Drag Illustrated Issue 113, September 2016 | Page 79
MIKE
JANIS JR.
They’re doing everything right and everything in
their power that they know how to do.”
As far as the class has come, Janis passionately
believes Pro Mod still has a lot left in it before
reaching its true potential.
“It’s really upsetting and alarming to me that
we’re still not where we need to be with the class.
We have the biggest car counts out of anybody.
Even more cars would come in if they allowed
them. And yet at the end of the day we’re getting
$300 to qualify. It was a thousand or two thousand dollars back in the day. It’s nobody’s fault, it’s
just that every dollar that we get has to go to the
NHRA. It costs us (the Pro Mod Series) $50,000
per race to race there, plus the points fund, and
none of that money comes back to the racer. I
really hope NHRA sees
the light at the end of
the tunnel and realizes
that Pro Mod is synonymous with drag racing. It
doesn’t matter if it’s the
United States, Europe or
Janis Jr. and
Australia; it’s the biggest
his father are
class out there.”
always looking
Janis has bold amthinking about
bitions for the growth
improvements,
of the NHRA Pro Mod
be it better
class, but also retains
injector hat
reservations about the
designs or
possibility of moving to
the future of
an expanded schedule
the NHRA Pro
that would likely come
Mod Series.
with the Mello Yello
Series pro-class billing
that some Pro Mod supporters have suggested.
Junior accepts the possibility of a rumored two
additional races in 2017, but thinks much more
than that could result in a negative impact on
the class’s plentiful car counts.
“I definitely would like to see it become a pro
class, but nobody wants to run 24 races. Nobody
can afford to run 24 races. We’re all in agreement
that Pro Mod should run 12 to 16 races. We would
be OK with that, but the financial numbers for
running 24 races just don’t add up for us or any
of the other teams. We would have low car counts
and it would be no different than what you’re seeing with Top Fuel and Pro Stock right now. The
cost of running everything is so expensive nowadays and running all these races is very tough.”
No matter how tough it might get, Mike Janis,
Mike Janis Jr. and their Jan-Cen team will power
ahead through the trials and tribulations.
“We’re going to focus on the NHRA deal the
rest of the year and see where we are after St.
Louis. If things are still looking good, then we’ll
go to Vegas. If not, we’ll probably have to end up
missing Vegas due to the financial load.
“There’s a possibility that we can win the championship but it’s unlikely, so our goal is to finish
second in points. That’s a big deal for us. We’re
self-funded, so any (championship points) money
we can get is a big deal to keep us racing.”
DI DI DI
PHOTOS: NATE VAN WAGNEN, NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER
LOOKING
AHEAD
Jr. is also a staunch proponent of the NHRA Pro
Mod Series and the people behind its tremendous
growth over the last few seasons.
“When I won the Crew Chief of the Year award
last year, I was able to give a speech at the awards
banquet. I asked Peter Clifford (NHRA president)
and Graham Light (NHRA senior vice president
of racing operations) to stand up. I first of all
thanked them for the hospitality and all that they
do for us, but at the same time I also told them, ‘I
know you like your Top Fuel and Funny Cars, but
we need to look around the room. There’s 30 good
teams here and these guys have multi-million
dollar businesses. These are the people attending
your races right now.’
“That’s one thing that my dad or I won’t hold
back on, where we are with the state of the class
right now. People like Danny Rowe, Steve Matusek, Troy Coughlin, John Waldie, Harry Hruska,
Forward Sports Marketing; these guys are putting
in countless hours trying to find sponsors for the
class and they have been for the last three years.
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
September 2016
DragIllustrated.com
| D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 79