ratio of the defending IHRA World Champs Pro Modified could also be subject to the same "loose interpretation."

Defending IHRA Pro Mod champ Mike Janis apparently hopes to put his '63 Corvette into the fives by tweaking its tune-up beyond IHRA-legal constraints during a test session in March at Virginia Motorsports Park.

Now, I can understand why Janis would want to be the first in the fives, but I have to wonder if there's any true benefit. Sure, he'd gain a certain amount of notoriety, but there'll be no official record, there'll be no win light for his efforts, and perhaps most importantly, there'll be little or no usable testing data gained.

Think about it; if setting a new doorslammer record is all Janis wants -- especially if takes running in illegal trim -- he might as well tip a little nitro in his tank, too, just to make sure. Or by those standards, what's to prevent aerodynamicist Tim Gibson from grafting a couple of useless doors into John Force's Funny Car body? That way, Force could have the first doorslammer into the fours! Ridiculous, I know, but I think you get the idea.

I could even understand Janis' plan to bend the rules if he was entered in some sort of outlaw "run-what-you-brung" event (of which I suspect he's quite familiar with!). At least in that case there'd be a win on the line and probably a few dollars, too. But that's not the case here. I just don't see the payoff beyond dubious bragging rights.

Throwing out the rulebook may be a fun thing to do -- to be honest, I'd love to be there to see Janis make the attempt -- but that doesn't make it smart for a professional race team. You don't see Jeff Gordon making test laps without a restrictor plate on his engine at Daytona or Talladega, "just to see what it'll do," but that's only because it would be a pointless exercise for Hendrick Motorsports. There's little doubt that given a free-breathing horse, Gordon and his cohorts could circle those tracks at 220, 230, maybe even faster, but really, what's the point?

Admittedly, stock car teams may bend the rules a little here and there during testing (sometimes even in races, or so I'm told), but they're not going to blatantly ignore a major rule for performance gains that'll just bring extra attention from NASCAR. I would have thought a racer who just came off such a dominating year as Janis had in 2001, also wouldn't want to invite any extra scrutiny from IHRA tech officials. Let's get one thing straight, though, in no way am I suggesting that even one of Janis' passes last season was made in anything but absolutely legal IHRA trim -- I'm just pointing out that openly disregarding rules to gain an advantage, even during testing, has the potential to attract suspicion.

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