Drag Illustrated Issue 111, July 2016 | Page 82

STATE OF DRAG cy of – has been largely at the forefront. Where do you stand on the preparation of drag strips in 2016? Have we reached a fair consistency on the NHRA level? Has class-specific prep become an issue? Do you have an opinion on the growing popularity of no-prep racing? AJ: There could be too much track prep in certain circumstances, although NHRA does a really good job of avoiding that. Inconsistency in track prep – there’s a number of other factors that can cause that. When we go some place where we’re going to see temperatures in the nineties with no cloud cover whatsoever – you’re going to have a hot racetrack and it doesn’t matter how hard the NHRA track prep staff works, you can only fix it to a certain extent. So, you’re stuck with that and you can complain and bitch all you want about the track prep when a track’s 135-degrees, but let’s be honest, you can only make it so good. Put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig. NHRA’s done a great job in their track prep and their consistency with it. And you might get some pushback on that from certain individuals, but I think as a whole, they’ve done a really good job and you see that in numbers. We ran on 122-degree racetrack in Charlotte this year and ran 3.74. Those are numbers that you wouldn’t even dream about 5-years ago or even two-years ago, and that’s just a compliment to NHRA. RC: It’s great in our deal here. I think there are times when it could or should have been a little bit better for the conditions, but I think overall it’s great. I think sometimes we get caught up in the rush for things like live TV and we don’t do things the way we normally do – and I’m mainly talking about dragging and spraying. I think the process gets changed every so often, and it’s no coincidence that cars will start going up in smoke. I’m not sure they are aware of what that does to these crew chiefs. I’d say 99-percent of the time the prep is great. I’ve been fortunate to get to d o a lot of Nostalgia Funny Car racing at a lot of tracks that we don’t go to on the NHRA tour and I think that’s when I really realize just how spoiled we are by the NHRA Safety Safari. LP: I think this season in NHRA we’ve all gone through a little bit of change with the unfortunate passing of Mark Lyle. But I have to say that I feel like it’s basically a non-issue. Every track we’ve been to so far has been a ‘dual laner’. For me, the prep seems to have been very consistent and is one of the lesser issues we see in NHRA. I have to admit that I’m intrigued by the no-prep races and I’d like to see what that deal is like. JS: The no-prep scene seems to be hot, especially out west in Texas and Oklahoma, but truthfully I think it’s kind of silly. First of all, once you get a hundred cars out there doing burnouts in glue and dragging it down the track – it’s not at all no-prep. I don’t really see what people get out of it, but it is what it is. I know some guys who have run some no-prep stuff and they’ve been as 82 | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com fast as 3.80s on those tracks, so I don’t believe it’s much different than an outlaw Pro Mod race. It’s popular, though, and to each their own, I guess. SJ: First thing I have to say is no-prep racing is stupid. I have no idea why they are attracting so many fans. I think it’s because all of the ‘Street Idiots’ are doing it, and people come out to see those guys. Everybody keeps asking me when I’m going to go no-prep racing and asking if I can I “I don’t believe that any more limitations should be set on Pro Mods at all. That class is the epitome of extreme and hardcore drag racing – giving it all you’ve got and being creative,” Pritchett comments. outrun any of the Street Outlaws. Well, I’m happy to go on the record and say there’s no person that’s ever been on Street Outlaws with a race car that I can’t smash into the ground, and that anybody that runs in PDRA can’t smash into the ground. They’re just not on that level. But, anyway, I also believe that tracks for organizations like PDRA are over-prepped. That’s not the problem, though. The problem is catering to setting records. I’m not trying to sound like a dickhead, but racing at three o’clock in the morning to try and chase a record – which I have done – is not good for the sport. One guy in the stand sees it and the whole class pays for it. We need to be racing during the day. We need to run in whatever the conditions are and quit over-prepping the racetracks. What that will do is make it to where anyone can win. If you take an average funded team that doesn’t have a thousand laps on their race car, put him up against Todd Tutterow – big experience and funding – and give them a perfect race track, Todd’s going to win 99 times out of 100. If you take that same guy and put him on a 140-degree track, well, he’s got a shot. Waiting until the sun goes down to start eliminations takes the little guy out of it. NHRA races during the day, and so should we. You figure it out or you lose. In the heat of the day, anybody can win a round. I think we need to go back to running radial races during the day, too. All of this tiptoeing around the sunshine sucks balls. If you race during the day it’ll take care of the track prep problem, it will make it cheaper because you can’t over-glue the track and it’ll slow the cars down, which is what everybody is bitching about. Start the show at 10AM and it’ll slow things down two-and-a-half tenths right off the rip. It’ll pick up car counts, Issue 111 PHOTO: NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER ★★★★★