computer. It’s a very challenging mix. It’s just understanding what you
can and what you can’t do.
Do you take some timing out to get the car down the track, or what if
you want to change the suspension? It’s trying to change as few variables
as you can, and you have to test to be able to do that. If you don’t touch
the timing curve, you’re making adjustments to the gear ratios, the transmission,
air pressure in the tires, or maybe it’s the four-link settings or the
shock settings. It revolves around more and more testing.
We used to never test. I remember Scotty Cannon saying his dyno is
that red Willys out there running in Q1. These days, you can’t do that.
We’ve been to Darlington three times this season and haven’t been to an
NHRA race yet (note: this interview was done before the NHRA Pro Mod
opener at Indianapolis in mid-July).
We’ve already changed the rods twice this year, but you’ve got to test or
you’re going to be behind. We could always use more testing, but we do
what we can with the ability of time and money. We’re at a point where
we’re happy with the performance we have and the time and resources we
put in to do it. We’re competing with guys that all they do is work on their
cars or teams. I’m pleased with what we’re able to do. It all goes back to how
competitive we are with the time and availability we have with our team.
GA: Between the group of us here [at KB Racing], I don’t think most of
us could turn on a laptop computer, let alone program the damn thing, so
it’s been a steep learning curve for us. It’s been interesting, but I’m telling
you, you feel so stupid sometimes and it absolutely is smarter than I am,
smarter than we are, no question about it and we’re trying to catch up
with the brain box that they call this computer, this EFI that runs it all.
It’s been a challenge. Yes, we had success, but I’m certainly not going
to stand here and say it’s because we were smarter than anybody. That’s
absolutely not the case. Somehow, we did some things better than other
people did right off the bat and it took a little while for everybody else to,
I guess, learn it the way that these things wanted to be run.
“I think what finally, everybody
realized that it wasn’t just the
engine that was going to make
you go with in this class, and it
wasn’t just the driver that was
going to make it. You have to have
everything right,” Anderson says.
allows somebody like me to be able to take the stuff and race it. And there
are a lot of guys like me, but it allows you to extend your racing career and
be able to go and compete, and that’s been very satisfying.
With this evolution, how do you balance some of the technology
advances, especially when you’re looking at more of the computer
technology with the mechanical aspect of this?
DW: Again, I’m an electrical engineer at heart. There’s a fun aspect
of taking all the data you can get and figuring out how it works better. I
do enjoy the computer aspect because it comes back to my engineering
background, manipulation of the data and trying to find ways to improve.
But it’s tough because there’s so many variables out there and everybody
is so competitive. You’re trying to manipulate the variables from the
How does this evolution continue to take shape in the doorslammer
ranks, and what’s needed to make sure those advancements continue
to be smart ones for the health of the class moving forward?
MW: Well, I think you’re going to see Radial vs. the World fall off to
a point. I’m a purist. I like a real car. To be competitive in RvW, I mean,
you got to have a Pro Mod. I think it ought to be steel roof, steel quarters,
stock wheelbase, unlimited. I wish [Donald Long] would’ve not done
Pro Mods, and then open it up. Let it be whatever – you want to come in
with a Top Fuel motor on nitro, send it. If you think you can hold onto it,
let’s do it. And I believe that that’s where I would have liked to have seen
it go, but it is what it is.
I hope in Pro 275 the Pro Mods are eliminated from it. We’ve politicked
and tried to get the rules changed. And it looks like that they happen to
keep the Pro Mods out to where it’s a stock wheelbase, a steel roof and
quarter, stock, real-type car class.
And I think that that’ll be the next big thing. I think even Pro Stock
whenever you start talking about Greg Anderson and different things like
that, I mean, if they don’t feel like they’ve got a performance advantage
of some kind to where they’re going to run up front or have a chance of
winning the championship, why even show up and spend the money. It’s
cheaper to stay at the lake.
GA: More of what we’ve done over the last couple of years, we’ve made it
to, where it used to be that you had two or three people that built engines
and they were the kings of the class, and they won the bulk of the races.
We changed that philosophy years ago and mainly the reason we
did that was we decided the class was going downhill in participation.
This was a way to do something different, to make the class stronger
and make the class survive and grow over the years, and we kind of all
decided that the strong teams – strong into the building game – start
leasing engines, leasing complete operations, cars, everything, to basically
PHOTO: MARK J. REBILAS
74 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated.com Issue 158