If only one name could be associated with Pro Modified over the past five-plus years, it would be have to be Dave Wood. Not only is he the Don Schumacher of the class with a fleet of cars, but he also sponsors the AMS Pro Mod Challenge for the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, supplies the points fund for the AMS Pro Mod Cup, and is an investor in the American Drag Racing League (ADRL). Yet it’s all still basically a hobby for this 55-year-old businessman from Texas.

Owner and President of Dallas-based AMS Staff Leasing, the largest privately held professional employment organization in the U.S. With over $2 billion in payroll annually, Wood has had a lot of impact on Pro Mod. His patronage alone has helped raise its visibility and status.

How one man turned his love for a class into years of support

If only one name could be associated with Pro Modified over the past five-plus years, it would be have to be Dave Wood. Not only is he the Don Schumacher of the class with a fleet of cars, but he also sponsors the AMS Pro Mod Challenge for the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, supplies the points fund for the AMS Pro Mod Cup, and is an investor in the American Drag Racing League (ADRL). Yet it’s all still basically a hobby for this 55-year-old businessman from Texas.

Owner and President of Dallas-based AMS Staff Leasing, the largest privately held professional employment organization in the U.S. With over $2 billion in payroll annually, Wood has had a lot of impact on Pro Mod. His patronage alone has helped raise its visibility and status.

Wood purchased Tommy Lipar’s “Dr. Moon’s Rage” team last year, making his operation the largest in the Pro Modified ranks. Now under his umbrella are driver Josh Hernandez, who ran the category’s first legal five-second pass last fall at Rockingham, North Carolina, crew chief Howard Moon and his crew, the Rage ‘68 Camaro and a ‘57 Chevy built by Tim McAmis. Under Wood’s own AMS banner is a Tommy Mauney-built supercharged ‘93 Corvette which was piloted at the 2005 U.S. Nationals by Ben Bray, son of legendary Aussie doorslammer competitor Victor Bray, and a ‘71 Hemi Cuda tuned by Darren Mayer and handled by another wonder from Down Under, Troy Critchley. Arguably, no one has spent more time and money on one class in drag racing. And yet Wood doesn’t ‘own’ Pro Mod.

“There are guys out there who immediately buy themselves into a certain championship level,” Wood said. “I’m in a financial position where I could have done the same thing myself, but I’ve just never been that way. I’ve enjoyed the struggle. I’m one of these people who enjoys the pain of learning.”

Some of those lessons were painful indeed. As a young man growing up in rural Missouri in the late 1960s, Wood wanted a muscle car in a bad way. “After going to school, becoming a tax paying adult, getting married, and raising children,” he said, “I had gotten to the point where I could indulge in an expensive hobby.” He started off as a collector, but youthful ambition soon propelled him into drag racing behind the wheel of a Super Street car.

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“Unfortunately, I got enough points to get invited to a national race at Ennis, Texas, in October of 1998,” Wood said. “I had a terrible accident and they had to cut me out of the car. I spent the night in the hospital knocked out. As the saying goes, I was in over my head; beyond my skill level. So I went back to collecting cars, but at the same time I still had that drag racing bug; it had bitten me really hard. I was giving up driving, but I didn’t want to get out of the sport.”

Around that time Super Chevy debuted their new Nitro Coupe class, so Wood bought a ‘57 Chevy out of Toronto for conversion. “It had been set up as a nitrous car, a McAmis look-alike,” he recalled. “It was a great looking car, and of course with the experience level I had at the time, I had merely bought a great looking car. It was a spectacular piece of art that someone had built; it just couldn‘t handle the torque. It just wasn’t engineered to be an alcohol car. That poor thing was like an accordion going down the track.”

A variety of drivers tried taming the beast for Wood--Bill Hill, Doug Winters, Bill Kuhlmann--and it was the latter, a fellow Missourian and former Pro Mod racer, who began to bring Wood up to speed. “Bill taught me about a different level of drag racing, heads up.” he reported. “(He) told me I was going at this kind of the wrong way. ‘You don’t know anything about this,’ he said, ‘you need to get more people around you that do so you can get to the top more quickly.’ I don’t know if getting to the top is really what I want to do; I wanted to learn as much as I could about this. And tell you what: over the last 6 or 7 years I’ve learned a tremendous amount about drag racing.”

Kuhlmann also told him about NHRA’s experiment with IHRA’s Pro Modified, where they could run 100 percent alcohol. “He asked if I was interested.” said Wood. “Hell yes!”

Working with promoter Kenny Nowling, another Missourian, Wood’s hobby soon went from sponsoring just one car to an entire class in 2002. “I actually wanted to do something similar to Super Chevy,” Wood explained. “I wanted to be involved in drag racing and to promote my business. The demographics of my client base is blue collar. And a lot of the guys I have as clients are drag racers or they’re fans of drag racing. So I was looking for a program to do national advertising. Same demographics as Super Chevy, a little bit smaller scale in terms of the number of races, but I looked at it as a fine opportunity to promote my business and enjoy the hobby for which I have a significant passion for.”

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Yet a couple seasons later that passion seemed to flag; rumors were rampant that AMS Staff Leasing was going to drop the class sponsorship. “A couple times I ran into situations where certain people told me they were going to get involved,” said Wood. “They didn’t, and that was disappointing. And sometimes dealing with sanctioning bodies, specifically NHRA, is a little frustrating. We’re not considered a pro class there, and probably never will be. It’s difficult sometimes to deal with that year after year. But they’re running a business, and they have a business model; Pro Mod just isn’t an integral part of that, we’re a fringe. Hey, it works well for them, and they hope it works well for us. There were times when I was wondering ‘why am I doing this?‘ And then I’d wake up the next morning knowing exactly why I was doing this--it’s a passion.”

The trick is not to let the whole enterprise become another wearying business venture; Wood does this through carefully selected personnel. Jeff Lynn has ably taken over for Kenny Nowling, who left to head the ADRL, while Matthew Brammer is the series director. Wood’s race crew is also shaping up to be one of the best.

“In 2005 we were running wedges and hadn’t run the Hemi,” said Wood. “We struggled with the Cuda because of the engine combination and the clutch and just lack of knowledge. That’s where Howard Moon came in. We were using pieces that were just the wrong recipe; Howard immediately put his hands on things, and we had the success we had this last year. One member of our team made a comment to me, ‘I wouldn’t have tried that by accident.’ That’s where the experience and expertise comes in. I think we’re about to have a really super year.”

Wood’s passion for Pro Mod is almost palpable. “Drag racing is a simple sport,” he stated, “but it’s complicated because it has all these different classes, Super Stock, Pro Stock--it’s very difficult to look at from the outside and understand it. Let me tell you what is real simple: Pro Mod. You’ve got a drag car that looks like a car. Hell, most Funny Cars, if you don’t see the name over the front grill you don’t even know what kind of car it is. I’ve got a ’71 Cuda, a ’41 Willys, a ’57 Chevy--these are icons. The doors open, some of these guys have working headlights, they’re loud, they go fast, they rarely go straight, and they run heads up; it’s a class people can easily relate to. Also, IHRA doesn’t dominate it, NHRA doesn’t dominate it, the ADRL thing is a niche side at eighth-mile racing, which has a big following; but there’s lot’s of room. It’s great racing not only for the racers, but fans love it to death.

“We’re working on things for this year,” said Wood enthusiastically. “We’ve got an ADRL race coming up February 16th which I can’t wait to get to. The off time is over and it’s race time again!” Hey, a man’s got to have his hobbies.