Dirt
Defending WSOPM champion
Carl Stevens Jr. looks
ahead at title defense
By Josh Hachat
T
his time last year, Carl Stevens
Jr. was simply hoping to make a re-
spectable showing on Thunder Moun-
tain. Now, the Pro Mod standout will
try to top one of the most impressive single-day
performances of the 2018 season heading into
this year’s third annual D rag I llustrateD World
Series of Pro Mod presented by J&A Service, Elite
Motorsports, Big O Tire and benefitting One Cure.
It takes place Aug. 9-10 at Bandimere Speed-
way, the site where Stevens made history a year
ago, earning a $100,000 check in the process.
From never running in altitude to going an in-
credible 5.856 at 246.26 mph in the final round
against Danny Rowe, Stevens and his team made
remarkable progress in a matter of days to claim
the biggest win in his career.
Now, he’ll try to repeat it on another huge stage
against 23 other standout Pro Mod stars. There will
be a 16-car qualified field and the scoreboards will
be on this year, but Stevens is ready for the challenge.
He talked with D rag I llustrateD about what went
right a year ago, the pressure of being the defending
champ and what it will take to win in 2019.
How long did it take you to realize you had
won the World Series of Pro Mod last year?
It probably took a week or so for everything
to sink in. Everything happened so fast, I really
didn’t have a chance to process it all right away.
It was definitely a big deal.
You’ve obviously had a lot of success in your
career. How did winning the World Series of
Pro Mod add to it?
It really just kind of solidified what we we’re
capable of doing. I enjoy driving but my primary
goal is to sell engines and tune cars. That aspect
was just big and we came through. It was our goal
to put together a package that can win these types
of races and run at the top of these big races, so
that was a big deal for us. We definitely ran well.
There are no freebies out there, that’s for sure.
Is there any way to replicate a weekend like
that again?
It was just like a picture-perfect weekend a year
ago. That puts a ton of pressure on you in 2019
to try and repeat, and it’s a very humbling sport.
There’s so many little things that can come up
and get you in the course of a weekend. All of that
is in your head moving forward and the reality of
it is you don’t often have weekends like we did last
year. In reality, I’ve been doing this long enough
to not go in with any huge expectations. We just
want to try to do the best we can and not worry
about anyone else.
There’s been changes in the format as op-
posed to the first two years of the World Series
of Pro Mod. With the clocks turned on and
having a 16-car qualified field, does that alter
anything for you?
I don’t think it really changes anything as far
as your approach. I liked the platform where you
didn’t know what everybody else was doing, but
I think a 16-car field and having it be a qualified
field is the way to go. That’s the right direction
for this race, but I don’t think it changes anything
as far as how you approach the race. For us, we
would like to qualify at the top of the list and
take it from there.
All eyes will be on you this year, so that’s an
adjustment this year. How did you approach
the race a season ago and what can you take
from that?
At one of these big races, you have to take it a
round at a time, and then just focus on making
the next run. We went there last year with no
expectations and we had never raced at altitude.
I couldn’t even get the engine to idle at first. I was
pulling my hair out. We had the torque converter
out probably a dozen times, but we were able to
figure it out pretty quick. That first run definitely
gave us confidence in what we could do. We had
heard that some guys went low 5.90s last year, so
to go 5.86 at 248 on the first run we thought that
was pretty good. That was just throwing a tune-up
in it and not really knowing where to start, too.
Then we just made small changes from there.
What would it mean to win this race for a
second straight year?
It would be huge. I couldn’t even fathom it.
But I try not to look too far ahead. Of course, you
think about it and it would be pretty badass, but
realistically, there’s so many variables that come
into play, too. We’re going to give it hell, though.
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