SCENE THREE: Mandalay Bay Resort, Las Vegas. Sunday evening, Oct. 27, following the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals. The setting is the Pro Modified class' year-end banquet. Racers and sponsors thank Dave Wood and applaud him for his contributions in bringing the Pro Modified class to NHRA competition.

[JEFF LYNN walks to the podium and makes an announcement. He tells the audience that the Pro Modifieds will be back in the NHRA program as an exhibition class in 2003 and that AMS Staff Leasing will sponsor the 10-race series for that year with an option to renew its sponsorship at the end of next season. He says he and Dave Wood and Kenny Nowling will be sitting down soon and working out purse structures. The audience members turn to each other, partly in surprise, partly in confusion.]

[Nowling turns to the attendees sitting near him and remarks that he doesn't have any idea what Lynn's comment was about, indicating that it was news to him.]

ACT V

SCENE ONE: NHRA Headquarters in Glendora. JOHN SIRAGUSA fields a telephone call from DRO.

DRO: Can we talk about the future of the Pro Modified class? I understand NHRA has a deal for a 10-race exhibition series and a concert series for 2003.

SIRAGUSA: We're not done with negotiations.

DRO: You're still negotiating? I was told, "It's a done deal."

SIRAGUSA: It's still totally up in the air. There are so many variables.

DRO: Have you talked with Kenny Nowling and Richard Kearby?

SIRAGUSA: We have talked with the people you mentioned.

[SIRAGUSA suggests DRO contact Compton.]

SCENE TWO: JERRY ARCHAMBEAULT sits in his office and talks on the telephone, answering messages DRO left specifically for TOM COMPTON.

DRO: I'd like to talk about the Pro Mod class.

ARCHAMBEAULT: We told people at Indianapolis (in September) that the Pro Modified class would be back as an exhibition class with a format similar to this year's. It'll be 10 events.

DRO: I had understood you reached an agreement first at Dallas. It was taken off the table. Then the deal was finalized at Las Vegas.

ARCHAMBEAULT: We're working with a number of different companies about sponsorship. We have not made any official announcement. It's all speculation right now.

DRO: When do you expect to make an announcement?

ARCHAMBEAULT: We're going to announce it as soon as we have the details. We still have to dot some i's and cross some t's. We're not strategically holding it up so we can announce it at the SEMA Show or in Pomona, at the Finals or anything like that.

[As the phone conversation ends, the DRO correspondent understands what Pro Modified pillar Shannon Jenkins meant when he said, "I'll believe it when I see it."]

THE CURTAIN FALLS.

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