STATE OF DRAG
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
‘REAL RACERS’ Mike Murillo and Larry Larson are
two hardcore drag racers who jumped into the
no-prep scene and saw an opportunity to use their
championship-caliber skills to excel in a rapidly
growing and exclusive arena.
No Prep Kings has brought in new fans from
areas that previously had not seen much in
the way of no-prep events. But with that comes
MIKE MURILLO
a grueling travel and race schedule. How do
work-ing-class racers manage to find the in-
creased budget required to attend every event?
LL: As a racer, I’ve really enjoyed it. But the
travel is insane. Now some of the guys with con-
tracts, it’s not quite so bad for them. The rest of us
that are still trying to run a business, it be-comes
really difficult to allot the time away, to have good
enough employees at the shop that you feel like
you can leave for a few days.
JF: For us, this started out as a hobby, some-
thing we enjoyed to do. Most of us, we’re all a
bunch of buddies who get together and go race
on the weekends. Now it’s very grueling, and to be
honest, it’s hard to find the funding. It’s become
like a professional race team. We don’t have the
sponsors like the big race teams, so it’s coming
out of our pocket.
MM: Honestly, that’s been kind of a touchy
subject because there’s several of us that are on
contracts with Pilgrim [Media Group, No Prep
Kings production studio]. They sponsor some
series. I mean, look at what Lizzy Musi and Pat
Musi have come out and done (with the ni-trous
combo). Nobody saw that coming. You can’t have
rules like street racing, where there are no rules,
or you’re not going to have people watch.
LL: I was a proponent of them putting on some
sort of a weight limit on the cars for the second
season because everyone was complaining about
Birdman running away with it. Now are they
perfectly fair? No. The nitrous guys were whin-
ing and crying, Doc being a good example, that
they couldn’t keep up. I’ve always said, you get
somebody in here with a PDRA-style car or en-
gine program, they’re going to be competitive. It’s
gonna surprise me if Lizzy doesn’t start stretching
out from everybody.
JH: Improvements can always be made in any
organization. We will continue to monitor and
tweak the rules as needed. However, once the
“tournament” begins, it’s more about the inter-pre-
tation of the rules, and what changes can and
cannot be made.
LARRY LARSON
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I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 147