LETTER from the EDITOR
In recent weeks and months, I’ ve hardly had a drag racing-related conversation that hasn’ t at least at some point touched on the state of NHRA Pro Stock. It’ s a subject that, honestly, hits surprisingly close to home for me, and it’ s not because I drive one or field a Pro Stock team like Richard Freeman, who happens to be on the cover of The Interview Issue of Drag Illustrated that you hold in your hands. It’ s just that Pro Stock racing has represented“ the dream” for virtually all of my family’ s racing efforts for as long as I can remember.
A few weeks ago, I spent the evening out at my dad’ s house. We’ d gotten together to celebrate my daughter’ s third birthday( which seems almost unbelievable), and while the focus of the gathering was most assuredly our little Sophia, I did take a few minutes to walk around the home I grew up in and reminisce. As I roamed around, looking at the photos hanging on the walls, I couldn’ t help but laugh when I saw my 5th grade class photo alongside a picture of Warren Johnson running the valves on his white-and-blue GM Performance Parts Oldsmobile Cutlass in the pits at Indy. Then there was a photo of my kid brother, Bradley, on Christmas morning when he was just a few years old and next to it a shot of Larry Morgan pulling the 5-speed Liberty transmission out of his white Raybestos Pontiac Firebird between rounds at Heartland Park Topeka. Alongside a photo of our once-annual Buck family reunion from the late’ 90s was a photo of me posing with Pro Stock wheelman Joe Lepone Jr. And that’ s only a few examples.
It was hilarious. Here were all these photos of people who, while certainly famous racers, were basically all complete strangers to us, mixed in with our family photos. That’ s how high of regard these people were held in my house growing up.
That’ s why it’ s been so hard for me to confront all the negativity that exists in and around Pro Stock racing right now. It’ s always been the Holy Grail for my family and the racers we spent the most time with. It’ s hard to even imagine someone speaking poorly of factory hot rod racing and some of the most complex, technologically advanced and most challenging to drive race cars on the planet.
Some of my earliest racing memories revolve around Pro Stock – more specifically the dream of racing Pro Stock being so big and so far away that we sought out alternatives that were as close as we could get. For instance, I remember towing up to Byron Dragway in Illinois with my dad to run with the Midwest Pro Stock Association. It was a bit of an outlaw variation of Pro Stock with mountain motored cars, but it was still naturally aspirated, manually shifted doorslammers, and it was the Mecca for guys like us. Chicago’ s Tony Gillig was the king of this deal, massively dominant, and I remember how excited my dad, uncle and I were just to be in the staging lanes with this cat – a real-deal Pro Stock racer. I believe we managed to qualify for an event or two before we’ d moved on.
Our next effort to“ go Pro Stock” was with a group we created ourselves – Mid America Pro Stock. This was my first foray into race promotion, as well, as
Wesley R. Buck Editor-in-Chief
I worked with the group’ s leadership, namely my dad and Columbia, Missouri-based diehard Pro Stock aficionado Dean Arthaud, to convince tracks to book us as a show. We put together eight-car Pro Stock match races all around the Midwest, showed up and did big burnouts, had staging duels and raced heads up. It was a magical time. I think this was some of the most fun we ever had racing, but was toward the end of our family’ s 500-inch racing days. We made a couple final attempts at NHRA Pro Stock racing, officially, when my dad and David Janes partnered in / around 1998 and, while it wasn’ t a massively successful endeavor, it was a great experience for all involved, especially me. I vividly remember being in the pits at the NHRA U. S. Nationals, all of us sitting on the ground, leaned up against the tires of our gooseneck trailer, just kind of coming to terms with the fact that we didn’ t have a chance in hell of getting in the show. Interestingly enough, the guy pitted next to us, Greg Anderson, who had just ventured out on his own after serving as crew chief for Warren Johnson in years prior, was in the same boat – on the outside looking in.
In the years that followed our family’ s racing efforts expanded … in cubic inches. After developing a relationship with IHRA Pro Stock racer Joel Bayless and ultimately buying his operation, we got a taste of mountain motor Pro Stock racing and fell in love fast. From there we ended up building a new car for IHRA Pro Stock competition – a late model Pontiac Grand Am – but my dad was diagnosed with cancer, and the whole deal lost steam. With David Janes driving the car, though, we did score a Top 10 finish in NMCA Pro Street competition running the car in IHRA Pro Stock trim.
The sweet, sweet song of a 500-inch Pro Stock engine coming out of the water box has never left my heart, though, and that’ s why all this doom-and-gloom talk about NHRA Pro Stock these days is a little hard for me to handle. For nearly 50 years, Pro Stock has been one of the most significant eliminators in drag racing. It’ s a class of drag racing that has birthed many of our sport’ s biggest stars, greatest rivalries and closest competition. While there are certainly some clear struggles this group of owners and drivers are facing at the moment, I don’ t want to see the success this category has enjoyed overlooked while it’ s convenient and easy to pile on.
Car counts are down, the price of admission is staggering and, yes, some things do simply run their course, but I believe the fight to save Pro Stock is a fight worth having. Did electronic fuel injection, flat hoods and shorter wheelie bars save the day? No, not even close, and it was an effort made far, far too long after a problem was identified. Less races? Eight-car fields? Spec parts / pieces? Factory-based engine platforms and forced induction? Smaller tires? I’ m not sure what the answer is, but, personally, I’ d hate to see Pro Stock go the way of the Dodo. I’ d love to see the time and energy that has been invested in identifying the problems and negative aspects of Pro Stock be applied to saving it. Let’ s have that conversation, and let’ s have people that genuinely care be a part of it.
I invite you to email me at wes @ dragillustrated. com and follow me at facebook. com / wbuck and wesbuckinc on Instagram.
Wesley R. Buck Editor-in-Chief wes @ dragillustrated. com
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8 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 123