Much Ado, but Nothing

By Susan Wade

Will the real Pro Modifieds dealmaker please sit down? At the table. With NHRA. Then stand up and tell the drivers and fans what's going on. At least two groups claim to have reached deals with drag racing's largest and richest sanctioning body. But NHRA officials say an agreement hasn't been finalized.

Meanwhile, the class is idling. Some drivers and some team owners are ready to go full-throttle into another season of 10 exhibition races. Some are in neutral, waiting to see what structure and format the NHRA will announce for the 2003 Pro Mod Challenge Series. Still others have hinted that they're in reverse, ready to back out of NHRA and return to IHRA with less exposure and better paychecks. One Pro Modified entity says its deal includes a concert series featuring one of America's hottest, hippest new rock bands. The other says it's still trying to figure out the purse structure. The NHRA says, "Relax and have a Powerade. We'll get back to you." The Pro Modified class and its struggle to become recognized by NHRA is a continuing drama that has unfolded in several acts. DRO presents the condensed version . . .

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

Mitch Stott, Pro Modified driver
Mike Ashley, Pro Modified driver
NHRA marketing, sales and operations personnel
Tom Compton, NHRA President
Bob Wagner, NHRA Vice-President, Sales & Business Development
John Siragusa, NHRA Director of New Business Development Richard Kearby, President/CEO of InfiNet, an insurance and financial network for the construction industry; partner with Dave Wood in AMS Staff leasing; sponsor of Mike Ashley's Gotham City Pro Mod car
Matt Call, drummer for the Indianapolis-based rock band Slur; partner with Richard Kearby in Slur and Tarpit Records
Kenny Nowling, St. Louis businessman and negotiator on behalf of Pro Modified drivers
Dave Wood, AMS Staff Leasing
Jeff Lynn, colleague of Dave Wood at AMS Staff Leasing
Jerry Archambeault, NHRA Vice-President, Public Relations & Communications

ACT I

SCENE ONE: The Pro Modified pits at Indianapolis Raceway Park in Clermont, Ind., during the Saturday qualifying sessions of the 2001 U.S. Nationals. Mitch Stott has just taken a break from working on his Radiac Abrasives-sponsored "Radiac Maniac" blown 1963 Corvette and has retreated from the sun and Hoosier humidity into his trailer and is chatting with DRO correspondent Susan Wade.

DRO: This is the first time many fans have gotten to see your brand of drag racing. How do you think you're being received with this exhibition schedule?

STOTT: In time -- and I don't think much time, in a couple of years --the Pro Modifieds will be able to match popularity with the fuel classes. I don't know why it is, unless it is the diversity of the category: the old cars and new cars, the nitrous motors and blown motors, it's just so full of controversy. It's like the Ford-vs.-Chevrolet-vs.-Chrysler Pro Stock wars of the '70s, when we give somebody something they can get a hold of. Spectators can argue about it. Conflict is what creates interest.

DRO: What do people need to know about Pro Modifieds?

STOTT: It is the most diverse category away from what are considered race cars. Not to knock Pro Stock. That's where my interest in drag racing piqued. I still love Pro Stock. But they're all the same. There's just no diversity, no individuality. Eighty-ninety percent of the Pro Modified cars are very individualized. People have done their own things to them. It's like a Harley Davidson. Every one's different. We're talking about the cars, the engines, what's in them, they way you tune them, the way you run them. The most favorable comparison I've heard of the Pro Modifieds is that they're like the Fuel Altereds of the '60s and '70s. For someone who doesn't know what the Fuel Altered cars were, they had blown fuel Funny Car/Top Fuel dragster motors and a very short wheelbase like the old '23 Ford T-bucket-type body styles. They were very overpowering, ill-handling cars. Guardrail to guardrail excitement. It wasn't which one won or lost; it was which one got down the racetrack. The design and structure of these cars have come along way since those days. But we still are very overpowering. These cars still display a degree of uncontrollability. I think that's what people like -- with the safety of the modern era.