Horrible Pro Mod Crash - Your Thoughts

[Robert Swartz]

OK this is "fan racing"!

Same people that basically go to NASCAR, figure 8, demo derby. Yeah, exciting for the fans, till someone gets killed or worse. Wait till one of these beasts gets loose and ends up in the stands like NASCAR or the IRL has done. I went to the Indy Pinks a few years back and sat in the stands. I'm sure same mentality of drunks and idiots rooting for something to happen. If this is what it takes to put butts in the stands, I'll go do something else with my time.

Yes, racing is dangerous. Going back to my first post on this. Many of us have built, worked on/with, been around, know of cars that probably shouldn't have been on/near a race track. No, it's not a safe hobby.

How many of us have gotten hurt in the garage or even the driveway working on our cars? Accidents can and do happen. Yeah, there's pushing the envelope and then there's just plain not smart. These cars are similar to the old AA/FA's, exciting to watch. Sooner or later something bad is gonna happen. 40 some years ago, I knew a guy that had one of these death traps. Had the pleasure of getting to work on it a time or two. That thing was a handful. By todays safety standards, they wouldn't even let you through the gate with something like that. Much less get on the track!

I was pitted next to a guy and his Dad running one of thes type cars at the Doorslammers last year. Real nice guys, sat down and talked just like any other racers. It amazes me how much money you can tie up in one of these things.

It's similar to me at least, to building a derby or a figure 8 car. One mistake and you own a REAL EXPENSIVE pile of scrap. I don't advocate eliminating the classes. One should be free to build what you want. For me, can't afford one, wouldn't build one if I could. Don't even care to watch'em.

Like I said, my opinion, others mileage may vary.

[Run to Rund]

The danger aspect doesn't attract me. I prefer a class that is pretty safe and a car design that works well. Being on the edge of disaster is not attractive to me.

[Mike Fuller]

And a stocker lost a T-top.Pretty soon there will be a tether for that too.

I saw it happen two cars in front of me Friday morning. At first I thought it was a hood.

[rognelson777]

How can they make these cars handle better? Is it just wheelbase, downforce or suspension (alky funnycars have no suspension?) ????

If they made the cars solid rears, body roll and reaction may eliminate some of these accidents.

[larrylomascolo]

These cars are down right gnarly ,high 5 door slammers ,they are crowd pleasers and i see no changes in the class .

[Mike Taylor 3601]

Pro mod and all the small tire stuff is and accident waiting to happen,it's not if you're going to crash but when. I don't like the ideal of crashing and know there is not enough money can be printed to keep those cars running,so I have no interest in having one even if I could.
They have Quick8's around here if I did have that type of car would not race anywhere they did'nt have top notch safety crew like NHRA safety safari. there has been a few incidents around here close that I know the only thing that saved their life was a miracle and most of us are smart enough to know where those come from.

Mike Taylor 3601

[Rose Racing]

If you call this a step backwards then you have no idea what advancements are being made to fast doorslammer drag racing! YES Pro Mods are on the edge of control and hard to handle but like it or not these are the MEN who are some of the most skilled drivers in all of drag racing and no they dont try and crash some pro mods are like bracket cars and go straight down everytime and others are very erratic but going 5 seconds your always on the edge of control and if you wanna get rid of a class just because you dont understand it should BACK OFF!! Its not a sideshow!!!!!!!!!! These guys are every bit of proffesional as ALKY Funny Cars and Dragsters! Great Class Racers like Tommy Mauney,Gene Fulton among others have raced in Pro Mod and yes they are a handful and may not have long enough wheelbase for your liking but if you wanna go about it that way why dont we all race small block dragsters cause S/S cars are tooooo short and overpowered............ Why dont we get rid of Automobile Racing cause its toooooooo dangerous!!!!!!!!!!!! These Cars are very sensitive and hard to drive but thats what makes it very kool just like Drag Racing was back in the day! I dont recall Drag Racers being alll oooohhhhhh thats nooot saaaafe uhhh DRAG RACING ISNT SAFE!!!!!!!!!!PERIOD I think people are getting more and more paranoid about being safe every day and its really annoying in racing cause anytime you go over 50 MPH your life is in gods hands and as a Driver I pray everytime I go down the track and it shouldnt be anyone elses buisness to tell me what I should and should not race! SORRY FOR THE LONG POST I know a lot of Pro Mod guys and love the class and this is one of the topics that may drive me away from the sport......

[Rollins_2241]

Drag racing is dangerous. I nearly killed myself on a 7.90 pass at 170 in a dragster. I had all my safety gear on but still got a significant concussion, separated shoulder joint, and my back burned up due to the two-piece suit coming partially apart while the fire came through the seat belt hole under me. Should we ban dragsters? (My mom would say so.)

Pro mods are the most entertaining class in drag racing right now, at least judging by my 10-year old son at the Gatornationals. We should make them as safe as we can but this sport will never be chess.

[Alan Roehrich]

Ah, I see. The easily offended are out in force, and "MEN" drive Pro Mod.

(I suppose if "MEN" drive Pro Mod, everyone else is just a sissy.)

In a nutshell, if a drag racing class can't go more than 3-4 events without having a car rolled up in a ball, there's a problem. It's called drag racing, not drag wrecking.

If you get your feelings hurt when people point out that the number of wrecks for a given number of passes is way out of line, then I guess you'll just have to be all offended by the truth and facts.

I'm betting Pro Mod and classes like it are driving the cost of insurance up for track operators and sanctiuoning bodies, you don't have that many violent wrecks with parts flying everywhere and have the people who write policies ignore it. Which means all of us are paying their insurance premiums. Further, we're also having to sit around and wait while they clean up the mess.

I don't want to see the class eliminated. But by the same token, I don't think everyone else should be paying the increased costs and sitting around during the clean up. They need to clean up their act. If they don't, odds are, it will get cleaned up for them and they won't like it.

[Rose Racing]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

Ah, I see. The easily offended are out in force, and "MEN" drive Pro Mod.

(I suppose if "MEN" drive Pro Mod, everyone else is just a sissy.)

In a nutshell, if a drag racing class can't go more than 3-4 events without having a car rolled up in a ball, there's a problem. It's called drag racing, not drag wrecking.

If you get your feelings hurt when people point out that the number of wrecks for a given number of passes is way out of line, then I guess you'll just have to be all offended by the truth and facts.

I'm betting Pro Mod and classes like it are driving the cost of insurance up for track operators and sanctiuoning bodies, you don't have that many violent wrecks with parts flying everywhere and have the people who write policies ignore it. Which means all of us are paying their insurance premiums. Further, we're also having to sit around and wait while they clean up the mess.

I don't want to see the class eliminated. But by the same token, I don't think everyone else should be paying the increased costs and sitting around during the clean up. They need to clean up their act. If they don't, odds are, it will get cleaned up for them and they won't like it.

No not everyone is a sissy but if your such an expert drag racer why dont you tell me how much youve won and how fast does your car go? If you have a problem with Pro Mod running at National events or anywhere else go tell the pro mod guys they should go run somewhere else or quit running altogeather to theyre faces instead of talking on a message board...... It shouldnt be anyone elses buisness what somebody else wants to run or what classes are ran or how they race unluess you drive or participate in that particular class.... If the track owners didnt want Pro Mods then they would have done away with them years ago.