Quain Stott doesn’t mince words when talking about how Pro Modified has changed since he stepped away in 2009. The longtime doorslammer racer who won a championship in 2006 and finished in the IHRA’s Top Ten points 14 consecutive times considers those who pilot these cars to be riders, not drivers.
Pretty soon, Stott smiles and admits he will become one of “them.”
Stott jokingly laughs and admits he will be a rider in a Pro Modified car for the first time since he last drove a clutch-equipped Pro Modified. He will be behind the wheel of the Troy Bostick blown ’57 Chevy in Jacksonville, Fla.
“Guess I’ll have to put Rider on the window like I had on my window the last three years I ran Pro Mod,” Stott said in jest.
All ribbing aside, Stott said he’s excited about what he considers an excellent opportunity provided by Bostick. Stott confirmed it’s a one-race deal to participate at Rocket City Dragway’s Southern Shootout on April 26-27.
“It’s just going to be a fun show,” Stott said. “I’ll be in the way, but we’ll have a good time.”
Stott said the last time he raced a Pro Modified, he recorded a 3.62 elapsed time at 207 miles per hour. The cars are running about a tenth of a second quicker, and while he’s not concerned about adjusting to the increase in speed, he and Bostick are planning a test session ahead of time so he can become reacclimated to racing one of the sport’s most volatile breeds of doorslammer.
“I ain’t done it in ten years, but I have raced a gasser, and those things will wrangle you,” Stott said. “I spent my time racing a 92-inch wheelbase, four-speed car. I always said it was harder to drive in a Pro Mod, so I guess we’ll find out. It’s almost two seconds slower but twice as hard to drive. So we’ll see where this goes.”
Stott confirmed Ander Pinkerton will be his crewchief. Pinkerton formerly worked with Tim Tindall and was on Mike Ashley’s championship teams.
“This will be the first time I’ve ever drove a car that I didn’t tune myself,” Stott admitted. “Andy worked as a crew member for Tim Tindall when I tuned for him. So Andy and I, our relationship goes way back. I’m proud of him. I think it’s going be wonderful.”
Good-natured ribbing of today’s Pro Modified community and all, Stott said he’s extremely grateful for the opportunity Bostick has afforded him.
“I mean, who in the hell would loan a million-dollar operation, a $300,000 car, just loaning to somebody to go racing?” Stott questioned. “That’s pretty awesome right there. My hats off to him for doing that.”
Considering Stott’s credentials as a past world champion, Car Craft All-star, and voted into CompetitionPlus.com’s Top ten of all Pro Modified drivers ever, Stott is hardly an “anybody.”
Actually, Stott’s plan last fall when he sold his South East Gassers Association ownership stake was indeed to become an anybody. The figurehead at the top of drag racing’s strictest period-correct gasser series was burned out on being the man who had to make all of the decisions.
Stott was a “driver-only” figure at the recent South East Gassers Association season-opener in Ringgold, Ga.
“I went to PRI show, and people came up to me and started complaining,” Stott recalled. “I said, ‘Hey, them guys are here somewhere. They’ll be by to talk to you. Talk to them after a while.” I
“In about the fifth or sixth place, we stopped at, and they started complaining. I told [girlfriend] Heather [Peek], ‘Ain’t this nice to get to say, ‘Ain’t my problem.'”
Stott said the most gratifying part is not deflecting responsibility but instead just getting to be a racer.
“If you think about this, my whole racing career has been a job,” Stott explained. “19 years, I never missed a national event in Pro Mod. 19 years. I was racing for a living.
“Then before I even quit Pro Mod, I started to do this gasser deal for stress relief. It wasn’t no time until it was my biggest stress. So that was 12 years. So 19 plus 12, 31 years since I’ve been able to race to enjoy racing.
“This race that we just come from, man, I’m going to tell you right now. For example, I had somebody beating on my motor home door at 6:30 in the morning. ‘Quain, we need you. We are out here. We got a problem.”
“Hey, he’s beating on my door up until 10 AM and I was sitting there drinking my coffee and I never went to the door. I turned my phone off. I didn’t have to deal with nothing. I had real blast.”
Stott didn’t have to worry about any rules, except following those A/Gas regulation he needed to follow with his own car, and not losing any money as a promoter of an event. It’s exactly the way he drew it up once he sold the business of gasser racing.
“Heather and I just got in the motor home and it’s supposed to rain,” Stott said. “On the way down there, I said, ‘The only thing we’re going to lose if it rains this race out is my trip here and back.”
“We’ve enjoyed it. So we lost nothing. And if I owned it, I was going to lose about $15,000. So it’s like the whole world was lifted off my shoulders. It took about two weeks for it to hit me when I first sold it. And man, but I enjoyed it. I had a blast. I’m enjoying racing now more than I ever have in my life.”
And now, he gets to race a Pro Modified without the headaches of being a team owner.
“I’m a blessed man, there’s no doubt,” Stott said.
And while he jokingly says he won’t be a driver, it’s going to be one heck of a ride.
