DRAG ILLUSTRATED ROUNDTABLE to support those who have been there for us over time . We kind of just look at everything and make the best decision possible for our team and our sponsors . Again , our goal is championships . Year after year , we want to wear the No . 1 on the car . That drives a lot of our plans .
Carr : It ’ s tough . I like the quarter mile . I always have . But the PDRA , the Franklins , they put their heart and soul into that deal and you can see it . It ’ s the same cars and the same racing , it ’ s just eighth mile instead of quarter mile . It ’ s an adjustment for me , but I want to do my best to support them as well as NHRA . So far , we ’ ve done a good job of that because there haven ’ t been any overlaps .
Kirk : When they overlap , it is hard to decide . [ PDRA owners ] Tommy and Judy Franklin , they ’ re just great people and you feel like you ’ re obligated to support them and PDRA . They gave us a place to race when we had nowhere else to go .
When you back up and look at the whole picture , it all falls back to the financial standpoint . For us , ADRL makes the most sense for my car owner . Eddie Buck is from the Midwest , so it ’ s definitely not a hard decision for him . But for us , it ’ s East Coast . When Dad gets his car out , where do you go ? It ’ s pretty much put them in a hat and pull one out . The Franklins are just great people and it ’ s hard to not go support them .
Montecalvo : At this stage , I ’ ve won three championships and I pretty much decided that I ’ m not going to chase points anymore . We ’ re just going to run and have fun and go wherever we want to go . Basically , it comes down to geography and what ’ s planned for that weekend . Is the boat more important that weekend ? That ’ s what it comes down to for me . I feel like I ’ ve done everything I can do in MMPS . Quite honestly , I think the next challenge for me is probably to run some 500-inch Pro Stock races .
Of course , PDRA was there when nobody was , so we do owe them some loyalty as far as I ’ m concerned . Loyalty is big in my book . Kenny [ Nowling ] offers something that nobody else does and that ’ s great qualifying money for us , and in the past , it ’ s been great crowds . NHRA , it ’ s distinctly different . You ’ ve got great crowds and you ’ ve got quarter-mile racing , which neither of the other two offer .
Each one has their own unique benefits , and also some negatives . It really is difficult for me to say I ’ d want to focus on any of the three series . At this point , I want to spread myself around a little and enjoy the best of all of them .
Powers : I try to support everything . Anything I can support , I try to participate with . I ’ ll run all of them if it works and they don ’ t overlap with each other . We even looked at running some of the ADRL races , but it just didn ’ t make much sense for us to go to St . Louis and stuff . We definitely try to do everything we can .
What can be done to attract new teams , or maybe bring back past competitors ?
Pluchino : Well , we ’ ve gotta show some other teams that you can do it , that you can go in without having to spend your retirement fund or your life savings . You can go buy a car , buy an engine , and if you have the right people around you and you put the work in , you can go out and be competitive . We have to show Top Sportsman guys that it ’ s a step up to a pro class . We have to show our class ’ worth .
I think there ’ s been a lot of new faces coming in as of right now . When they start having some success , I think it ’ ll show others an opportunity .
As far as the guys sitting on the sidelines , there ain ’ t much you ’ re going to do about them . They have the stuff , they have the equipment . If they don ’ t want to come race , that ’ s their deal .
Carr : To bring in new people , we need people to realize that MMPS is a pretty efficient class to run . It ’ s probably the most economical pro class you can run as far as cost per year , per race . There ’ s a couple classes out there that are extremely hard to keep up with – changing pistons every night and all that kind of stuff – and we don ’ t do that . Our motors are lasting longer between freshen-ups . It doesn ’ t cost what some people think it probably does .
The guys that haven ’ t been out , they just need to find a crew member or a truck driver or something and they could be out . They have the stuff to do it and they can be there , they just have to push a little harder . I guarantee once they do and get back in the seat , they ’ d be showing up a lot more .
Montecalvo : That ’ s a tough question . I don ’ t understand why so many cars are sitting on the sidelines . There ’ s probably 28 Mountain Motor Pro Stock cars in existence . Whether it ’ s eco-
JR CARR HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN MMPS FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS , BUT HE ’ S IN THE PRIME OF HIS CAREER WITH ONE OF THE QUICKEST CARS IN THE CLASS . HE ’ S ALSO INVOLVED IN MOVING THE CLASS FORWARD FROM A BEHIND-THE-SCENES PERSPECTIVE .
84 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated . com Issue 169