DRAG ILLUSTRATED ROUNDTABLE
Russell McManious found immediate
success in Pro 275, winning Lights Out
11 after previously running on the No
Time scene. He also believes the class
is going to keep getting bigger.
really think those cars belong in Pro 275. Those
aren’t stretched-out cars. These days, if you don’t
have a Pro Mod in RvW, you’re bringing a knife
to a gunfight.
AGOSTINO: You’ve got RvW and then X275.
They’re both excellent classes and X275 is just so
tight. There’s so many good cars and then you’ve
got RvW on the other end, but I do think there’s
a bit of a void between those two. Let’s put it this
way: If Donald Long didn’t think there was a
need for Pro 275, it wouldn’t be at Sweet 16. My
personal opinion is I think it’s very exciting to
be competing at that level. There is definitely a
different degree of difficulty to get these down
the track and I think the fans love to see that.
MICKE: This class gives us another place to take
that type of car. I think the goal is to keep that
class more for the heavier cars. It’s going to be
very competitive still. It’s not like it’s going to be
a bunch of ducks.
Things tend to move quickly in radial racing.
It wasn’t long ago we were waiting to see a
3-second run in RvW, and now we’re knocking
on the door of the 3.40s. What’s the future hold
for Pro 275? Do you see a lot of potential there?
AGOSTINO: I think the ruleset right now is very,
very close. What you’re doing now is going to
depict who’s going to come in or go out of the
class. I think if you keep some of those things
tight, even though short-term it may be a bit of a
pain, I think long-term you’re going to see a gain.
With the rules now, it’s not like somebody is
going a tenth faster than everyone. Can somebody
go faster? I wouldn’t disagree with that. I think
a lot of people are testing the waters. When I go
out there, I leave it all out there.
I told Donald if you need to make changes
– if – I don’t think the smartest way is to take
weight off a combo to help them. I think the
short-term is you add a little weight if there is
an advantage, where you add 50 or 100 pounds
to a certain combo and get everything in check
until everything is fair, and then go from there.
If there needs to be something done, I think
it needs to be done in a little different fashion
than how they made things in RvW. In this class,
I think that as more cars come in, if you need to
make changes, I think you look at it that way
instead of taking weight off everybody. That’s
just something you need to be careful with. As of
right now, if they didn’t change anything I think
it would be fine, honestly.
MICKE: There’s a lot of high-quality guys com-
ing over, and I expect it’s going to be very, very
competitive. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised
to see you end up with more cars in this than
RvW at the end of the day. It gives those guys
who maybe couldn’t compete in RvW and they’ll
be a lot closer and have a better opportunity
to compete. I think there’s going to be a lot of
guys running.
M C MANIOUS: The rule-makers need to be care-
ful and they need to keep the parity. I hope they
don’t allow it to become a class where you have
to run 3.60s all the time. I honestly think it needs
to stay in the 3.80s and the occasional shot heard
around the world in the 3.70s. I think that will
cause people to build cars for it.
GREEN: As far as the direction it’s going, it’s got
a chance to big, maybe even bigger than RvW.
There’s a lot of cars that can’t run 3.50s, but can
still run fast. I think everybody wants to have a
car that can be competitive, and they could run
3.80s but they don’t have a chance to possibly run
3.50s or 3.40s. We can’t run with that. Guys like
Nick, these are guys with top-notch cars.
Think about it. There’s a lot of cars that
couldn’t compete (in RvW), but were fast cars.
If the bump was in the 3.70s, there was a bunch
of cars that couldn’t qualify. Now a lot of heavy
hitters can come race here. You can win with a
3.90. That makes for good racing and it’s with a
bunch of good people.
YOUMANS: I think there’s a real bright future
and it’s going to be the new up-and-coming class.
RvW is going to continue to do what it’s doing
and everyone is going to continue to love it, but
Pro 275 is going to have more and more guys
come into it. I think it’s going to be faster as
well. You’re going to see some .70s at Sweet DI
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