Video: 1991 IHRA Winternationals Pro Mod Action – Kuhlmann, Hoover, McAmis, Cannon, More!


Video: 1991 IHRA Winternationals Pro Mod Action – Kuhlmann, Hoover, McAmis, Cannon, More!

The NHRA  Pro Mod series  kicked off in Gainesville as it has each season since 2000 and has only gotten crazier from there. The level of competition has been insane and that’s not a new thing. This category of NHRA competition has been off the charts for a decade or more.

We’re taking a look back on this Sunday at the 1991 IHRA Winternationals at Darlington Dragway. Pro Mod was in its second season as a professional class with IHRA and the cars were exploding in popularity. There were no turbo cars and there were barely a handful of blower cars out there. In 1991 Pro Mod was very much a nitrous dominated class.

This video is so cool because we see Bill Kuhlmann in his insanely chopped Camaro, Ed Hoover the winner of the first ever IHRA pro mod race in 1990, Tim McAmis the 1990 IHRA pro mod champion and now an incredibly successful chassis builder, and Scotty Cannon in his shovel nose Willys. One of the neatest cars in the field is the 1955 Thunderbird of Californian Wayne Torkelson. Outside of the cool body there’s the fact that the car runs a blown alcohol engine.

The roots of the popularity that the Pro Mod class experienced were based in the growing conflict between the blower and nitrous cars. At the time this was made the blower cars were a curiosity and not all that competitive. As the racers got quicker and faster the cars got more competitive and the attitude of pro mod racers launched the class like a rocket.

Here’s a fun look back at the way it was long before these cars started growing on trees.

Press play to watch some pro mod action from the 1991 IHRA Winternationals


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