HOOVER/TRUSSELL: STRONG THROUGH THE YEARS
Who knew when IHRA Pro Mod legend Ed Hoover first pulled onto a race track back in 1978 in a borrowed ‘66 Chevelle that he would one day change the face of drag racing forever.
It was on that day that Hoover first got a taste of life in the fast lane and developed a love for the sport that he would one day help alter. Now, 31 years later, Hoover is still doing what he loves best and, quite frankly, he wouldn’t have it any other way. Hoover will enter the 2009 IHRA racing season in the driver’s seat of a Paul Trussell owned 1968 Chevrolet Camaro with one thing on his mind – winning an IHRA Pro Modified championship. He has been close, but after 19 years of racing in the Pro Mod ranks Hoover is ready to cross over that barrier and finally bring home a world title.
“Right now would be a great time to win a national title, especially with Paul Trussell still involved,” Hoover said. “That is what his goal is and always has been, to win a national title, and I would love to do it for him,”
Hoover has been racing a Pro Modified car for 19 years since the class was born back in 1990. He
was even the first ever Pro Mod event winner, taking the win light at the 1990 Winter Nationals in Darlington. Hoover hasn’t missed a season of IHRA Pro Mod racing since. Since the inception of the class Hoover has won 14 races – good enough for fourth on the all-time PM list – and has been a national event runner-up nine times. His highest points finish came in 1998 where he finished second behind six-time world champion Scotty Cannon. Hoover also has the distinction of winning the richest purse in Pro Mod history at the IHRA Northern Nationals last year, beating out Mike Castellana to claim the $50,000 payday.
But despite all of the success he and hundreds of others have enjoyed over the past few years, it is interesting to find that none of it would have been possible had it not been for Hoover’s involvement in helping bring about the Pro Modified class nearly 20 years ago.
Pro Mod racing began in the early 90s, evolving out of the Top Sportsman class when the fastest eight cars of the weekend would face off in heads-up competition on Saturday night. It was there – in what is known as Quick 8 racing – that Hoover first became fascinated with the idea of being the fastest car in the show. At one point the obsession with being the fastest car in the field overshadowed Sunday’s final round appearances as drivers poured their heart and soul into the cars to be the Quick 8 champion on Saturday night.
“That was our main objective, to be there in the Quick 8 on Saturday. That was our whole goal, we didn’t really care about the Top Sportsman racing, we cared about getting in that Quick 8 and being the fastest car there,” Hoover said.
Hoover, a South Carolina native, enjoyed years of success in Quick 8 racing, so much so that at one point a bounty was put on his head where anybody who could outrun him in qualifying or during eliminations would get a $500 bonus. Simply put, from Shuffletown Dragway to Orangeburg Dragstrip, Ed Hoover had the car to beat
“We started racing in the 70s. We went from bracket racing to going to Darlington and Bristol and that is how I got involved with the IHRA, through my backyard tracks,” Hoover said. “We had a very competitive car back then. That is when I made a living with my race car. You either had to be good or be broke.”
As the years went on the IHRA eventually got an idea for a professional class molded out of the Top Sportsman ranks and it gave the top drivers of the time a chance to vote on a name for the brand new class of racing.
Thus Pro Modified racing was born.
When the IHRA finally unveiled its new class at Darlington in 1990, it was only fitting that South Carolina’s fastest driver would go on to win the event. As the class was getting up to speed in the early 90s, Hoover proved himself one of the cars to beat, but his obligations elsewhere played a major part in his failure to win a championship during the early portion of his career.
“Years ago I should have concentrated on that more. One year, for example, I ran five races and won three national events and finished fourth in the IHRA and I wish I had stayed at it,” Hoover said. “But what I was doing back then was making a living with my car so I had to go wherever the money took me.”
But that all changed in 1996 when car connoisseur Paul Trussell became involved. The two had met years before when Hoover was running Quick 8 races in Darlington and had stayed in touch even after Pro Mod came about. But it was at one of the IHRA national events in 1996 that Trussell approached Hoover about driving one of his cars and the rest, as they say, is history.
“He saw me down there one year and I was selling my stuff and was going to stop racing for a couple of years and regroup and he came up to me and said ‘you want to go racing’ and we haven’t looked back since,” Hoover said. “I would have probably been long retired had it not been for him. It has been a great relationship and he is the reason I am still racing.”
“I think this is our 15th year and we get along great,” Trussell added. “He is like a son to me. It is sort of his operation, I just back it. He is the kind of driver that, of course he has wrecked a car before, but he hasn’t put a dent in one since he and I have been together. He is the kind of driver that can feel a car, he knows if he gets in trouble when to shut it off and he doesn’t try to overdrive it.
“We have been first, second, third, fourth, fifth – we just haven’t won a championship yet. Back when Scotty (Cannon) won all those championships, Ed was running Super Chevy events and came over and won a couple of races in the IHRA and all he had to do was go to a couple more and he would have been a champion two or three times. He just never did put an emphasis on it and now he would like to be one. We still have a car that can win a championship, I just hope it goes that way.”
But while Hoover remains as dedicated as ever to winning a world title, the difficulty in which to win a championship has increased exponentially. No longer can a driver simply show up to the track and know if he is going to take home the win. More than ever, the driver and crew have to earn every win and every point throughout the season.
“The cars today are so competitive. Ten years ago when you pulled into the track you could look around and say ‘if everything goes my way today I have the car to beat’ because I could tell by the way my car was running if I was going to do well,” Hoover said. “Nowadays, if you qualify No. 1 that is not to say that the 16th man couldn’t beat you because everybody is so competitive.”
And it is not just the drivers that have gotten more competitive, but the cars as well.
“Back then there wasn’t an engine you could go buy with nitrous already on it and tuned up for Pro Mod so there wasn’t really a Pro Mod car being built exactly for the class. You kind of had to take a Pro Stock car and put big tires on it,” Hoover said. “You had to be your own innovator back then and now you can buy a car and engine with four or five nitrous systems, a car where the chasis builder has already tuned the car for you to where you can be very competitive.
“Back then you had to know more about the sport and know people who were mechanically inclined than you do now because of the evolution of the sport.”
Still, despite all of the change in the sport and around the globe over the past 20 years, one thing has remained constant – Ed Hoover and Paul Trussell's dedication to the IHRA and Pro Modified racing. And as long as Trussell and Hoover remain together, that won’t change anytime soon.
“We have worked all winter on our power and engine program and different things and we just have to see how things work out when we hit the track,” Hoover said. “We are just really enthused to get the season underway.”
