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5/3/04
It's time for the Pro Mod
class to get modified
 or
about 15 years the Pro Modified class has been one of the
most interesting and diverse classes in the history of the
sport. It features supercharged and nitrous oxide-injected
power plants cloaked in fiberglass bodies ranging from '36
Chevys to 2004 Pontiacs and everything in between. Currently
the quickest and fastest of the blower cars are agonizingly
close to breaking the five-second barrier and the nitrous
cars are within six-hundredths of a second of running in
the six-oh range.
And the drivers. . .well, they're throwbacks to another era of racing when the credo was "run what ya brung and hope ya brung enough." Some of them are tattooed, some are pierced, and some are just as comfortable in a tux as they are in a firesuit. They've got nicknames like Madman, Fast, The Kid, and other more colorful names not suited for mentioning in a family magazine. After the race you can find them in the local tavern having a beer and burger or under the motor changing the bearings. They are drag racing's blue-collar drivers, and the fans, sponsors, media and sanctioning bodies love them for what they are.
But these days there is trouble in Pro Mod paradise. Like those famed combatants, the Hatfields and the McCoys, the supercharged and nitrous oxide racers are having a feud and, like all feuds, the only way one side can be the winner is to eliminate all of the combatants on the other side.
For the last 10 years or so a succession of people in charge of the IHRA have tried to find a way to make rules that would "level the playing field" for both supercharger equipped cars and those racing with nitrous oxide injection. Because the two cars are so completely different in weight, engine size and just about everything else you can name, this has proved to be a daunting, nearly impossible task.
For a short period of time last year it appeared that the IHRA rules had done the impossible. During a nine-race stretch between July 2003 and March 2004, eight of the nine final rounds featured a blown car versus a supercharged car. Nitrous cars won a third of the races and could have easily won a couple of others. The quickest blown car ran a 6.111 and the quickest nitrous car ran a 6.155. It wasn't exactly parity but it was as close as the class has ever been to parity in its 15-year existence.
After the April 23 race this year at Rockingham, IHRA officials decided (probably after some lobbying from the nitrous oxide contingent) that the teams using supercharged power plants had too much of a performance edge. IHRA then made another drastic rule change with the avowed intention of trying to attain a racing nirvana of sorts where eight nitrous cars and eight supercharged cars qualify for the 16-car field. Of course, to ensure that everyone is on an absolute level playing field they should also find a way for one class to get all of the even spots and the other all of the odd. Impossible? Probably, but as long they are seeking racing nirvana -- absolute equality -- why not go all the way? Anyway, IHRA changed the rules once again, giving the nitrous racers more tools to go fast with and taking more performance away from the supercharged clan. You could hear the screams of "foul" from the supercharged teams around the block.
Pro Modified, which began as a class where after the race it wasn't unusual to see guys who had just raced each other having a beer together, has now turned into class where many of the nitrous teams and blower teams have hard feelings. The fun is rapidly going out of Pro Modified.
So, once again the supercharged racers got penalized for hard work and better performance and the nitrous racers were rewarded for not being as fast. Oh well, that's Drag Racing. Riiiiight!
To quote drag racing icon Ted Jones, "Here's the deal." There is no such thing as a level playing field in drag racing. Just ask the NHRA Pro Stock racers who can't get within five hundredths of Greg Anderson no matter how much money they spend. You can regulate parts and weight but you can't do the same for desire, determination and talent. In racing someone or a group of someones always are going to be quicker or faster. Racing inherently isn't a fair sport.
For almost everyone involved in drag racing, fan or competitor, equality is a synonym for BORING!!!! The Pro Mod class (which never should be boring) ought to be about the race for the five-second doorslammer barrier for legal Pro Mods not about homogenizing the class for the protection of one of two groups. If I want to watch a bunch of evenly matched door cars race and try to keep from going too fast I'll watch Pro Gas or Pro Stock.
I want my Pro Mods to be balls out, no holds barred, rip your guts out drag racing. So, my solution for the problem is simple: split the class. Qualify eight or 16 nitrous oxide injected cars and eight or 16 supercharged cars. Then run them off until you get a winner for each type of car and then run those guys off for the overall title. And while you're at it, return the supercharged engines to 25 over and take 50 lbs off of them and watch them go after the fives.
This should solve everything. More nitrous cars will be able to qualify without running the guts out of their cars on every lap. The companies that sell nitrous, carburetors, five-speeds and gasoline will be happy, and the racers who want to run superchargers will be too, and the fans of both classes will be happy. Now that's my kind of level playing field. 
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