This weekend, Mountain Motor Pro Stock returns “home” to Summit Motorsports Park to compete in the inaugural Mountain Motor Pro Stock Shootout powered by Ross Environmental at the legendary 49th annual Cornwell Tools Night Under Fire. The class has a rich history at the Norwalk, Ohio, facility, going back to the days when it was IHRA Pro Stock and the track was known at Norwalk Raceway Park. For a lot of people, including track president Bill Bader Jr., the homecoming is a breath of fresh air for the class, following the disbandment of the IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series, where Mountain Motor Pro Stock raced exclusively this season.
Though Mountain Motor Pro Stock has never been a part of the Night Under Fire lineup, the class and its stars have been coming to Norwalk for decades. Norwalk’s IHRA World Nationals was the crown jewel on the IHRA circuit for years, often hosting a thriving Pro Stock lineup as it included the big-money Sunoco Pro Stock Shootout. In recent years, the group has also raced at Norwalk in ADRL Extreme Pro Stock, PDRA Extreme Pro Stock, and NHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stock.
“Obviously, we have a rich and storied history with Mountain Motor Pro Stock,” Bader said. “That was when my family owned the IHRA, and even before my family owned the IHRA, Mountain Motor Pro Stock was our professional factory hot rod class. Big motors, big personalities, incredible competition and parity. It was always exciting to watch Mountain Motor because you never knew who was going to win.”
Though some of the stars of the 1990s and early 2000s have since retired, many of them are still active and will be a part of the show this weekend.
“What’s crazy to me is 20-plus years later, you look at the lineup in Mountain Motor Pro Stock and it’s a lot of the same names,” Bader said. “You’ve got John Montecalvo, Elijah Morton, John Konigshofer, Dwayne Rice. These were all names that I knew growing up and enjoyed watching when they would compete at Norwalk.”
That background is one of the reasons why Bader jumped at the chance to add Mountain Motor Pro Stock to what was already a captivating Night Under Fire lineup when class proponent and local businessman Keith Kelling called Bader with the idea. The latest iteration of the IHRA, under the ownership of Darryl Cuttell, cancelled the remaining events in its IHRA Outlaw Nitro Series on July 10, leaving Mountain Motor Pro Stock without a place to race for the rest of the year. Night Under Fire could be step one in salvaging the season, Kelling proposed.
“There was no hesitation. I didn’t even have to think about it. I just said yes,” Bader said. “Keith went to work. He brought a six-figure sponsor. Bill Cromling III and Ross Environmental stepped up big time for this class. If you think about it, they pivoted pretty quickly. Mountain Motor Pro Stock has always been driven by passion. It’s been driven by this ‘never say die’ attitude. Pretty quickly, after the announcement of the cancellation of the Outlaw Nitro Series, here they are running in front of the biggest single-day crowd in drag racing, and we’re damn excited to have them.”
While Kelling worked on sponsorship and racer participation, Bader had homework of his own. He now had an additional 20-plus rigs to park and a full four-round shootout to incorporate into the famously choreographed Night Under Fire run of show.
“When I said, ‘Yes, we’ll figure it out,’ well, now, I’m figuring it out,” Bader laughed as he sat as his desk running through the event script earlier this week. “Those rigs are monstrous, so there is a space consideration in the pit area, and then there’s a time consideration in how we weave them into the show and make that meaningful for them. We’re going to have a round of qualifying Friday night and a round of qualifying Saturday early afternoon. We’ll run the first round ahead of the show rounds, and then we’ll run the rounds of eight, four, and two during the 7:00, 8:30, and 10:00 show rounds.
“The winner is going to run five times that day – Q2 of qualifying and four rounds of eliminations – so that winner will be well-deserving of his payday because he and his team will have worked their butts off,” Bader added.
Speaking of paydays, the winner of the Mountain Motor Pro Stock Shootout powered by Ross Environmental will take home $50,000 of the total $100,000 purse for the class.
By all accounts, Mountain Motor Pro Stock has been an overwhelmingly positive addition to what was already a highly anticipated 49th running of the fan-favorite event. Forty-thousand-plus fans are expected, 24 drivers committed to take part, and the sponsor support is there. All of that is value added for Bader, who felt adding the class was simply the right thing to do.
“The fan reaction has been really positive,” Bader said. “We’re an NHRA-sanctioned facility. We’ve been NHRA for 20 years. I’m a proud NHRA member track. But what you cannot deny is where we came from and what our roots are, and our roots are planted in IHRA drag racing. That’s just simply a fact. And why would you change that? Why would you want to change where you came from? I’m proud of where we came from, and part of my decision was emotional because these guys are my friends. When I had an opportunity to do something good to help them, to showcase them, I really didn’t have a choice. I had to do it because that’s what friends do for friends, right?”
For the first time in the event’s history, fans around the world can watch live on FloRacing. Coverage begins Friday at 7 p.m.
This story was originally published on July 30, 2026. 
The post Bill Bader Jr. Shares Story Behind Mountain Motor Pro Stock ‘Homecoming’ at Night Under Fire first appeared on Drag Illustrated.
