Bill Kuhlmann swears a day is coming when he’s going to write a tell-all book on what happened behind-the-scenes during Pro Modified’s formative years. And for the Wentzville, Mo.-based Pro Modified icon, if the book is as successful as his part in pioneering the class, it could be a best-seller.

“A lot of people forget who had the first big wing…I had to make that,” said Kuhlmann, speaking to Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com for the Two Decades of Thrill series. “Who had the first dual parachutes? I had to come up with that because my cars were too heavy to stop. Double frame rail car … no one had ever heard of them. Who had the first nitrous oxide on an engine that was over 615-cubic inches? Nobody wanted to take a chance and blow up their high dollar motor.”

Kuhlmann was accustomed to taking those chances.

Jason Scruggs was a terror when he raced a 1963 Corvette. And in the spirit of horror flicks, the two-time ADRL Pro Extreme champion from Saltillo, Miss, will soon unveil a new sequel aimed at being even more horrific for the competition.

Once chassis builder Garret Livingston completes Jason Hamstra’s new ride, the Scruggs machine will return to the front-burner.

“Mine will be the next one out the door,” Scruggs told ADRL.us, the official website for the doorslammer series. “We’re shooting to have it out there by Valdosta (Apr. 23-24).”

Todd Tutterow, 2009 Pro Extreme champion, is hard at work getting ready for the start of the 2010 American Drag Racing League (ADRL) season, just like he has every other season in the past.

The difference this year is a lucrative three-year contract with Al-Anabi Racing.

The 45-year-old Tutterow, is confident entering a season of competition that actually started last year. In ADRL, the 2009 title was determined on the first day of competition at the Texas Motorplex, located outside of Dallas, in October. Points for the 2010 season, were awarded on Saturday, the day after he was crowned champion.

When the NHRA originally announced the GSA Pro Modified division as a professional category last October, the intention was to allow 24 entries. Though it hasn't been officially announced yet, Attitude's CompetitionPlus.com has learned the field has expanded to 28.

NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car driver Del Worsham heads into the 2010 season confident he can make the field to compete in the Countdown To The Championship, like he did in 2009, driving for Al-Anabi Racing.

In his first season at Al-Anabi Racing, Worsham made the Countdown for the first time in his career and finished seventh in the final standings - 195 points behind eventual champion Robert Hight.

“I didn't know what to expect going into my first year at Al-Anabi Racing but we had great results and it was definitely a building block for (2010) and the future.”

Drag racers by nature know the danger present in their sport every time they get behind the wheel.

Tim Nimmo, a 25-year racing veteran, faced the danger first hand this past Saturday at Palm Beach (Fla.) International Raceway.

Nimmo was racing his dragster against Jerry Baxter, who was piloting a race-modified Corvette-looking machine, during first-round eliminations of the Super Pro class.

Leesburg, Georgia resident Wheeler Davis found his love for the sport of drag racing in 1994 when he started taking his street car, a 1971 Nova, to the local track.

It didn’t take long before Davis became a serious bracket racer. “I’ve tried a lot of other things in life, but once I got started, I found out that drag racing is for me.”

In 2006, Davis “begged and borrowed” from his wife to purchase the car he still races today, a 1973 tube chassis Nova, with a 406 small block Chevy.

One of the main theories in winning a drag race is power. The more power a car makes, the quicker it can get down to the finish line.
 
But since the advent of the sport, racers have also tried to reduce weight in their cars. The lighter a car is, the faster it will go.
 
Over the past few years, reducing the weight of the car body in racing has been an important element in producing quicker times. Working through light metal and fiberglass from the past, today’s builders of Pro Modified and Top Sportsman bodies work with the strong yet light carbon fiber.

Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com has confirmed the NHRA will use an RF-controlled automatic shutoff system in the Nitro ranks in 2010.

The RF-system was tested last year by the Force Racing teams with varied results. The system is not meant to replace the normal actions of the driver. It is meant to assist in the prevention of a catastrophic accident should the driver be incapacitated.

NHRA officials, based on the track, will place the RF device at least 200 feet past the finish line. The system shuts off the fuel, ignition and deploys the parachutes in cases where the driver is unable or has not yet performed those tasks. A redundant system, placed around the 1600 foot mark is also being considered.

The NHRA contends their testing of the spec nitro engine is a data-gathering process aimed at learning more about nitro engines. Unfortunately, two of the runs this week at Firebird Int'l Raceway have been an exercise in what not to do. This was the result of Wilkerson's first run today. Yesterday the testing wounded an engine. (Roger Richards)

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