STATE OF DRAG
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RYAN
MARTIN
HOT STREAK One of the stars of the original Street Outlaws show, Ryan Martin has
been a fan favorite in the No Prep Kings scene with his “Fireball” Camaro. With seven
wins, he’s also the winningest driver in the show’s young history.
Meziere.com
It has been stated that fans should remember No Prep Kings is a TV
show first and a race sec-ond. How do you find the correct balance in
maintaining the integrity of live racing with pre-senting a good tele-
vision product?
JH: No Prep Kings has built a world-wide brand in a short amount of
time. It’s not just a drag racing show, it’s a show about drag racing. There’s
a big difference.
LL: Most of the guys, at least the ones I associate with, we’re there to race.
There’s some guys that are there to be on a TV show. Unfortunately, that’s
not ever been the way I was, I’m more of a racer. And that’s probably why I
don’t have a contract.
JF: They try to let it happen naturally, but they want us to have the rival-
ries. In so many words, they’ll tell us, “You’re over here in your little groups,
telling your crew that you hate the 405, and that Ryan Martin’s a posh little
bitch, but you’re not saying it on camera. We need you to say that same shit
on camera.” And they’re not trying to get us to say anything that we haven’t
already said, they’re just trying to get us to say it at the right time.
RM: I’m not really geared that way. I try to keep it equal, but sometimes
for me it’s a race first, and a TV show second. I want to win every time I go
to one of these. I think what that pertains to is that it’s an invite-only class,
and the people that give us this television show are the ones that make the
decision on who comes and who goes. That’s the part people have to separate.
MM: They tell me all the time I make great TV, but I’m not acting, it’s just
me. I say and do dumb shit all the time, and not only that, I’m a competitive
racer. I was told from the begin-ning they really don’t give two shits about
how well I do. But at the same time, I’ve noticed the guys that lose, they
don’t interview ‘em very much. It’s one of those deals where it’s like, “Yeah,
I hear what you’re saying, but you’re full of shit.” So it’s a fine line between
being good and being something that they can film.
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I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 147
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of the racers, and they don’t the others. The problem, there’s a lot of guys
out there that are dying financially to support this series, and the amount
of money that we get paid, all it does is just take the pain off. I feel guilty at
times, because there’s a lot of big name racers on the show, and they don’t
have that kind of help.
RM: I’m not going to sit here and sing a sad song, and tell you that it’s
brutal and we have the hardest time in the world. We do, but we’re all getting
to do what we love to do, and I’m thankful to be in the position I’m in. What
a lot of people that do the scheduling really don’t think about is that it takes
a toll on our RVs, trailers, families, money, race cars and all that type of stuff.