I have heard that at least one other IHRA national event track is considering a race with modified IHRA/NHRA rules in an attempt to attract racers wanting to be first in the fives. It wouldn't be surprising that if suddenly a lot of racers decided to go for the five-second barrier because it wouldn't take wholesale changes in the car to do so and they can try to do it before the official start of the Pro Mod season. It wouldn't surprise anyone that, if the Darlington event is successful, the InfiNet-backed race at Virginia will probably adopt the same rules that Darlington Dragway had.

All of a sudden IHRA/NHRA legal Pro Mod teams who maybe can't get an invitation to NHRA's big dance have an alternative. They can get involved in the race to the five-second barrier. If the only difference between the cars that run at Darlington and those that run at San Antonio and Gainesville is weight and blower overdrive, the fans and the mainstream press won't care as much as they would if the rules allowed any gear, any blower, turbochargers or nitro.

Darlington Dragway's announcement will change everything regarding the race to the five-second barrier. Darlington Dragway is a historic track with a reputation of giving up big numbers. It's also important that Darlington is an NHRA facility and that the race will be NHRA-sanctioned and administrated. That alone will give the race and record legitimacy should the barrier be broken. An added intangible will be that there are still a lot of old hard-shell NHRA guys still smarting over the fact that the first four-second run came at an IHRA-sanctioned track not an NHRA track. It's a good bet that the track will be prepped and ready. Carlton Phillips and Johnny Rocca will be sure of that.

Now that there are two major-league race plants that have announced races specifically intended to facilitate the first five-second door car pass, if the barrier isn't broken at Darlington I think you can look for more such races. The Genie is coming out of the bottle at Darlington in February and he or she ain't going back in.

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The only Pro Mod racers who aren't going to like this deal are the nitrous oxide-injected racers. The promoters at Darlington have seen the handwriting on the wall and wisely they're going to have an eight-car field for nitrous oxide Pro Mods only. That action alone will make this a watershed event in Pro Mod and could mark the beginning of the end of Pro Modified as we have known it with nitrous cars going heads up against blower cars. If the promoters at Darlington really wanted to change history and perhaps save the status quo of the class they would open the rules up for the nitrous Pro Mod racers and give them virtually anything they want. If they don't, and blown cars at Darlington run a bunch of 6.0's or a five and the nitrous cars are stuck in the 6.20's, the nitrous Pro Mod will only survive as a separate class and the supercharged Pro Mod will truly become just another iteration of the alcohol funny car.

Back in 1986 when a bunch of then relatively unheralded racers, including a then unknown Bill Kuhlmann, decided they were going for the 200-mph barrier at Darlington, it wasn't the sanctioning bodies that made it an event. The fact is that IHRA and NHRA didn't much care. It was the fans, racers and the racing press who made the assault on the 200-mph barrier a big deal.

The same could and probably will happen regarding the assault on the five-second barrier. One thing is sure. If any Pro Mod racer gets into the fives at Darlington he will go down in history as the first doorslammer driver in the fives. He will, just like Bill Kuhlmann did, take that to the bank.