The most entertaining class in drag racing?

Just three races into a 10 race "exhibition" schedule at NHRA national events, the NHRA AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge has become the most entertaining and exciting racing this jaded old drag racing junkie has seen in nearly three decades as a drag racing observer and participant.

I know this is reading like the beginning paragraph of a proposal for a sponsorship but just bear with me for a minute and I think you will see that I haven't just been drinking industrial strength POWERade.

Let me give you just a few reasons why the NHRA Pro Mod shows are as good as I say they are. First, from a fan point of view, the qualifying sessions are among the most brutally entertaining I've seen for a Professional class -- yes Virginia, despite the politically correct "exhibition" tag that NHRA has slapped on the class, they are definitely a Pro class -- in a couple of decades because the field is just eight cars. With the single exception of the Gainesville race, there have been over 20 cars at each event vying for one of the eight qualifying spots, and virtually every car attempting to qualify has a reasonable shot.

That translates to the kind of pressure that forces crews and drivers to put themselves and their cars on "kill" for every lap. It makes the nitro fields, where there are usually just a few more than 16 cars going for 16 places, look lame in comparison. Don't get me wrong, nitro cars are still the stars of the sport but their qualifying shows aren't.

Secondly, the diversity of the Pro Mod fields are unlike anything you see in any other professional drag racing class. For instance, consider the fact that at Bristol there were at least four drivers who have won World Championships as Pro Modified drivers. The body styles include '41 Willys, '53 Studebakers, '54 Corvettes, 2001 Dodge Vipers and a hemi Avenger. Six-time IHRA Pro Mod champ Scotty Cannon was lending advice to the Thomas Patterson team and their engine builder and driver Australian Troy Critchley.

The drivers themselves are a unique and talented group. Guys with names like Frankie "Madman" Taylor, "Tricky" Rickie Smith, Shannon "Iceman" Jenkins, and Randy "Hardboiled" Hagerty. And some others with nicknames we won't repeat. Still, the colorful nicknames for guys who can drive the wheels of these low six-second, 230-mph, 2700-lb door cars are part of the class's unique charm.

At Bristol, NHRA Top Fuel champs Alan Johnson and Gary Scelzi were hanging around Tim McAmis' pit area. McAmis has a blown AJ motor between the rails and is one of the three drivers to ever run a 6.11 lap in one of these cars. John Force was seen walking through the staging lanes, talking to the drivers and crews. In short, "the buzz" at Bristol in the pits and the stands was Pro Modified.

Then there is the racing itself. The teams ran the guts out of their cars on every lap. On several occasions during qualifying and eliminations, World Champ lined up against World Champ. The drivers and teams got into the act and long smoky burnouts were standard. Troy Critchley's blown '54 'Vette came within a hundred feet of turning on the win light on one of his burnouts. The crowd yelled and stomped and cheered. There was plenty of drama as the blown cars dominated the first two rounds of qualifying and the nitrous cars the second two. There was thrashing going late into the night in every pit.

Currently, NHRA's Pro classes have become somewhat predictable, not a quality you want in racing. Don't think so? How long has it been since a Top Fuel beer- backed car hasn't dominated qualifying and race day? Pardon me, but doesn't John Force have 11 World Championships and 100 career wins. Doesn't Warren Johnson have around 85 Pro Stock wins and a bunch of World Championships? See what I mean about predictable? On top of that, the cars in all three of those classes are basically "cookie cutter" cars. It's getting to the point that it is a big deal when an unknown gets to the third round of eliminations for those classes.

That's certainly not the case in NHRA Pro Modified. The only driver to win more than once is Shannon Jenkins. And almost every car is unique in one way or another.

Thanks to AMS Staff Leasing's CEO Dave Wood and his largess, the Pro Mods have a 10-race schedule. However, the racers invited to the NHRA events certainly aren't there for the money. Winners get only $5000 to win and it pays just $1000 to qualify. That's half what IHRA pays and there is basically no contingency program in NHRA. Pro Mod racers at NHRA events are there because they want to race on good tracks in front of big crowds and get the recognition that racing at NHRA venues such as the U.S. Nationals brings them. It ain't for the jack, Jack. It's for bragging rights and, oh yeah, maybe the jacket, ring and prestige of winning the DRO/NMM Cup and the totally unofficial NHRA Pro Mod World Championship.

Next year the class will almost certainly get official Pro status from NHRA. When that happens, the class will morph into something more like the current NHRA pro classes. The fields will probably expand to 16 cars and professional teams with big sponsors. Money will push the independents and low budget racers (along with some of the charm) out of the class. I saw this happen when IHRA turned Top Sportsman into the Pro Mod class in 1990 and it is bound to happen at NHRA too.

But for the rest of this NHRA season, before the big money and sponsors come into the class, it will be the best entertainment at the track. There are seven more of these races on the schedule, including stops at Dallas, Indy and Vegas. Get out and see these cars. You won't be disappointed and it won't be the same next year when the class goes big time.

photo by James Drew

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