Bounty Hunters No-Prep Nationals at San Antonio Raceway

Mo prep, no problem

Words and photos by JM Hallas

Steve Wiley’s Corvette took the Big Tire win.

San Antonio Raceway hosted one of the biggest money races on March 11-12 with $50,000 on the line for the Bounty Hunter No-Prep Nationals Big Tire Class winner. As you would guess some of the baddest hot rods around came looking the big pay day.

Several other classes were also in action, with a nice chunk of change awaiting the winner. In the Small Tire Class, $10,000 was there for taking with $7,000 for the Sportsman Class, $5,000 for the Truck Shootout.

Some of the big names were in attendance including Kye Kelly from Street Outlaws, James “Birdman” Finney out of the Houston area, and, of course, San Antonio's own Mike Murillo on hand as of the Bounty Hunter No Prep Nationals crew.

So what is No-Prep racing? It's about the purest form of drag racing, in a street racing format, but a safer, more contained environment. As the name would indicate, the track does no preparation prior to the event, though most racers bring own concoction of traction compound for their burnout. By midway through the races the cars have carried that down the track and almost self-prepped the track.

Two racers go head-to-head, no staggered start, no stutter boxes, no tree, just green and all-out racing to finish line. First one there wins. Times and speeds are kept pretty secret during these events, adding to the intrigue. The entire show is like a minimum information puzzle.

This show was originally intended to be a two-day with test-n-tune for everyone during the day, then the Truck Shootout on Friday night. But Mother Nature had other plans, bringing rain the area in the evening forcing the Truck Shootout to run on Saturday making for a full day of racing.

Ever have one of those weekends when a rain out makes you 50K? Of course not, at least until this weekend. Steve Wiley (Burleson, TX) had originally intended to race a Texas Outlaw Pro Modified Association race at Kennedale's Texas Raceway. Week long rain saw that event canceled, so Wiley and fellow Pro Mod driver Gaylen Smith, made the trip south to join the field looking for the big pay day.

Wiley marched through the field taking out two of the biggest names in grudge racing eliminating Kye Kelley in the quarter finals, then James “Birdman” Finney in the semis. This put him in the finals against probably the weekends biggest surprise, Ricky Delgado who navigated his way through the 41-car field.

The final was somewhat anticlimactic as both shook the tires on green, Wiley, in his blown Hemi-powered Grim Reaper, Jimmy Prescher Roofing, Duane Munsterman, Tommy Mooney Chassis, Corvette got out farther and recovered quicker to grab the big win over Delgado in this Nitrous-powered Mustang.

“I had a consistent car all day,” replied Wiley. “I have a great crew keeping everything the way it's supposed to be and making sure we don't have any breakage. We had no intention of coming down here. Once our race got canceled the first part of the week we made a decision on Wednesday to come down here. That rain out made us $50,000 pretty much. The Pro Mod race winner was only getting $2,500; we'll take that swap.

“I don't change much in my program to race with these guys. If you do that you just get yourself in trouble. It doesn't work that way. You just run your own race and let the cards fall how they fall.

“When running a no-prep race you have to be more ready to get out of it or you could crash. For the most part we just calmed the car down, took a lot of power out of it, and didn't spin the blower as hard. The car ran good and, despite no time slips, our data shows we were running hard.”

“The chip draw for pairings is a little more nerve wracking,” Wiley continued. “With a ladder you know who you're running next, or with qualifying you know what's next. Everyone does it the same, so there's no advantage or disadvantage. You just take it as it is.”

Wiley was happy with his outing. “This was our first No-prep race. We didn't know what me might have to change on the car or not change. Just knowing the car and what it should do is what we based off of. I could have gone out and smoked the tires. We had it detuned and backed down to where it shouldn't. We've got enough laps in this car to get it ready even on tracks that are prepped, but not as well as others.”