Dirt
PRO STOCK ROUNDTABLE
RICHARD FREEMAN
Owner, Elite Motorsports
Two-time defending
NHRA Pro Stock
champion with Erica Enders-Stevens
Fields cars for Enders-Stevens, Jeg
Coughlin Jr. and Vincent Nobile
ichard Freeman didn’t want to
field a full-time team when he started
in 2014. The plan, when he hired Erica
Enders-Stevens, was to run 15 races that year.
They ran 22 and won a championship. They
ran all 24 the next year and won another title.
This year, the team has struggled. Another blow
came when reigning NHRA rookie of the year
Drew Skillman, who won a race with Elite in
’15, bailed due to what his camp believed to be a
lack of success.
Freeman feels the move came from a lack
of patience.
“It was disappointing,” he says. “We had already built our base to run two team cars but as
everyone knows, people aren’t patient. It just so
happened that the weekend they decided to leave,
we came upon something and fixed our issue. But
I will say this, Drew Skillman was number four in
the country when he left and he was the best car
we had when he decided to leave, so at the end
of the year we’ll see where he ends up.”
A man who will be the first to tell you he has a
R
24 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
COMING-AND-GOING
Dedicated, passionate team owners such as Oklahoma’s Richard Freeman have kept NHRA Pro Stock
moving in recent years, fielding as many as four
cars at a time, including two-time champion Erica
Enders-Stevens’, while many of the category’s usual
suspects such as V. Gaines and Larry Morgan have
exited the sport citing lack of interest, ever-escalating expenses and lack of sponsorship opportunities.
he asks. “As long as people are interested in Pro
Stock and interested in running 24 races a year
and spending $2 million a year, or whatever it is,
per team, there will always be a Pro Stock. But
at the end of the day, they have to be able to get
parts and they have to be able to be competitive.
As of today, that’s pretty tough to do.”
life outside of racing, Freeman wants nothing to
do with the full NHRA schedule if he can help it.
A shorter calendar, at least on the Pro Stock side,
would not only allow him to enjoy his free time,
but could add another car to the field.
“Absolutely,” he says, jumping in before the
question was finished. “I would have another
car out there because I would probably race
myself. That’s just my opinion. I hate 24 races.
I have other interests and other things I like to
do. When I started this deal, the first year that
I hired Erica, I said we’re going to do 15 races.
That’s what I wanted to do. It’s just like a drug. I
would definitely be in favor of less races.”
And how does he view the state of Pro Stock
in the middle of the 2016 season?
“You want to talk about the state of Pro Stock?”
GREG ANDERSON
4-time NHRA Pro Stock Champion
80-plus wins
Locked into the 2016 Countdown at the
12th race of the season (Norwalk)
reg Anderson and Jason Line have
absolutely destroyed the Pro Stock field
in 2016. After 13 events, Line missed only
two finals and won seven races. Anderson won
the other six. When Shane Gray won qualified
number one at Joliet, there was excitement in the
air at the thought of a non-Summit Racing car in
the winner’s circle. When KB Racing teammate
Bo Butner beat Line to make it to the finals, the
excitement grew.
However, Anderson made short work of Butner to claim his 84th career Wally in his eighthstraight final of the season. The Summit boys
G
Issue 111
PHOTOS: MARK J. REBILAS, NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER
sponsorship and back surgery, the doorslammer
veteran is on the sidelines. He’s been watching
the Summit Racing team domination, though,
and has some strong thoughts on the state of
the class, especially the time (or lack thereof ),
that NHRA Pro Stock teams had to prepare for
the EFI change.
“With the rules being changed in short order,
it’s not like they had a lot of time to catch up,” he
says. “Three months, four months ain’t enough
time for a total redo. I think the Summit guys
have done a fabulous job of making the change
and running the way they’re doing.”
Morgan did say he’s beginning to see some
other drivers make some noise. “I think Shane
(Gray) stepped up, I think (Richard) Freeman’s
deal has stepped up.”
Morgan isn’t the only veteran and past Pro
Stock event winner no longer behind the wheel. In
June, V. Gaines announced
he was ending a 20-year run
as an NHRA Pro Stock racer,
making him the first casualty of a field where expenses
don’t provide the rewards
necessary to keep racing.
“I don’t know if people are
going to survive the change,”
Morgan said in an interview
less than a week after Gaines
called it a career. “It’s going
to take a lot of time and a lot
of money and I don’t know if
you’ll see them do that. I’m
not sure it’ll survive.”