THE TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES
IN DOORSLAMMER RACING ALLOW
WINTERS TO MAKE CHANGES TO
THE CAR ON HIS COMPUTER EVEN
WHILE IN THE STAGING LANES.
whoever wanted it. You would lease the same exact equipment that we
spent hour after hour on.
That’s the philosophy change. It has had a great, great effect on participation
in the class. That’s made the class more popular and it’s made
it, I think, more interesting. It’s a different way of doing things, but we
changed that mindset years ago and it’s definitely what’s made this class
better. So I guess that’s the future. That’s what we need to continue to do.
CS: All I’m saying is somehow or another, there needs to be revitalization
of new blood [in MMPS] because for every year that goes by, one or
two older guys drop out and zero or maybe one guys show up. If there’s
not enough returning, there’s no reason for new guys to get excited. You
can’t build a class with no excitement in it.
CC: I see gains still being made, but I think they’re going to be a little
smaller. I think we have reached peaks where it’s going to take some real
testing. All the true racers and the guys that are really running out front,
they found the limitations of these parts. They’re finding the limitations
of them by trying to go faster and trying to go quicker and faster, and
you’re working within the confines of the rules.
I hope they keep those rules, but if they keep what we have now, it’s
going to slow that game down a little bit, I think. I still think there’s as
much as a tenth of a second, possibly in a quarter mile, and maybe that
much in an eighth. I think this year in the eighth mile, in good conditions,
you’re going to see some high 3.50s from a big tire nitrous car.
DW: You have to be in control of things. If you bring in another power
adder, it has to be put in under control. You don’t want one combination
running away with it. I would like to see a situation where, start saying
if you’re running a late-model Camaro, you have to add 25 pounds the
first year and add 50 the next year so people would think about building
another car. I wish they would do something like that to differentiate
the body styles.
You look at the entry lists and it’s almost all new-style Camaro bodies.
I really hope they address that in some fashion. Forgiving a nostalgia-era
car by giving it a weight break doesn’t really work because they’re not
aerodynamic enough to make up for it. It’s not advantageous to have less
weight in a nostalgia-era car. Adding the weight is the best way to do it.
TL: I’d hate to see [Mountain Motor Pro Stock] go. To me, it’s one of
the most economical classes to run. You can still go to an engine builder,
buy and own your engine, and you can be competitive. I think a good
solid schedule [would help]. I know some people and myself think that if
the NHRA would do six or eight races for the Mountain Motor cars, and
highlight them like they did last year and promote us like they did last
year, I think you’ll see a few people come back into the sport or hopefully
new people come in, and get interested in the class.
People would go and run and try the field out, see what they like, and
if everything went well, then you might see people invest a little more
money. And if they saw the class was going to maintain, and be secure,
then they could maybe invest some money. There’s really no place to run
this Mountain Motor if it’s not in the Mountain Motor class. Because it’s
not a good car for them to make a tight motor to go try to run something
else with because it’s so big, you have to put so much weight in the car
to get it to run a class, and there’s not too many drag racers who want to
have to put 200-300 pounds in a race car.
There’s enough cars that could support both PDRA and NHRA, if the
racers come out. DI
PHOTO: COLE ROKOSKY
76 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated.com Issue 158