DRO: Do you have any plans to change the Pro Mod rules?

Peaco: Somewhere down the road I would really like to see Pro Mod open up from a competitor's point of view. I would like to see turbocharged Pro Mod cars, or Pro Mods on nitro, or something that would just let them really come out of the box.

DRO: Is that something we might see any time soon?

Peaco: Probably not in the foreseeable future. As the sport develops we can't work on everything at once. We are not reinventing the wheel here. We are going to work on our show; we're going to work on understanding what the non-traditional drag racing fans want to see. You know, what gets people to a race who don't like Top Fuel cars. There are more of those people than there are of us (drag racing fans). So when we go into a market, if we're going to rely only on the people who like drag racing, it's a losing proposition. If there are three million people in the country that are drag racing fans, there are 280 million who aren't. They go to concerts, shows, and spend their entertainment dollars on something, so how do we get more of those folks? What do they want to see?

DRO: Will IHRA racers be able to reach you personally with questions or problems?

Peaco: I plan on being very available to folks who have concerns and problems. That is what I'm here for. They may not get the answer they want all the time, but at least they will have the ability to ask a rational question and get a rational answer, to understand what our thinking is on some of the things we are doing. I know that as a racer I often questioned rule changes or looked at a lot of things and said, 'Wow! What are they thinking?' There is a logical explanation behind most changes, but how does a regular racer ever know them?

DRO: So how are you going to convey that to IHRA racers?

Peaco: I'll use Drag Review and the web site for obvious reasons, but I would like to get to a point to create my own mailing list of folks so that I could send a batch e-mail to just the 9.90 guys, or just the Pro Mod guys. Tell them, this is what is going on and this is what affects your class.

I don't have the ability to call everyone and I'll never see everyone at a race, but to those that have e-mail, I could shoot out a little questionnaire and statement of whatever and get some ideas and feedback in a instant instead of having to wait six months to see how a

ADVERTISEMENT

rule change pans out. I know that sometimes people will interpret that to be, 'Well you asked us a question but you did what you wanted anyway, so what are you asking us for?' My father always taught me to ask questions, take all of the answers, put them together, determine which are best, and then make a decision. Sometimes it's going to be the decision you planned in the first place.

I don't know everything; you don't know everything, I'm looking for information and I will seek information before I make a decision. Because again, I know being a racer, that when somebody's swipe of a pen makes my car obsolete or costs me $15,000 a crack, I'm not going to be happy about it, nor am I coming to the races to support them. So the benefit to me is that I always think about it from the driver's seat because that's my passion. I think as long as you are making progress, whether it's from a safety standpoint or making a guy's weekend at the races with his family a more positive experience, nobody can fault you for that.

Ultimately, they have to respect that I am making the best decision possible. I'm not making decisions because I like to make changes, or because that's what Clear Channel wants to see.