CREW CHIEF CHUCK
SAMUEL HAS ENJOYED
TREMENDOUS SUCCESS
IN MOUNTAIN MOTOR
PRO STOCK, BUT HE
WORRIES IF THE CLASS
WILL KEEP EVOLVING.
and make close to the same horsepower, so it’s put a lot of emphasis back
on the driver and that’s another different element. Some people like that,
some people don’t, but that’s the way it is. There’s no sense complaining
about it, I can’t change the way it is. You’ve got to learn to deal with the
things you’ve got to do better.
I’m not going to lie to you, I liked it the way it was before because I
grew up as a mechanic. I learned to work on things, I didn’t grow up as a
race car driver. I never even had a dream of driving a race car. I wanted to
work on cars. I wanted to work on cars and engines and I got my training
growing up working at my dad’s car lot doing every type of work that could
be done to an engine, to a car, to bodywork, front bumper to rear bumper.
So I’ve been a mechanic all my life and that’s what I love about it. That’s
why I joined the class, so it’s been a different change for me.
A lot of people that do nothing but drive the race cars, it’s probably more
appealing to them, no question about it, but an old-school guy like myself
or Jason [Line], that’s what we grew up on. We grew up as mechanics
and trying to make your mousetrap better and the reward for it is when
you get to go sit in that race car right down the racetrack, but it’s just a
different way of looking at it.
The evolution curve is certainly different among the doorslammer
ranks when it comes to performance gains. It’s been massive in classes
like Radial vs. the World and Pro Mod, a more small, consistent upswing
in Pro Stock and more of a slowed, stagnant growth in MMPS
in recent years. What have you seen in that regard?
MW: The only thing you can even compare RvW to is Funny Car or
Top Fuel, and whenever you have more power than you can possibly use,
the technology that’s behind it, every one of them cars makes between
“Everybody wants to buy parts
and laptop tune, you know what I
mean? It’s just a different way of
doing it. It’s like powerboat racing
versus sail boating,” Samuel says.
4,800 and 5,500 horsepower.
It doesn’t matter if it’s Radial vs. the World, Pro 275, X275, these are
not cheap cars to run, and along with that, you take the top guys in any
class, and there’s not a dummy amongst them. And some of the best racers
are there, too. I’m here to tell you that there’s some badass radial racers
too. I mean, they’re no joke. Stevie’s proven that by going and winning a
world championship in NHRA, and I believe that he’s going to be a Top
Fuel champion someday if he finds the funding and the money to go do it.
You just look at the level of competition that’s there and, no, I’m not
surprised of it at all. I really think that the grassroots racer that’s there in
RvW, you’ve got the cream of the crop. Quite honestly, looking at Mark
Micke, he’s done so much for drag racing and converter technology and
transmission technology, and then to be out there on the racetrack doing
it and proving his products and taking the evolution of torque converter
and transmission technology. I don’t know any other transmission company
out there doing that or a torque converter company that’s out there
racing, physically out there in the battlegrounds, with the best of the best.
You go and you give the best prepped racetracks that you’ve ever been on,
you can go try things that you’ve never been able to try before. And then
PHOTO: NMCA
70 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated.com Issue 158