Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com, through the assistance of a key group of Pro Modified historians and enthusiasts, has compiled a list of the Top 20 all-time drivers based on their contribution to the class, historic achievements, statistics and fan appeal.
Starting on Friday, January 8, 2010, the electronic magazine began revealing those names on the list, and will announce two drivers per week, until the No. 1 driver is unveiled on Saturday, Mar. 20, during the ADRL Dragpalooza in Houston, Texas.
Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com narrowed the list from hundreds of drivers down to 20. Today, we reveal No. 8 on the list.
Shelby, NC
NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• 1995 IHRA Pro Modified Champion
• First Top Sportsman Racer to win national event with nitrous
• Eight IHRA Wins/14 Finals
Tommy Mauney can’t help but wonder “what if”.
Mauney, the longtime chassis builder from Shelby, N.C., had helped to pioneer a style of racing which grew to become Pro Modified. Week in and week out, during the mid-to-late 1980s, Mauney raced those Quick Eight events in the Carolinas. He even pulled off a match race or two with a handful of like-minded racers.
In the latter part of 1989, Mauney was offered a mountain motor Pro Stock ride just as Pro Modified started gaining steam towards professional status. The next season he was offered the opportunity to come back as the driver. Would he race in the newly announced Pro Modified division or stick with the proven Pro Stock?
Mauney chose Pro Stock and in some ways has regretted it ever since.
“I don’t know that I thought that it would ever go as far as it did,” said Mauney, who went on to win the Pro Stock championship that year. “I never realized the class would have done what it did.”
Mauney returned to Pro Modified in 1991 and has been there ever since.
“You know in all the time we were pioneering that racing, we were just racing the natural progression,” Mauney said. “You started in a Stocker, then up to Super Stock and next into Modified. When you moved up from Modified you went to Top Sportsman. Pro Stock was always the big goal before Pro Modified came along.”
Mauney is credited as the first Top Sportsman driver to put a nitrous-assisted car into the winner’s circle during the 1987 IHRA U.S. Open Nationals. Did we mention that car was a small block originally built by Gene Fulton to run A/Gas in Modified?
Mauney’s largest arguable contribution probably wasn’t his achievements as a driver, although he ended up winning eight national events in fourteen final rounds, as much as it was in developing a purpose-built Pro Modified chassis.
Mauney’s finest season in Pro Modified came in 1995 when, with Shannon Jenkins serving as crew chief, ended Scotty Cannon’s bid for a fifth consecutive world championship. He won four event titles in seven final round appearances that year.
Mauney nearly landed a second title in 1997 by finishing second in the championship chase. He raced four full tours in the 1990s, finishing in the top ten in all four.
In Quick Eight competition, Mauney hasn’t a clue how many of those events he’s won, admitting he stopped counting around fifty-something. The IHRA championship season in 1995 yielded 33 Quick Eight wins alone.
Mauney still builds slick Pro Modified cars, and repairs a few wounded ones along the way, but as far as driving, for the first time in 41 years, Mauney didn’t enter a drag race during the 2009 season.
“I haven’t owned my own stuff since 2003,” Mauney confirmed. “I have a friend here in Charlotte that wants to run some nitrous stuff this year, and I’m going to come back out and race again.”
For the complete list visit: ATTITUDE’S COMPETITIONPLUS.COM’S ALL-TIME TOP 20 HOMEPAGE
