On the Run with Bruce Allen driver of the Speedco/Reher-Morrison Pontiac Grand Am Pro Stocker

National Dragster, Jan 28, 2005 by Allen, Bruce

With the start of the 2005 NHRA POWERade season just weeks away, the slate from last year has been wiped clean and replaced with a mixture of anticipation and excitement. The new year demands that race teams objectively examine where they've been and where they stack up when compared with the rest of the competition, then determine what areas they need to attack in order to go forward and improve position. This self-scrutiny begins with the end of the final race in November and continues through the current season.

Even with Greg Anderson's dominance in 2004, the performance gap in Pro Stock at the end of the season had narrowed, and that should create some opportunities for everyone who has done his homework. Last year was unique in that only four drivers who made the POWERade top 10 were in the top 10 in 2003. A lot of changes are taking place and a lot of young drivers and teams are starting to come into their own, which will continue to make the class more competitive. To move ahead, we'll need to increase our performance because more than likely the cars that finished ahead of us certainly won't be slowing down. Reviewing long-term strategy and making the correct adjustments and tweaks are necessary, but keep in mind that if the game plan and focus are too far off, it can set a team back when racing gets under way.

Magically picking up 50 horsepower would solve a lot of problems, but that's not going to happen. If a team can begin the year with a gain of between five and 10 horsepower, that's a pretty substantial increase given how difficult it is these days to find more power. On average, we've been fortunate to pick up about 15 horsepower over the course of an entire season; it's not something you do all at once. Just as with gains in e.t., you pick up horsepower in small increments, maybe two here, three there, maybe a jump of five horsepower if you're lucky.

Though we didn't win a race last year, ours was one of only four Pro Stock teams to qualify for every event, and that's something we'll be able to build on. Keeping that streak alive was a big deal for our program, and it became even more so the closer we got to the end of the season. There's a tremendous amount of pressure just trying to make a 16-car field. It gets pretty darn intense, and a lot of guys are on pins and needles when the weather starts changing or a cold front begins moving through right before an important qualifying session. When I first started racing in Pro Stock in 1985, the question wasn't if we would make the show but how far up the ladder we would actually start. That's not the case anymore, and qualifying for every event may be just about as difficult as winning a race. Once you qualify, the pressure subsides slightly and racing on Sunday actually becomes fun.

Looking ahead, everybody at Reher-Morrison is pretty pumped up about the new season. After last year's seventh-place finish, we think it's going to be a pretty good year even though a lot of things are yet to unfold. As mundane and old fashioned as it may sound, success on the racetrack really does come down to executing the fundamentals, in the shop and at the track. When you begin winning rounds and races, everything else takes care of itself.

The older I get and the longer I stay in the sport just reaffirms my belief that there's no magic bullet; there's no one genius who can come into your operation and fix what's broken. It takes hard work and chemistry, and we've been fortunate at Reher-Morrison to have a great group of guys who over the years have continued to do tremendous work for our program. We also wouldn't have the longevity we do without good sponsors like Pontiac and Speedco.

After the season opener in Pomona, everything will start to shake out, and all of the hoopla and hype created over the winter will wear off. Over the years I've learned to ignore all of the preseason anticipation and just concentrate on what we have to do to be successful. With that in mind, we expect our Pontiac Grand Am to make another strong run at a top five finish, and if we take care of business, then maybe we'll do even better. I think it's going to be one of those years where it's a bat tie all the way to the end, and if we can put a string of races together, then maybe we can put ourselves in the championship hunt.