✖ DRAG ILLUSTRATED ROUNDTABLE ✖
I’ m done for a month. The reality is – and this is a very hard pill to swallow – if you’ re not on that level, you’ re getting your teeth kicked in.
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Looking ahead, with Speed Promotions Racing taking over what was formerly No Prep Kings, and no television show currently in place, what are your plans moving forward? Will you continue with SPR, or focus more on match races and paid appearances? WOODS: I don’ t want to quit. I don’ t. It hurts, and a lot of people don’ t understand, but the reality is I don’ t want to see Street Outlaws die. I’ ve given 12 years of my life to this. At the same time, I’ ve been blessed. My car ran 4.80s, now it runs 3.80s. I’ ve learned how to make a car go a full second faster. I love the Speed Promotions thing. I’ m going to do the ones that I can afford to go to, because I still want to be a part of it. It’ s hit the point where the only rule right now is steel roof and quarters. Well shit, Kye [ Kelley ]’ s car weighs 2,560 pounds. Mine weighs 2,700 pounds. He’ s 140 pounds lighter than mine. I can’ t hang with that.
But I’ m going to do everything I can. I love the fact that I have the time right now to go do appearances. We haven’ t got to do appearances like this since NPK started. The one-on-one with these people, listening to how they’ ve got this car or they’ re building that car, that’ s my drive to continue doing this. LOVE: If we were still on TV, I could tell you a better direction where we’ re going to go, but honestly, we’ re in the dark out here. I can’ t afford to chase these multi-million-dollar teams around. I’ m asking a 30-year-old repurposed bracket car to
AFTER AN UNFORTUNATE CRASH IN THE POPULAR“ STREET BEAST” MONTE CARLO, JAMES LOVE NOW COMPETES IN HIS BLOWN“ HEAVY METAL” NOVA.
do what it was never built to do in the first place. Yes, I get paid a little bit of money to go, but in the long run, it’ s not worth it. I hate to say that the fans aren’ t worth it; I just can’ t financially compete anymore, so I’ ll do what I can.
If I can’ t do a Speed Promotions race, then I’ ll do an appearance like we’ re at right now. In the last five years, we didn’ t have time to do appearances. We didn’ t have time to go out and just meet
“ IT COST ME MY CAREER. I COULDN’ T BE THERE TO RUN MY SHOP. I HAD TO RELY ON OTHER PEOPLE TO RUN MY SHOP, AND NOBODY CAN RUN YOUR SHOP LIKE YOU DO.”- JAMES“ DOC” LOVE
the fans and race our cars for fun, so I want to get back to that. I’ ll still get in front of the fans, entertain, and do the best I can. I’ ll do that until they don’ t want to see me anymore. WHITLEY: No, we want to do what we want to do. We want to build cool stuff. We just got done with our“ Funny Farm,” which is like a double truck, with two front ends. And we want to have a lot of fun creating stuff like that. We want to come to these tracks, do some grudge racing. We don’ t do much street stuff anymore. A lot of these small towns will block off the roads and let us race. We love that stuff.
We’ ve been invited to go out and race with the other guys [ SPR ], but we didn’ t hear from them in a long time and so we booked the whole year, and we really don’ t have it in our schedule to go this year. We love doing stuff like this at small tracks like Mo-Kan. There’ s lots of friendly people, a lot of hardcore Street Outlaws fans that come out to see us. BONNETT: Farmtruck and I, we’ re the zebras in the horse pen. We don’ t know exactly where we fit into that program. I have no doubt that Speed Promotions would open the gate and treat us well, but at the end of the day, we just don’ t know where we fit into that, and I don’ t know if they do. I’ m sure they’ d reserve us a pit area, let us meet the fans, and sell the merch.
We found that in the past few seasons of being involved, the Farmtruck can’ t compete, so we’ re out there doing exhibition races. It’ s just tough for us, and we really rally for those guys to do well and we want that series to do well, but until we find our own lane in that series, we’ re just going to keep setting up garage sales across the nation and selling our wares, so we’ re cool with that. And if it don’ t work out, we’ re going to start an OnlyFans. DI
118 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated. com Issue 196