Quain Stott will attest drag racers are creatures of habit.

On Friday, during the ADRL Dragstock VII event in Rockingham, NC, the Pro Modified champion now racing in the Pro Extreme division learned how hard those old habits are to break.

Stott had a run in with Rockingham Dragway’s right retaining wall and wrecked his LeeBoy-sponsored 1963 Corvette, taking him out of competition for the remainder of the event.

“It was just driver error,” Stott admitted. “I got on the brakes too hard. Still trying to learn how to drive this converter car. For 35 years, I’ve been driving a clutch car. I went through the finish line and the only thing I can figure is out of habit I pushed in what I thought was the clutch and it was the brake. Then it locked up the brakes and put it into the wall.”

Quain Stott will attest drag racers are creatures of habit.

On Friday, during the ADRL Dragstock VII event in Rockingham, NC, the Pro Modified champion now racing in the Pro Extreme division learned how hard those old habits are to break.

Stott had a run in with Rockingham Dragway’s right retaining wall and wrecked his LeeBoy-sponsored 1963 Corvette, taking him out of competition for the remainder of the event.

“It was just driver error,” Stott admitted. “I got on the brakes too hard. Still trying to learn how to drive this converter car. For 35 years, I’ve been driving a clutch car. I went through the finish line and the only thing I can figure is out of habit I pushed in what I thought was the clutch and it was the brake. Then it locked up the brakes and put it into the wall.”

Stott was competing in his first race using a torque converter coupled to his Lenco transmission. The last time Stott raced an automatic car was in 1981 when he drove a 10.50 for car owner Butch Duggins.

Stott isn’t one to dabble with so-called karma, but he’s wondering on Monday if fate wasn’t sending him a message.

“I guess this is something trying to tell me that I didn’t need to run an automatic,” Stott said with a smile. “I’ve always said it ain’t a real race car unless it has three pedals. I still feel that way. they ought to outlaw these torque converters. I figured that since they weren’t going to outlaw them, I had better get one.”

Stott began Pro Modified racing as a nitrous racer and raced the combination religiously until he felt a switch to a blower car was the only way he could remain competitive. The veteran drag racer understands change is necessary to remain competitive but the change shouldn’t come as a means of making the cars easier to drive for novice competitors.

“The rule makers have allowed this to happen and they are ruining the class,” Stott said. “Pro Modified used to be known as one of the hardest classes to drive. Over in the NHRA, they don’t allow automatic shifters or torque converters, but this outlaw deal, I love it, don’t get me wrong, but eventually it is going to become an Alcohol Funny Car class. A kid will be able to jump out of a junior dragster and jump right into one of them and race.”

Stott believes the dummying down of Pro Modified/Pro Extreme began with the implementation of air shifters about eight years ago. He was one of the last holdouts before making the switch and because he wasn’t pulling the Lenco levers, he was ragged on by one of the last drivers to make the move – Annette Summer. Stott laughs when he recalls her challenging his manhood for making the switch.

“When they shifted over to the air shifters, I was pulling the old Lenco levers but I eventually had to switch over just to keep up,” Stott explained. “For me to compete, I had to turn candy a** and put it in my car. Now it’s the same thing with a converter. There are other changes I have had to make, that I wouldn’t have normally made in making the cars easier to drive.

“It all boils down to money. If we make these cars really easy to drive, it’s going to be really about the money then. He who has the most money will win all of the races.”

Then there’s the movement to put torque converters in the car.

“It was for people who couldn’t work on a clutch, plain and simple,” Stott explained. “They couldn’t drive a clutch car. I have heard a lot of people say that. They’d say, ‘I couldn’t drive a clutch car, but I am doing just fine with an automatic.”

He continued, “Tuning a clutch required a tuner. With these converters, the manufacturer is doing the tuning. You can buy it, it’s already tuned for you. For me, I make a far better living tuning [a car] than driving one. They won’t need me if this keeps up. It will be about money once you get it to the point where no brains are needed. This will turn into money like NASCAR.”

Stott understands his comments might sound like whining but is adamant that he’s saying what he needs to in order to preserve a class he loves dearly. He believes Pro Extreme will eventually follow the way of Top Fuel if something isn’t done.

“There are some clutch cars out there, but this will eventually change like Top Fuel,” Stott said. “In the 1970s, when Garlits came out with the rear-engine cars, the class lost its popularity. The front engine cars had the appeal of drag racing, exciting, dangerous and hard to drive. The tough guys drove them and it lost that image when you put the engine in the back. Pro Modified is on the verge of losing its image.

“I’ll do what I can and be out here driving this stupid automatic.”

Unless more changes sour him on racing, Stott's going to do his best to remember there’s only two pedals in the cockpit now.

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