Drag Illustrated Issue 120, April 2017 | Page 38

Dirt Points Taken Mike Murillo hopes to revamp no- prep racing in the Dirty South By Ian Tocher “It’s just the nature of the beast in grudge rac- ing, and I’m not taking potshots at any promot- ers, nothing like that, and I mean, it was kind of exciting, the outlaw aspect of it, but also a lot of it was just unorganized and overly risky,” he says. “I just felt like we could do something with this, take advantage of the excitement, take advantage of the crowd participation and try to create something more organized and safer, to where racers could really get a hold of it and get excited about working toward something like I did for so many years.” To that end, four points-paying events were held in 2016, with Jerry Bird ultimately earning the inaugural Dirty South championship in Big Tire, Cody Jones prevailing in Small Tire, and Nick Kallergis taking the True Street title. “When we announced the first points series I was told by other promoters, not necessarily the racers, that hey, the points thing is never going to work; nobody is going to want to race for points; nobody cares about that. But I’ll tell you what, not only did they get it, but our racers were excited about it. And going into our final race in Hub City, we had all three championships not even decided until the semi-finals or later. At that point, those guys were hooked,” Murillo says. “And now another promoter that does this kind of thing, they’re also taking on the points thing, which is kind of funny because they’re the ones that told me it wasn’t going to work. But I think it’s good for everybody. You know what I mean? It’s just good for the racing, it’s good for the fans and we’ve just got to try to keep this momen- tum going.” This year, the Dirty South No Prep Series is upping its schedule to six points-paying races, plus one invitational. It opened the season in March at Hub City, then ventured a little farther north in April to Clay City, Kentucky, with stops to follow at San Antonio and Odessa, Texas, in May and June, respectively. The series will return to action in September at Gulfport, Mississippi, before returning to Clay City the next month for the invitational and back to Hattiesburg for the championship finals in November. “The Dirty South No Prep Series is something that has been put together by racers for racers,” Murillo proudly declares. “The current revival of drag racing to the masses is because of this style of heads-up, street-attitude, risking-it-all style of racing. We as racers and promoters just want to keep this deep-rooted movement going. Drag racing needs this.” DI DI DI DI DI DI DI 38 | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com DI DI DI Issue 120 A multi- championship NMCA/ NMRA career, half a season behind the wheel of a Pro Mod, a brief role on the Street Outlaws TV phenomenon and a celebrity appearance at a no-prep event all added up to convince Mike Murillo that becoming a partner and pro moter of the Dirty South No Prep Series was a good idea—even if he doesn’t always feel comfortable within its unique culture. “This no prep stuff, especially our series, you have a bunch of racers, fast MF-ers, and they are just like WWE wrestlers. I mean, it is just so entertaining to sit back and watch the shit talk that they do to one another. But I can’t take it, man, I’m too sensitive,” he admits. “But that’s also what makes it so exciting. It’s something new, something different.” Since opening his racing resume in 1994, Mu- rillo, a 48-year-old father of six who once planned on becoming a police officer, recorded a perfect 10 world championships. He spent the first half of 2013 behind the wheel of a Todd Moyer-owned ride in the short-lived XDRL series. “I was on the XDRL property that year with some of the baddest Pro Mod drivers in the country—although I didn’t consider myself one of those at the time—but I couldn’t get over the lack of fan support there. Seeing 50 or a hundred people up in the stands, who were probably just there with other racers, I just couldn’t believe it,” Murillo recalls. “But then in 2015, on the other hand, I spent Season 5 with the Street Outlaws guys and raced on the show and started doing that no-prep scene and I couldn’t believe the total sup- port there was for them. I mean, going to a race and watching 10- or 15-thousand people show up, it was just incredible for cars that weren’t really that fast at the time, to be honest.” Finally, a guest appearance at a no-prep event early that same year at Hub City Dragway in Hat- tiesburg, Mississippi, convinced Murillo to join forces with grudge racing veteran Scott “John Doe” Taylor and his Hub City co-owner Chad Waldrop in order to bring better organization to the no- prep scene throughout Mississippi, Louisiana and Murillo’s native Texas. “Our roots were in the Dirty South so that’s pretty much where the name came from,” Murillo explains. “I just wanted to be a part of something that was exciting, something new to me, so that’s kind of how it all got started.” Murillo knows he could have just gotten in- volved as simply another grudge racer, but says after coming from the highly orchestrated back- ground of NMCA/NMRA racing he recognized too much disorganization, little consistency in rules or enforcement, and too often an alarm- ing lack of regard for safety requirements in the no-prep world.