Pat Musi issued a warning twenty years ago to those in charge of making the rules for Pro Street racing. 

When sanctioning bodies didn't heed to his prophecy, he could only watch the arena fall apart. The former NHRA Pro Stock racer turned Pro Street champion turned NHRA Pro Modified national event winner who stands as one of the leading engine builders in the fast doorslammer market, feels as if he's watching history play out again, albeit in a different area.  

While Musi claims no ties to Nostradamus, he's predicting the same dire consequences will play out again in NHRA Pro Modified. But, don't take his word for it, he counsels, just look at history. 

Musi predicts just as he did back in those National Street Car and National Muscle Car Association days, the turbocharged combination will eventually push the nitrous cars out of competitiveness and eventually the superchargers, as well, leaving an all turbocharged class. 

Then, Musi believes, you will have a Pro Modified division mirroring today's Pro Stock, which he feels is in a deathward spiral. 

While Musi no longer competes in the J&A Services Pro Modified program, he builds engines for it, most notably for Rickie Smith, Khalid al-Balooshi, Jonathan Gray and Richie Stevens. 

"I’m an engine builder, not an engine assembler," Musi said. "I think I’ve proved it through my whole career. I work on my stuff, I know what combinations are capable of. Look, let’s give turbo cars the benefit of the doubt. They've got at least 3,800 horsepower and I know they’ve got more. 

"A nitrous car on a good day, with a big-inch Pro Nitrous engine, maybe has 2,800. How in the world is a couple hundred pounds or a couple pounds of boost going to faze 1,000 horsepower? Are you kidding me? Can they be that stupid?"

They being sanction body techs.

Thus far this season the turbocharged combination has won only two of the nine races with the supercharged combination winning six. The nitrous combination has won once. While speed might not be a catalyst for winning, it is largely regarded as a sign of horsepower. In all nine events, the turbocharged combination has left the event with top speed.  

NHRA, in the days leading into the Carolina Nationals, levied a two pound reduction in boost to the turbocharged entries. 

Musi believes the time has come for the NHRA to make some hard decisions, and in doing so, they could solve other issues along the way. 

Musi feels NHRA could remedy both Pro Modified and Pro Stock by giving either the turbocharged or nitrous cars a new home, and let them shine against like-minded combinations. 

Given his druthers, he'd prefer to see the nitrous combination moved over to Pro Stock with engines as large as 900-inches or more. 

Currently, the Pro Nitrous cars over in PDRA competition run engines as large as 960 cubic inches with electronic fuel injection and nitrous. At the most recent PDRA event, there were 27 entries competing for a spot in a 16-car field. 

Plus, there are more places to run this combination which makes it more feasible to those who choose to ride out the storm. 

"I don’t know that there’s a fix for Pro Modified to save the nitrous cars unless they actually make the turbos smaller," Musi explained. "There’s really no fix for it when it comes to us. I mean that’s why personally, I love what I’m doing, the PDRA, because it’s like Pro Stock and I’m an ex Pro Stock guy, and we all run the same combination."

Musi said then the supercharged and turbo cars, two combinations he feels which have room for more power, can battle it out to keep the excitement of Pro Modified intact.  

"They both have plenty of room to push the envelope before they come close to hitting a performance wall," Musi said. "With the nitrous cars, we're just about there. It's not a soft wall either; it's a hard one."

Musi believes the NHRA, since it has other body styles in Pro Modified, could work on having other body styles other than the Camaro and further expand to styles like the Corvette or even relax on the “engine must match the body manufacturer” rule. 

"We all know Pro Stock today just isn't what it used to be," said Musi, who raced Pro Stock from 1973 until 1990. "Maybe it's time for NHRA to step outside of the limitations they've had in the class since it started in 1971. I mean, the pounds-per-cubic inch didn't last forever. So why should the same rules it has today, it's clear it isn't working."

Or if NHRA isn't keen on the nitrous, big inch engines into Pro Stock, the rule makers should consider allowing the turbos to move over into Pro Stock and returning Pro Modified to its original format. 

However, Musi remembers when he was part of the initial conversation with NHRA officials as well as Bob Glidden, Lee Shepherd and Frank Iaconio in 1981 about scrapping the pounds per cubic inch format in favor of a variation which featured Mountain Motor Pro Stock.

Musi says this is a different kind of fight. Instead of everyone having the same combination and adjusting universally, he and his nitrous brethren are fighting for their survival. 

"I’ve always felt like I could leave my building knowing I had a chance of winning a race my whole career," Musi revealed. "Well I couldn’t with this turbo deal, but I dealt with them, I mean they put 100 pounds on them a race. I think it was up to 500 pounds by the time they got to the end, and we still couldn’t outrun them."  

Musi, who won the 2010 NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, remembers a conversation he had with one of the movers and shakers with a direct influence into the NHRA Pro Modified division when the turbocharged combination began making strides. 

"He comes to my motorhome and he says, ‘I hear you got a lot of experience with these turbos and you know I want to pick your brain. How do we fix this, you know before it gets out of control?"

"Well with me it's a matter of don’t ask me if you don’t want to hear the answer. So I said, ‘Do you want me to lie to you or you want me to tell you the truth?"

"He said, ‘No I want to hear the truth. I want to know what we need to do." 

"I said, ‘Well, what I’m going to tell you to do, you won’t do. You need to grow a pair of balls’ was my exact words, and walk down to that red trailer, you need to tell him to load his car up and don’t ever come back, and that’s it. You piss off one racer. Because soon you’re going to have five, and then you’re going to have 10, and it’s going to be out of control, and it’s going to ruin the class." 

"And he said, ‘Well I can’t do that." 

"I responded, ‘Well, you got your answer buddy. We don’t need to talk anymore."