IHRA Tech Director Mike Baker stresses in this month's DRO interview that he considers only performance figures set at sanctioned events before making rule changes, but surely he'll at least be monitoring the times at the biggest IHRA pre-season test meet going. Anything Janis might do to his car to set a "record" would have to make Baker curious, and especially considering the tumultuous history of Pro Mod blower rule changes, I can't help but think Janis may be playing with fire.

Finally, it's obvious that every trip down the 1320 costs considerable money, but it also carries considerable risk -- both to the car and to Janis. He has to consider whether that risk is reasonable for what basically amounts to an illegal record attempt, or if it might be better spent when something truly is on the line.

I don't want to take the fun out of drag racing. In fact, I think it's great that successful drag racers like Janis are still able to have fun with their cars. But I can't help but question the wisdom of going after an artificial record. An IHRA-legal five-second Pro Mod pass seems inevitable -- maybe not this year, maybe not even in 2003 -- but certainly it's within sight, with Janis right at the top of the list of likely history makers. Would the Janis team really want to have a record in the book with an asterisks beside it? In other words, a record that really isn't a record. The bottom line is, even in drag racing, patience can be a virtue.

On his way to securing the 2001 championship, Janis won five races and set the official IHRA Pro Mod elapsed time record to 6.112 seconds.

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