Years and years ago drag racing a Pro Mod was about as far away from being “mainstream” drag racing as you could get. What happens when the class that was founded by a bunch of wild child non-conformists goes mainstream though?

It wasn’t until the late 80’s and early 90’s that the moniker of “Pro Mod” came into the lexicon of drag racing. Fast forward 30 years later and the words Pro Mod are a household name in all drag racing circles, and chances are there isn’t a drag racer alive that doesn’t know the name of at least one pro mod driver or team. What started as fringe, outside the norm, drag racing with cars called Pro Mod, is now on all our social media pages every day of the week. Might we ask ourselves how this happened and if it’s a good thing that it did?

I’ll be the first to admit that I love pro mod racing as much if not more than damn near any other class in doorslammer drag racing. Spending countless hours, days, and weeks, either photographing, reporting on, or learning about Pro Mod racing. All that time has started to raise concerns in my mind, concerns that Pro Mod will turn into Pro Stock, and the popularity will all come crashing down with it.

There is no doubt in my mind that the biggest catalyst to the growth of Pro Mod through the years was that of the ADRL in its original infancy and growth during the early years. The drivers, teams, fans, and excited that poured into those events may never well be matched again. Therein lies the crux of the issue with Pro Mod. That popularity pushed the once relegated obscure class all the way to the forefront of people’s minds within drag racing.

Once the ADRL’s run was completed, and yes I mean the original run, we started to see the formation and attention on other organizations. NEOPMA was around long before ADRL was a thing. Founded back in 1992 on the east coast, I personally saw it grow in popularity later though. NMCA was another organization that had been around before ADRL but grew as Pro Mod grew. Then we have arguably the two main pro mod organizations outside of NHRA, the PDRA, which caters to teams on the east coast and the MWDRS, which caters to teams, for the most part that are west of the Mississippi River.

Both the PDRA and MWDRS have continued the tradition of Pro Mod racing across this country and have amazing base of drivers. Both series have a way of doing things that are vastly different from each other though. For example, the PDRA has decided to spilt the boosted application Pro Mods away from the Nitrous powered Pro Mods. They contest Pro Nitrous and Pro Boost. Whereas MWDRS has gone the route of providing rules that allow both boosted and nitrous assisted combinations to mix it up together.

Now there are going to be people wondering why I am not talking about NHRA. NHRA is the cream of the crop, the top of heap, the show if you will when it comes to drag racing, right? Anyone who has been a fan of my opinions and writing for any amount of time knows how hyper critical of the NHRA I am. I have blasted them on numerous occasions for the decisions that they have made, so much so that I have essentially been blackballed from covering their events in any capacity anymore.

The NHRA hasn’t exactly been the one to welcome Pro Mod with open arms in the past. Whether that be fear of the unknown when it comes to drivers, performance, attitudes, or the fact that more people are interested in Pro Mod than they are in Pro Stock now. Whatever the reason might be, it has taken a lot of behind the scenes work to get Pro Mod the respect that it deserves at that level.

Why would I be at all concerned about the health of Pro Mod racing though? It’s obvious that there are plenty of Pro Mods racing and plenty being built by builders all over the country. We have seen huge turnouts at not only the race series that I mentioned, but also at races like Snowbirds, USSN, WSOPM, Yellow Bullet Nationals, and others. All of that is 100% true, but the concern lies within a few other things.

Pro Mod for years was, as I stated, a fringe thing. Something that a talented home engine builder could try their hand it. You didn’t need a fucking PhD. in engineering, biology, and three other areas just to be competitive. There were still plenty of drivers that were going to a particular engine builder or their choice, but it wasn’t the “requirement” like it is now. I mean let’s be honest here, if you are going to build a nitrous pro mod you are most likely contacting Buck, Musi, Fulton, and maybe a couple others. When you are building a boosted application, you are contacting Pro Line, Extreme, or Noonan, ninety out of one hundred times.

Instead of having a plethora of combo’s out there, you have the boosted Hemi combo. Take a look at the entry and qualifying for Gators this year. Look at how many newer body style Camaro’s with a 526 boosted Hemi were on the list. Now look at the Pro Stock list and tell me what you see, a bunch of 500” Camaro’s. This is a problem that no one wants to talk about. They want the status quo and not to ever rock the boat. There we no turbo and no nitrous powered Pro Mods at Gators this year.

Pro Modified racing was to drag racing 15 years ago what NPK has become to drag racing today. They are bringing in the fan’s week after week and even though they are on tv, they aren’t considered “mainstream”. Their fans base reminds me of the fan base that NASCAR had in the 80’s and 90’s as well. Pro Mod had this feeling of rebellion for a long time, and then, well it just doesn’t anymore. That’s not to say that I don’t love it just as much as I always have, I just worry that the mainstream acceptance of Pro Mod dilutes its awesomeness in the end. I don’t want Pro Mod to fall into the Pro Stock trap. We have seen how that has played out over the last decade.

Where Pro Mod goes from here is going to have to be a choice made for the future. NHRA will most likely stick with the status quo because that’s who they are and that’s what they want. PDRA and MWDRS will continue to do whatever they need to do to attract racers, media, fans, and branding partners. It’s the outlier organizations that keep it fresh every year. Those are the organizations that provide a variety of cars and combos. So be careful when it comes to wanting “mainstream” and all that comes with it, because with “mainstream” also comes the expectations.

Let us continue to spark innovation and creativity. Let us continue to support Pro Mod racing. Let us continue to keep manufactures out of the rules process. Let us make nitrous and turbo cars feel welcome again. Let us never forget…The mainstream wants us much more than we need the mainstream!!