The St. Louis NHRA races as a crazy one for Pro Mod. Peter Farber’s car smashed the wall, Rickie Smith went out early and extended the championship hopes of competitors like Von Smith and Troy Coughlin, and for Mike Knowles, a dream came true. Knowles racked up his first career NHRA Pro Mod win. There were some funny stories of him finding lucky pennies all weekend long and some of the breaks that went his way although there was one moment that was no laughing matter and that’s when he and Kevin Fiscus nearly got into one of the more nasty high speed incidents the class has seen in some time. As you’ll see from the in-car video below, Knowles was minding his business when Fiscus came over hard. Thankfully both men are great professional level drivers and disaster was averted. On the TV show, Knowles knew something was up when air started rushing into his driver door. He soon figured out it was air being displaces by the parachute on the Fiscus driven Mustang!
As soon as Kevin appeared as an unwelcome guest in Knowles’ lane, he was gone and the moment was over but this is a great illustration of just how quickly fortunes can change at any point on the strip. It is also a great indication of what it is like to drive a 250mph car with a tree trunk growing out of the center of the hood in the form of a massive blower and injector hat. There’s not a whole lot of room to see and for better or worse, Fiscus showed up on the side of the car that Knowles could at least see out of.
Wild stuff! Pro Mods are out of control even past the stripe!
oops