“ IT’ S JUST AN OLD FARM TRUCK.” SEAN WHITLEY PLEASES THE CROWD WITH A WHEELS-UP LAUNCH DURING A GRUDGE RACE AGAINST MONZA.
and then we get a little street rod, then big tire, big blocks, and now we’ ve got fiberglass bodies. In a 12-year period, you had an influx of sponsors and investors, you had people that wanted to be involved at any cost. And I tell people, these cars were the fastest on the planet because every single manufacturer was waiting to give these parts away. Tires couldn’ t get any better, there were no bigger superchargers, nitrous was what it was, and they were just throwing parts at it.
And now, these other events, they’ re trying to emulate the culture that this show created to go backwards. You’ re seeing all these Top Fuel guys, these characterized athletic type of divisions go backwards a little bit to recapture what Street Outlaws may have created, but at the end of the day, that 12 years was a fast-track on the launch pad to the evolution of a normal car guy.
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One of the most popular spin-off shows was No Prep Kings. How did you all balance the idea of being street racers that are now competing at the track, but also giving fans of the show the opportunity to come out and experience what you’ re doing? BONNETT: I’ ll be short with my answer. I think Farmtruck and I, at that point, that was maybe the seven- to eight-year mark, we saw the show evolving too fast and we saw the ship growing and we saw it getting out of control. Farmtruck and I took it upon ourselves to say,“ OK, I don’ t know if the other guys are into this, but we’ re going to at least try to throttle it down. We’ re going to try to throttle-stop this. We need to start going backwards, guys. We need to start capturing the audience that was paying attention, because they’ re not catching up with us. They don’ t understand how fast this is going and they can’ t relate.” So we tried to bring relatability back, first with Daily Driver and then Locals Only. It didn’ t work a hundred percent, but Farmtruck and I at least gave a valiant effort to reel back the evolution a little bit. LOVE: We personally didn’ t care. We’ re getting paid to race. That was the road to us going to full-time jobs with this stuff. Our fan base was literally seven-year-olds to 75-year-olds. What part of that fan base is actually going to get to see us race on the street? A very small percentage. The only way we could give back to our fans was to go to the track. No prep was invented to get street racers off the street. It evolved into its own animal, took off, and it’ s its own thing now, as far away from street racing as it could be. Everybody wants to outrun everybody. That evolution led to where it’ s at now: the best of the best cars, parts, and tuners. Nobody does it alone, like we used to. Am I happy with it? No. I wish it was still back to the original, real no prep days. That’ s where I feel like blue-collar guys like me, that can’ t afford the best of the best, will shine.
“ WE KNEW OUR LIVES WERE GOING TO CHANGE. WE JUST DIDN’ T KNOW WHAT DIRECTION, FOR GOOD OR BAD.”
- JEFF“ AZN” BONNETT
116 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 196