In the history of drag racing, we’re not sure that a pro mod staging burndown has ever been stopped by one of the competitor’s dad’s but in the case of the nearly 1:30 staging war between Josh Green and Brian Hicks at the NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl last weekend that’s exactly what happened. Green, who was celebrating his 19th birthday on the day this happened clearly decided that he was going to be second to stage against the cool turbo Duster pro mod of Brian Hicks. Hicks had made the same decision and both men sat in pre-stage for more time that most anyone can ever remember seeing two pro mods ever sit before.
It became apparent that this could become a battle of wills (and gas tanks) about 30 seconds in. After that we crossed a couple of thresholds. Starters Donnie Butts and A.J. Bailey were both keeping tabs on the drivers and at times getting the crowd whipped up. You can actually hear the crowd over the cars at one point when the cars had been sitting there for more than a minute. As it turns out, the guys staged after 1:19, a mere 13 seconds shorter than the NHRA pro stock burndown from Denver.
The bigger question centers about why it stopped at 1:19, right? It stopped because of the young Josh Green’s dad finally walked up to the driver’s window and told the kid to stage. He’s a large man who looked to have enough strength to turn the car up on its side if he wanted to so when he motioned his fingers at the kid, the kid responded. The whole thing is awesome!
In the finest of drag racing fashion, someone has to win and someone has to lose and if you can believe it, in a sense both guys lost. One guy got out run and the other guy that outran him torched a motor when the engine ran out of fuel, went lean, and melted half the world down with it.
This was one of the most memorable moments of the weekend and certainly one of the most memorable of my career to this point!
