MUCH HAS CHANGED IN PRO MOD SINCE
DOUG WINTERS FIRST GOT INVOLVED,
BUT KEEPING A UNIQUE BODY STYLE HAS
ALWAYS BEEN IMPORTANT TO THE VETERAN.
PHOTOS: JOE MCHUGH, MARK J. REBILAS
Doug Winters: Technology, obviously, is the first thing that comes
to mind in every class, but Pro Mod is one of the hypersensitive ones
for technology, whether it’s power, electronics or whatever aspect, the
technology we gained in the Pro Mod class is a lot because it does involve
blower cars, nitrous, turbo cars and all that.
There’s a bunch of things when you start to look into it. I’m an electrical
engineer at heart and if you look at all the devices that can create more
power, it’s a lot.
What has surprised me is the willingness of the sanctioning bodies to
let it happen. I’m an old-school guy and I still think a pro car should have
a clutch. If they came around the pits and said no more Pro Mods can
have auto shifters or trans brakes, I’d say, “Great, let’s do it.”
Technology has advanced so far, you really don’t need to be an awesome
driver. Back in the day, 90 percent, if not 99 percent, of us drivers were
tuning on the cars, working on the clutch, doing everything we can do be
competitive. These days, it’s computer-controlled.
I think the class has done well. It’s grown with the ability of all the
different aspects it has, but I wish it would have grown a little slower. I
wish we wouldn’t have lost some of the differentiators of the class. You
see a lot of late-model Camaros. I just wish some of those aspects were
still there, maybe more manual than automated now.
With that evolution, there’s growing pains or possible steps backwards.
What has your class fought as things have evolved as rules
have changed, and as popularity has surged or waned?
Chuck Samuel: Because Mountain Motor Pro Stock is a manipulative
class, you got to work on the race car to make it faster. And I think racing
in general is going away from that. I’m not going to say technology hurt
this type of class. I’m going to say that you still have to work on the race
car to race it, and the generations of people that do that are getting further
away just because of computer tuning, traction control, different trends. It’s
not as, let’s just say, marketable as some of the other types of classes today.
I mean, the amount of power that you can add, you can always take it
away but I’m just saying you can’t just go ahead and swing at it and add
power. You can’t add boost, you can’t add nitrous, you know what I mean?
What you have under the hood, and they call it the hood scoop support,
is really all you have. So in order to race you have to be pretty savvy on
how to do it: gearing, weight balance, RPM, driver ability, and then work
on the race car to make better and faster passes. So it’s a difficult class
in that regard. My belief is that’s why it’s thinning out because it’s not as
culturally cool today. Everybody wants to buy parts and laptop tune, you
know what I mean? It’s just a different way of doing it. It’s like powerboat
racing versus sail boating.
GA: You really just can’t do that much to the engines anymore. So it
really cut out on a lot of the R&D we had and I think if you asked any of
the major engine builders in the class right now, we’ve probably spent
less on R&D on these engines in the last three years than we have in our
whole careers.
It definitely made it different, a different way of doing it. Obviously, it put
the emphasis back more on the driver, the cars all run closer to the same
July 2020
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