DRO: What do you think of IHRA's Pro Stock program?

W.J.: I think it's good entertainment; I don't see our team getting involved with it, though. IHRA and [IHRA president Bill] Bader have a good grasp on the fact that motorsports is entertainment and that's what they shoot for as opposed to NHRA, which seems more interested in self-gratification. IHRA realizes that each category has some intrinsic entertainment value to the drag race fan and it shows in everything from Top Fuel to Stock. It's also got good span of cars what with the Pro Modifieds and those heads-up Sportsman classes.

I think the sanctioning bodies have to realize that the spectators come first in all of this. If they're not there, that's it. After the fans, come the sponsors, then the sanctioning bodies and the racers.

DRO: Have things improved technically at the drag races? A few years ago, there was great controversy over some racers using nitrous oxide and this suspicion, of course, filtered down from allegations made about former Winston Pro Stock champ Darrell Alderman and teammate Scott Geoffrion. Have things gotten better with NHRA tech? What about their new zero tolerance template has that any merit?

W.J.: Well, the dark days of Pro Stock are a thing of the past and I know a lot of allegations were made at the Mopars, but none of those were backed up by much direct proof. I think it can be said, though, that the NHRA tech department was a little lax in that period. I've heard, and I don't know this for sure, but the tech department was told to "turn their heads" by NHRA when the controversy began to leak out, but I don't know. I will say that the current NHRA tech department has a lot of good people in there now and things have been improved. I will say that they will be efficient as long as they continue to be backed up when they make a decision.

As far as the zero tolerance [Pro Stock body] template goes, the cars for which it is intended have not been built yet, so there's no data to base an assessment on. I will say that if NHRA feels the bodies are a problematic area or whatever, then their approach with this template appears correct.

DRO: If you had to recommend one thing that drag racing in general needed to do to build its fan base, what would that be?

W.J.: Run it as a business. Build on strengths and eliminate the weaknesses. Right now, you've got the foxes watching the hen house. By that I mean, the racers NHRA deals with mostly are the fuel racers. Prudhomme, Force, Bernstein, Toliver, and a few others are tighter with NHRA than the other competitors. It does seem that NHRA is betting their future on the fuel cars and I have no problem with that, but they better look 10 years down the road. What are there more of in drag racing, tuners or drivers? Drivers, of course. They are like light bulbs, you just screw one into the seat any time one goes out, but it's a lot different with tuners. They are few and far between and this would have dramatic effect on the sport's future.

Related to this - and I think it's one of the biggest mistakes NHRA ever made - is the "in-car camera." Since the driver is out there racing and a bigger focus of attention, they put in this camera to allow the fan to ride with the racer. And what did it show? No degree of difficulty in driving a drag race car, Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, etc. Sure, there's a little pedalling and all that, but basically it's mostly guts. A NASCAR race is intellectual intercourse with 42 other monkeys, who drive 500 miles, turn, draft, lower their speed, re-accelerate, time their pit stops, and talk to their crews and go 200 mph. This is far more difficult to the average fan. We don't have that. It looks too simple. If our sport is going to be made for TV then it must have some degree of difficulty. In NASCAR and some of the other oval tracks, a racer may have to spend 5 to 10 years racing at backwoods tracks to qualify for the Grand Nationals circuits and the Indy 500.

So if a Top Fuel car runs a 4.50 and you leave aside reflexes and guts, then it's fairly obvious that a drag race is all tuner, the driver has little or nothing to do with it. The camera in the car was drag racing's darkest day. And in a sport like ours, which is competing with others for that corporate dollar and more fans, we can't afford many more of them.

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