CLASS RACER FORUM - 5/04/13 SRAC Meeting Notes From Mike Crutchfield

Please see the notes from the last SRAC meeting 5/4/13

Review Last Call --

1. Aftermarket Seats permitted – Must be identical –Resolved Jan 15 Rule Revision – Question came up about when letters became standard procedure for fixing things versus verbal warning. Answer – Record keeping and physical proof of warning

2. Cylinder Heads – Valve Cover Bolt holes must remain unaltered and in original location – Resolved by wording pertaining to 2014 NHRA Rulebook.

3. .080 cylinder overbore max. & Aftermarket NHRA-accepted Crankshaft permitted (must retain OEM Configuration – billet, knife edging, etc. prohibited) – Recommend issuing wording prohibiting Bull-nosing, gundrilling, etc. In Stock Only -- Definition to be in 2014 NHRA Rulebook

Items of discussion –

1. Live Timing – Request to delay all Live Timing Results until after the entire class has made their run, especially in the Sportsman Classes. This will help to do away with delays in waiting on cars to come to staging during Eliminations. – Request to be forwarded to Josh Peterson

2. Penalties – Recommend to lower maximum fines for Sportsman racers for Technical Violations (Cubic Inch limits, head CC’s, weight infractions, etc.) to $2500 Max. Reasoning is that $5000 for a Sportsman racer is too much in these economic times and it’s making racers question whether NHRA wants them to participate.

3. Penalty Publication – Recommend that all penalties, when published, should be located in the same spot no matter whom or what the infraction is. Don’t hide one infraction and then make another infraction front page news.

4. Sportsman Run Schedule – Englishtown run schedule was discussed. Running only 2 categories back to back was not the ideal situation. The schedule was changed to this based off recommendations to keep minimal time between runs for competitors. Discussion resulted in Bob Lang and Dave Mohn advising schedule changes to avoid the back to back situations – possibly Stock or Super Stock, Super Street or Super Gas, Super Comp, then back to Stock/Super Stock. Vary the wheelbases of the cars to assist maintaining starting line.

5. Super Stock Bumpers – Miscommunication brought a rumor about notching Super Stock bumpers. This is meant for only base Super Stock cars and not GT cars. Jeff Teuton brought up the fact that the new cars (Drag Pak Challengers, COPO Camaros, and Cobra Jet Mustangs) will need to do something in Super Stock to allow wheelie bar travel.

6. Track Prep – The Super Category SRAC had a conference Call about this subject. In years past we would drag and then spray. Racers were concerned that there was too much spray on the track and little dry time for the spray to cure. At the Maple Grove Event, we switched by spraying and then dragging – this seemed to provide a consistent track surface. We did the same thing at Englishtown National Event. Down track went all weekend long. The starting line had inconsistencies due in part to excessive track temperatures and wheelbases of vehicles to start the weekend. National Event track prep is the same daily – Vacuum the track, wash the track, spray the track, and drag the track. At every National Event there is 3-5 hours of downtime for track prep not including the morning ritual or end of day scraping.

7. National Event Stacking Policy – SRAC requests doing away with this policy as it adds more expense to the tracks that have to chase people away and it also increases the expens for racers travelling from one event to the next.

8. Double Events – Most of the SRAC like the idea of towing once and running 2 races. Double events would not be possible in D-1 or D-3 all agreed.

9. Showroom Cars in Class Guide – SRAC recommends getting Manufacturers to add showroom available cars to the class guide to allow more people the opportunity to race newer cars as older cars are getting harder to find parts for. Pat Cvengros commented that getting Specs from the Manufacturers is very difficult.

10. The subject of Finishing Sportsman on Saturday – Sponsored racers are not in favor of finishing on Saturday due to the possibility of no tv time for their sponsors. Englishtown schedule of running Semi’s and Finals on Sunday was discussed most liked the idea.

Thanks

Mike Crutchfield

Division 2 SRAC Member5

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