Alex Laughlin Tries His Hand at No-Prep Racing at Winter Meltdown 4|

Alex Laughlin is known in the sport of elevate racing for driving well-nigh anything. Whether it'due south Pro Stock, Pro Mod, Radial vs. the World, Mount Motor Pro Stock, or diverse sportsman classes, he's tried it all – except no-prep. That all changed this past weekend, when Laughlin took his screw-blown Corvette to Wintertime Meltdown 4 at Alamo Metropolis Motorplex, near San Antonio. Laughlin, piloting the car best known for winning Lights Out 10 earlier this year, won his starting time circular of competition in Big Tire earlier falling to boyfriend Texan Cody Baker in round two. Drag ILLUSTRATED caught up with Laughlin after the event to get his thoughts on competing in the no-prep world.

You've raced simply about everything in elevate racing. What made yous decide to try your hand at no-prep?

Well, showtime I'll go back to the Outlaw Armageddon deal. I went to that race last yr. I just happened to be up in Oklahoma at Elite [Motorsports] when that race was going on, so I snuck on over at that place that night and watched the race. It seemed like a cool deal, and I decided and then that I'd like to accept a car there for the next yr. We built i, and you know the whole story about how they decided information technology wasn't legal for their race. We ended up taking that automobile dorsum apart, and departing it out.

So Matt Plotkin came by at Indy, and he said that if I've all the same got the car, that I'd exist more than welcome to come up run his race. I said I didn't know if I'd have it and then, but maybe worst case, I tin can swap the radial machine over to big tires and come up try it. I kind of forgot nigh it, to be honest, and it was on Thanksgiving Day that I remembered that race was coming up real quick. I looked information technology up, and saw it was literally the next weekend, similar nine days away. I was like, it's probably not a bang-up idea to endeavour to go, particularly with not having whatever testing. I didn't know what I actually needed every bit far as gear ratios, shocks, what size tires I could fit.

The offset thing I did was pull some tires downwards that we had in the shop that were 34.5 Hoosiers. I let all the air out of them, and I worked and worked trying to get the tire to fit, and information technology just absolutely wasn't having it. What information technology came down to is I needed simply a actually unique start bike to brand anything fit in there. Frankie Taylor ended upward having information technology. It was like, what are the chances? It was the correct starting time wheel with the right bolt pattern, which is kind of a rare bolt pattern, with a 32-inch tire.

So nosotros loaded the auto up and went down to San Antonio, notwithstanding on radials. Frankie met us at that place with his tires, and we notwithstanding didn't know if they were going to fit. We're merely thinking, theoretically, they should. We put 'em on the automobile, and they fit just fine. It's not the ideal tire to run. I can fit a bigger tire, only it just has to exist a different bike. Everybody else runs a 34 at minimum, a lot of guys run 36'south, and so they take a much larger contact patch than I would on the 32.

But we thought, this is what we've got to work with – the car works really good on radials, mayhap we'll just get lucky and brand some skilful runs. I didn't really care as well much if we didn't win the whole affair. I just wanted to show up and make some runs, and at least put on a adept show and arrive seem like we might halfway know what we're doing.

Fans can easily meet some of the differences you made to the motorcar, like bigger tires and adding wheelie confined. But what other changes were necessary?

We changed the iv-link a lot, where it just puts a whole lot more seize with teeth in the car to make information technology hook up. We messed with pinion angle a little bit, and we fifty-fifty worked on the front end struts of the auto merely to help get the front finish up in the air. Evidently with the radial stuff, you don't actually want the front cease up in the air. With big-tire stuff, you've gotta get it up to get the back tire planted and have that right transition, so we loosened up the front. We had to change the rear shocks. We actually ran the same radial shocks, we merely changed the settings on 'em. They weren't perfect. There's yet a lot more to do, suspension-wise, to become it right. Just for what it was, information technology ran really well, and nosotros were pretty happy with it, to be honest.

Your first effort on a no-prep surface was during testing right before Winter Meltdown. How big of a learning bend was that for you as a driver?

It was huge. Obviously I know that car really well, merely I know it on radials. As far equally sitting in it, and how I feel inside the machine, that's all the same. How information technology handles? It might also have been somebody else's car that I've never been in before. It was totally different. On radials, the car doesn't movement going downward the track. It's direct every bit a string. With those big tires on no prep, the back end of the motorcar is just wagging the unabridged way. Information technology'due south one of those things, that it only takes runs to know what kind of steering inputs you can requite it, and what information technology'll take before y'all spin it around into the wall or somebody else. I wasn't actually willing to take a lot of chances. I just had to go a little further each time. It was nearly similar licensing runs. The first run was 300 ft., the next one was about 400 ft., just trying to go a petty further every fourth dimension, learn the car, and feel it under me. Because the last thing I wanted to do is tear my stuff up.

Although this was your get-go no-prep race, you lot had a human who is no stranger to sketchy surfaces helping you out with tuning. How much confidence did having Frankie Taylor in your corner give you?

Just having him with me – it doesn't matter what nosotros're doing – is a ton of confidence. He's a legend in the Pro Mod world. He'due south the door-car extraordinaire, as far equally I'm concerned. He'southward been down every type of surface there is, and the fact that he does have his own no-prep car and ran it a little scrap, information technology certainly helped us get a better showtime. Obviously every auto is different, but nosotros at least had a general direction to go.

What were your main goals going into this event, and practise you feel you met them?

The two master objectives were to just run skillful, and non tear up the motorcar trying to prove a point. There's been so many people that have said that we can't practise information technology, or that we won't do it, it definitely started burning the internet up with the fact that we actually but showed up at all. All I wanted to do was make some skillful runs, go door-to-door with somebody – specifically somebody that runs well – and put on a good show. Was that met? I'd say admittedly.

It was pretty absurd, starting out in the test runs Friday nighttime, yous've gotta pull up beside somebody. I'thousand pulling into the h2o box, in that location's tons of people standing on the starting line, and they practice their little bets. And nobody would point into my lane. Nobody actually wanted to take a bet with me, considering nobody's seen the car go downward the rail yet.

By the fourth run, that had inverse completely. Everybody's hands are pointed into our lane, and man, this is nuts. People kept coming by afterwards every run, and were like, 'Man, this is just unbelievable. Just exercise that tomorrow, and we're gonna win some money.' And I kept telling them, 'I don't know near all that, I'chiliad non maxim bet on me, for sure. Only every lap nosotros make, we're getting a little more than information and getting a little better.' We didn't go the other direction in one case. Every single run we made was progress. If we had the time to put the right bicycle, and the correct tire, and really have a few days to test, I call back that affair would be deadly.

Ever since the Mega Race specials on television, you lot've done some back and forth trash talking with diverse Street Outlaws stars on social media. Is there any real dislike in that location, or is it all washed in fun?

I don't take whatever existent dislike for whatsoever of them. At the cease of the twenty-four hours, they're living the dream too. They're making a living racing door cars, and door cars is what I beloved. So the fact that they're promoting the sport that I intendance about the most, they're on my team as far every bit I'm concerned. I do similar to poke at 'em from fourth dimension to fourth dimension, but more annihilation, information technology'due south just to get their fans riled upward. I know what I'm getting into whenever I do it. I know exactly how they're going to respond. I've got thick skin, and at the end of the solar day, every time they comment or share my posts, that engagement just helps build my social media and create a higher value for my pages that my sponsors pay for.

Having simply finished up with Wintertime Meltdown, what are your overall thoughts on both the effect, and no-prep in general?

It was a really good issue. Matt did a really adept task with all of the organization and everything. Information technology seems similar he really does pretty much everything himself. He's got some good guys that assist him out every bit far every bit getting the cars to the lanes and whatnot.

The biggest deal that I wasn't actually aware of going into it, is I really thought no-prep was admittedly nothing on the rail. Evidently most of the no-prep races, whatever's on the rail, they just leave information technology. They launder and dry information technology and everything, and what'south in that location is what'southward in that location. But Matt actually scrapes it literally down to the physical. I was a piffling nervous nigh that, thinking, 'Of all the no-prep races that I probably could've gone to, this is the one that is going to be the biggest challenge. Walking out on the track, it was a trivial nerve-racking.

The very first time I let go of the button to launch the car, it simply smoked the tires. Going downwards the track, I was just giving it 10 or 20% throttle merely to bustle up and get off the track so the next pair could fire up. And even at that little corporeality of throttle, the back tires were spinning underneath me, and I could feel the motorcar drifting side to side. I'm thinking, 'I don't see how everyone's gonna go downwards this thing.' But after a few runs, the track starts tightening upwardly, and by the concluding concluding night – I'one thousand not kidding – the starting line was as good as an NHRA rails. It would straight pull your shoes off. There'southward no gum, it's h2o burnout merely, merely with all the cars running, the starting line got actually skilful. Apparently, down track is zip like that, and that's where the cars really go loose.

But it's wild, because you admittedly take to wheel those cars. Information technology'south the most driving that I've always done in a elevate car, for sure. Pro Stock, if it starts moving effectually, they won't take a lot. The Pro Mods, they practice take a lot, and that was new to me this yr. But the no-prep stuff, I don't know where the limit is, but it'll take a lot more than than I had always imagined, for sure.

Would you like to endeavour out more events like this in 2020?

I'm actually edifice a brand-new car specifically for no-prep. It'll probably be washed in the next three-4 months, from the chassis shop at least. If they'll let me get and run on the TV show [Street Outlaws No Prep Kings] some, I would like to, whether it be a couple or all of them. Information technology's not something that I demandto practise, simply it's something that I'd like to practise. I call back it would be fun, and a skillful experience and good exposure, and merely really help with everything else I'm doing, even with sponsorships. Equally far every bit running the Corvette once more similar that, we certainly tin. And so which car it'll be, that's up in the air, but I definitely would similar to do it once again.