No winks needed. This is a group who have become close friends, and I have been "inducted" by showing up regularly. They stick to an unspoken set of rules of conduct, which doesn't allow side bets. Being the track owner, some of that might have been hidden from Mike, but I certainly would have seen it as a competitor.
Not sure I like people assuming that all drag racers are bad people. They are not. Not any more than all bikers are gang members. My town started having car shows on Wednesday nights to pump up downtown business. Several of the store owners banded together to block the event, saying that the car culture people would cause a lot of trouble, and feared that their stores would be broken into and looted. These were store owners who normally closed their stores on Wednesday evenings, then complained to the city council and Chamber of Commerce that they had no business on Wednesday nights. Soon, the stores that stayed open began seeing that the car show nights were by far their biggest sales times. But the criers were steadfast, and opposed the car shows at every city council meeting. Those five shop owners filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming safety concerns. The court ruled that the shows could continue, but the city had to double the police presence during them. The city couldn't dedicate 60 percent of the police force to one event, so they shut down the shows. By the way, none of the five complainers are in business anymore. One applied for Covid money to open a new store, but was turned down.