After seeing the photos of Ellis Vial putting his killer Pro Mod up on two wheels, we went hunting for some cool video showing the early days of the class. We did even better than that, we found some stuff that predates Pro Modified as a pro class of racing. The Pro Mod class was born of wild Top Sportsman racers running their junk heads up in shootout races across the eastern half of the country. By 1989 these cars had such a following that they were ready for the national scene. It would be 1990 before the first “official” Pro Mod race was held, but damn if these shootouts weren’t just as good. This video rules.
It’ll take two seconds for you to figure out why people loved these cars and they became amazingly popular. The first pair of cars should sum it up nicely, as the awesome Mega-Ford and Christine square off at Kil-Kare Dragway. Today, the class has become so insanely competitive and hard core, the whimsy of these body styles is gone. So are the dry hops, which kind of sucks, but what remains is the wild-ass, sideways, unpredictable nature of jamming way too much power into way too short a wheelbase. That part never gets old.
