Andrew Wolf: Pro Modified Left The Ghouls And Goblins Behind

Twenty one years ago, what would quickly become one of the hottest drag racing categories of all time came into being – Pro Modified – and from that point forth, the sport would never be the same. The International Hot Rod Association conceived “Pro Mod” on the premise of heads-up doorslammer racing, born out of the Top Sportsman Quick 8 Shootouts being held at events across the Southeast. The IHRA knew it would be a hit, and boy, were they right on the money. The class was already a sensation before it got out of the starting gate in 1990, and quickly formed a niche in the drag racing world with it’s combination of wild, edge-of-your-seat racing and it’s unique showmanship.  It harkened us back to the early days of match racing.

Somewhere along the way on a two decade journey, a gradual but obvious change occurred in the very DNA of Pro Modified racing. What was once a category with ingredients of one part competition, one part entertainment – just add water and stir – became more about winning than entertainment or innocation.

The early days truly defined entertainment value in our sport, with exciting and innovative machines that often overstepped the bounds of the rules, plenty of colorful personalities, themed racing operations, intense battles and rivalries on and off the track. It was a “grassroots meets professional” racing persona all it’s own. Lately it seems the “show” aspect of the class been mostly whittled down to only on the edge-of-control nature of the cars. The exciting personalities, the rivalries, and the off-track sideshows that put Pro Mod on the map – seems to have faded.

I recently ran across a dated piece on the interwebs regarding longtime racer Tommy Gray and his line of Undertaker themed race cars. Gray and company were perhaps the ultimate showmen around the turn of the century. Wanting to make his racing operation stand out amongst the rest, Gray forged a revolutionary concept to create a brand, if you will, by making people identify with his car.

He took the very first Undertaker car to Darlington Raceway and sold plum out of tee shirts that weekend. From there, he began to dress his crew in elaborate halloween-like costumes consisting of skeleton suits and black robes, with a hearse and a coffin all part of the starting line attraction. The fans ate it up. Johnny Rocca did something very similar with his one-of-a-kind “Ironhorse” Mercury and his indian dances on the starting line.

So, what happened to that stuff?

Today, Pro Modified and the designations that other sanctioning bodies have given it’s more popular than it’s ever been, competing in more places before larger crowds with larger fields for higher purses. But for the purists at heart, you can’t help but admit that, in a way, it sold it’s soul for that success. Think NASCAR here. Cars these days are precision-engineered machines – mostly monkey-see-monkey-do 1968 Camaros – being tuned by some of the some intelligent men in the business all with one and only one goal mind: winning. If there’s a major rivalry in all of Pro Modified racing, I certainly doesn’t know about it. If anyone out there is trying to build their own unique brand, this writer didn’t get that memo, either.

Several factors can be to pointed out here. It could be the influx of corporate America adorning the sides of the race cars. It could be the shift of the racing and racers outside of the once-predominant South. It could be the move to more politically correct environs like the NHRA, where Scotty Cannon and Shannon Jenkins mouthing off to one another to the crowd’s delight would be sternly frowned upon. Pro Modified is still cool. It’s just morphed into a different kind of “cool.”

We’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the subject. Do you miss the simpler days of Pro Modified, or the high-tech giant that it’s become? Feel free to write us or leave a comment below.