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NHRA Senior Vice President of Racing Operations, Graham Light, confirmed
to Drag Racing Online in a phone conversation on Thursday, December
21, the dates and tracks for the 2001 NHRA exhibition Pro Modified schedule.
The Pro Modifieds are scheduled to appear during the NHRA national
events March 15-18 at Gainesville, Florida; April 26-29 at Bristol,
Tennessee; May 3-6 at Atlanta, Georgia; June 21-24 at St. Louis (Madison,
Ill.); and August 30-September 3 at Indianapolis.
Drag Racing Online has confirmed that the format for the exhibition
races will be eight car fields and open qualifying. The purse is rumored
to be the same as for Federal-Mogul Funny Car payout structure with
Pro Mod competitors receiving $1,000 to qualify.
In a previous conversation, Light stressed that there would be no points
and that the class would be exhibition only. He did state that the Pro
Mods would qualify and run with the Pro classes and that Pro Mod eliminations
would be run on Sunday along with the Professional classes.
IHRA Pro Modified World Champion owner Jim Oddy told DRO that he would
definitely attend the Gainesville race and planned on running the rest
of the schedule. The former U.S Nationals winner was especially looking
forward to returning to Indy.
"I want my sons, who are on my crew, to experience what it is like
to race at the U.S. Nationals; what it's like to race in front of 40,000
people on Monday at Indy," Oddy said. "Plus, I want to get back there
to race again myself."
According to Light, the response to the Pro Modified exhibition schedule
has been overwhelming with an enormous amount of calls already coming
into the NHRA offices. (This despite the only place anything in the
way of an official announcement about the series has appeared is in
DRO.)
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