Why Is Everybody Picking On Me?

Recently, CompetitionPlus was able to spend some time with one of the newer drivers in the Pro Mod fraternity to get his views on the events in 2001 and his part in them. Ron Kammes is just in his third year within the Pro Mod ranks but has deep experience in drag racing. The information listed in Kammes’ biography tells of a man who has paid his dues while advancing through the ranks of Sportsman racing.

When we contacted Kammes, the first thing he mentioned before the first question was asked, was the series of events at the Northern Nationals in Stanton, Michigan. Kammes wanted to address that immediately and respond to some of the negative comments that have been spoken of him recently due to the accidents at Stanton and his performance at the NHRA Pro Mod exhibition in Saint Louis earlier this year.

Addressing the weekend in Stanton, Kammes confided, “I had a bad weekend. I was so embarrassed.” Kammes continued, “ Stuff can happen with these cars and what I was really upset about is that at Stanton, it was my first pass in that lane (left) and I forgot that lane is crooked and when you do a burn out in that lane it always cocks you a little bit. Your burnouts are always crooked in the left lane. If you look, 90% of the pro guys, the door cars, have problems doing burn outs in that lane. They go crooked because it’s at an angle. What I was upset about was that they ground the track and it was smooth. It was ground, but they started three feet from the wall and three feet from the centerline and did just a 9-foot path. Now I didn’t think that was right. And that is why I hit the wall in the 4th qualifying run. My rear tire got up on that ledge and when I hit 2nd gear, I lost traction a little bit and it just banged me into the wall and banged me right back.”

The burnout in the first qualifying run resulted in Kammes getting sideways and slamming into the A-board advertisements and the support for the tree. Kammes recalled, "The tree support was dislodged and a piece of the A-board went over in the next lane and against his (Tim McAmis) car and scratched it. I went to him and apologized and offered to pay for it. He said don't worry about it. That is just part of racing."

Kammes keeps current on the racing scene by accessing the Internet and visiting several of the sites devoted to drag racing. Kammes himself has been the subject of several conversations on the message boards associated with those sites. Some of the comments have not been that favorable to Kammes and he addressed that during the conversation. “Someone on the Internet message board really brutalized me. I was going to answer it and I decided no because one of the problems with boards is if the guy doesn’t have the guts to put his real name and email address, he shouldn't be allowed to use it. It is someone who runs a 12 second car that doesn’t even know how these things run. I mean these things are animals, they can do weird things at weird times.”

Expanding his opinion further, “I don’t like when people do things like that on the Internet boards. It is sad enough when they tell me I was cheating in St. Louis. I know I was legal and I don't cheat. Those people who hide behind their monitor and talk about things they really don't know about. On the CB radios they call those type people radio Rambo’s, I guess we can call these the Internet Rambo’s.”

When asked about damage to the car due to the incidents, Kammes reported that “the car didn’t really get hurt, the headers took all the punishment and nothing else was hurt.

The car is currently in Ann Arbor getting painted. When you see it, it will be totally yellow, Millennium Corvette yellow to be exact. Up around the taillights, will be black. We are going to make it look like the LeMans Corvette.”

Responding to receiving the “tongue in cheek” Woodchuck award given to a Pro Mod diver who experiences difficulties during an event Kammes laughed. “The magazine is seen all over. On my "Woodchuck" award, I called Bobby and said, “Thanks, I guess!” Bobby told me it was all in fun, and I told him yeah, that’s ok, I don’t really care. And the guys that drive these cars really know that they can be a handful. I have made a qualifying pass at least against everyone of them and they know I can drive. But that was just a bad weekend for me.”

Owner of Kammes Auto and Truck Repair in Bloomingdale, Ill., 30 miles west of Chicago, Kammes and his wife Sharon have raised three children and have seen all of them complete college and become successful in their chosen careers. Proudly, Kammes related, “The eldest daughter owns a CPA firm. The second daughter is a schoolteacher. My son is in accounts management for Conseco. Both girls played volleyball and got scholarships at Northwestern and my son played basketball at DePaul. The scholarships saved me a lot of money, that is the only way I got to go racing.”

“I started racing again 18 or 20 years ago. Before that we raced on the streets back in the 60's. Yeah, I know. But everybody did it back then. Then of course you get married, get a house, have kids quit racing because all your money is tied up. I started my own business back in 1980 and once I got the business going, I started restoring old cars. It got to the point that I was at a car show at a local drag strip here. We had some extra time and the guy asked us if we wanted to make a pass in a corvette. We are talking about a 13 second street corvette. Man, I did that and it was just like somebody gave me a shot in the arm. I hadn’t done that for 20 yrs. and I thought, Man, I got to keep doing this.”

“I have always run a blower. I started out in the Top Sportsman ranks with a small block blower and a Powerglide. We were running 7.50 but I had the misfortune of crashing the car in Bryon Ill in a quick 8 race one day. I had a flat tire at the 1/8 mile causing me to shove it in the wall at 1000 foot. We had to rebuild the car from the nose forward and I didn’t know if I wanted race anymore so what I did was get a big block and a Lenco and figured if I didn’t drive it I could sell the car in Top Sportsman. We put it together and I made a couple of real easy passes and all of a sudden it felt just like normal again. We were able to get 7.0 and 6.90’s out of that combination. After I knew that I wanted to keep doing it, we built a regular legal Pro Mod motor. Actually, Howie, the tech guy, I kept going to him and telling him that I hated the .5 tree because I had run pro tree in Super Gas for ten years. Howie said I was running fast enough now I can probably get my Pro Mod license. So I sent all my forms in and made all my single passes and got my license at Cordova in 1999. But then the car wouldn’t qualify, but at least I got my license and I have been having fun since.”

“This is actually my 3rd season but we have only run like four or five events. I am doing Norwalk and US Nationals and unless I get a major sponsor I am going to be done for this year.”

Kammes offered his opinion on the Pro Mod class, “The best thing about our class is the blower nitrous controversy. The spectators absolutely love it. They understand the nitrous because they can bolt that blue bottle on their car and make the horsepower and go out and run fast. But there is something about the sound of a blower motor that makes the hair stand up on people’s arms. A nitrous motor goes on the chip and they almost sound the same as a Pro Stock motor. But when you bring up a blower motor to 55 or 6000 rpm or whatever, if you are standing there watching, it makes the hair stand up on me and that is what the crowd loves. Especially, if you have one of each combination. A nitrous and blower side by side, they just love it. It was great in Michigan, it came down to a blower and nitrous and Hoover took out the blower. Hoover is a really nice guy and he deserved it.”

“I am the new guy and I figure that I am not going to go up to everyone, you know I will talk to them in the staging lanes and everyone has been so nice, there are no idiots in the group. I mean they are all down to earth hard working guys just like all of us. Only a couple drivers have major sponsors like Quain and Mitch Stott. I know those guys and they are super nice guys. Nobody is really a jerk. Yeah they carry on about the blower versus the nitrous and a lot of that is kidding around, I hope it is kidding around anyway. It is kind of like WWF wrestling.”

Relating a story, Kammes told of, “Quain and Mitch’s dad coming up to me when I was trying to run the new car last year at Norwalk at night qualifying and we were having problems with tire shake. You have to learn the clutch; the clutch is the whole key in Pro Mod. Everybody can make the horsepower, but it’s the clutch. We were way off on the clutch. We would get out there and shake the tires and have to lift. He (Bob Stott) came up to me afterwards when I was feeling really depressed down at the top end. He came up to me and said “Ron, it took us two years to get to where we are. You will make it, don’t give up” Instead of saying how poor we had done, the old man was really cool and I will never forget that.”

Continuing with his appraisal of Pro Mod, “To make the Pro Mod class better, they really need to raise the purse. $7000 to win is really pretty low money. These cars cost anywhere from $800 to $1000 a pass by the time you figure in the crew, food and your normal maintenance. A minimum of $5000 for a weekend if you don’t hurt anything. If you win the race, you only get $7000 plus contingencies. I only run a motor home and a trailer but if I had the big rigs, it would be even more expensive. $1000 qualifying money is nothing. Bader gave all the money to the fuelers and they are still not coming in. I feel he should have given it to the Pro Mods because we are the guys showing up. We are the guys actually giving them a show. You have Millican and Romine who will be there regardless because they love racing, but it is hard to get eight cars to run. It is not fair to the spectators, you have a few cars show up and are not able to run hard because of the budget and not give the best show to the crowd. But the Pro Mods have 35 to 40 cars show up and have to fight for one of the 16 spots.”

“Pro Mod racing, I think is probably the neatest class in the world. I came up through the ranks like everybody else. The bracket racer, super gas, super comp and Top Sportsman, I mean you want to go faster every year. Everybody’s dream is to run a pro class. It took me this long to do that and I give thanks to a lot of people and especially Howie for talking me in to having the guts to get my Pro Mod license. I really enjoy being with the group of guys that I run with. I just hope I am just as good a person and a driver as they all are.”

“I try to be”

To quote Bob Stott, “Ron, hang in there, with your attitude and love of racing, you will make it”