NHRA ProStock changes coming!

[russellauto1]

NMCA do it 10.5 tire

Cobra Jets Do it every weekend

[FS Fan]

if the goal is to grow factory participation then NHRA needs to make a change. Even GM is living off investment from long ago. Which works because the class hasn't changed significantly in hardware. I have heard that they didn't even pay for the new body. I am betting their total annual investment is less than Dodge because AJ.

If the goal is to bring in young kids then it's missing the mark because a 30 year old has never sat in a NEW carbureted car. Camaro has a 2.0l turbo engine in it. How can they relate to a current pro stock car? Then trying to explain it brings up that it isn't Stock, and for most of the field it isn't Pro in that the make money racing the class. You can finish top ten, maybe top four, and be cash negative on the season.

This isn't to say pro stock as it is is bad. It's actually pretty amazing. But I can't tell what it wants to be. If it wants to stay as it is then it's not realistic to think that it will grow in fans, sponsorship, or participation. But if everyone is happy with that then what's the problem?
As for the FS cars becoming pro stock that won't happen overnight and someone needs to be in charge of steering that ship If that's the direction NHRA wants to take it.
Personally I would like to see new street cars in Stock, Super Stock become more for engine builders and performance, and both be tied to Pro Stock. It would be nice if some one could see a Pro car that looked and used parts the same as a car they can buy, and they could start racing with that car.

[joespanova]

Look , its not the 1970's any more. The evolutional nature of "everything" means that the status quo lose's out to change eventually., like it or not........and some people are going to get "butt hurt" in the process.

As long as the game fits our plan we're happy..............and when it changes we protest. But that "new" game plan is suddenly appealing to someone else.............probaly guys who gravitate towards the 10.5 stuff?
How long do you really expect this "Pro Stock" staus quo should last? Another 20 years ? Give me a break.

[randy wilson]

Pro Stock will die without any changes. Pro Stock will die quicker with drastic changes. Pro Stock is on the way way out. I hate it, but it's true.

[Sean Marconette]

It's real easy for all the non racers in a specific class to say throw all that you have invested in the trash, there are wholesale changes coming like it or not. The current players in Pro Stock need to be the ones telling NHRA what they can or cannot sacrifice for the future. After all it's their investments on the line.

I wish Ford was still represented and hope Mr Wescott the best so we have someone to root for in a Ford.
At least Chevy has a Camaro, and previously Ford had a Mustang in PS. I cannot understand why Dodge has not made the Challenger as the car represented? To have an actual RWD V8 car instead of the Dart would make more sense.

The new TV coverage next year could breath new life into all of the classes, hopefully it's more than the fuel oilers that get coverage. Otherwise why would a potential sponsor want to invest in a Pro class that gets overlooked during TV coverage.

Originally Posted by charlie westcott

I sent this letter to NHRA today. Not expecting much out of it, but I felt it needed to be said.


As you know, I am in the process of building a PS car. I keep hearing these rumors online, and hearing the BS spewed by people that have no clue, "keyboard racers". It offends me when people slam the class that people like me have looked up to their whole lives.
I am well aware that your organization owns the sand box that I play in, and I will as always abide by the rules of whatever class I choose to run in, but it scares me when I hear that you want to make wholesale changes to a mainstay of NHRA drag racing.
I feel that it is opportunistic to say that it needs "fixing" because of poor car counts, when every class there has poor turnout. I remember when there were 100 ss cars at a points meet, when now there are 50. Does that need fixing as well?
If the class is made so the "average" racer can do it, what will happen is a bunch of people will jump in the first year, then after they figure out that the same people that dominated before, will continue to do so, they will go back to racing whatever they were before, or quit, which no one needs.
The argument is commonly made that "new cars dont have carburetors". Well, new cars also have 4 doors, and front wheel drive, so why dont the keyboard racers lobby for a class for them also.
The problem as I see it is, the people dont know about, or care about the drivers. There arent many driver/tuners/builders like there used to be. Everyone has a big wallet and rents a motor, or car, blows their wad, then when they run out of money, they quit.
If the rules are changed, the people with the most money/manpower are going to dominate, then rent motors to the others, and we are right back to where we are.

I have spent around 150K on my project so far, and am actually real close to putting the engine in the car to go test. I feel like now I have to hurry up before our class is gone.

I have listened to (name withheld by me) spew about how PS sucks, and the new cars are the way to go, and feel that as a marketing person, his arguments are self serving, and good for no one.

The new cars arent bringing "new" blood into the sport, how many young racers do you know that can spend 90k on a car to run stock? The buyers of those cars are more rich guys, that know nothing about the roots of drag racing.

I dont know if I will see you at indy this year, I think I am going to stay here and try to get my new car ready so I can run it before its obsolete.

thanks
cw

Thanks Mr. Westcott! Well said!!!

[blkjack]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

Make the cars look like production cars with slicks and a small hoodscoop. Fuel injected, since carburetors are apparently an evil relic of the dinosaur era. Leave the 5 year rule in place

the five year body rule has been gone or do you want to bring it back?

SECTION 16 - PRO STOCK
DESIGNATION
PRO, preceded by car number.
Reserved for 2005 or later NHRA-accepted 2-door or 4-door
coupe or sedan (domestic or foreign) production vehicles

[blkjack]

In reality ....is this what Pro Stock should look like? wonder what Bruno thinks?

[Ron E]

Originally Posted by joespanova

Alan the "oracle' of Class Racer......you always seem to have an "long winded" answer for everything.......... but seem non receptive to anything that doesn't align with your way of thinking.
500 inch engines and carbs are , in fact , archaic....... no longer appropriate for or indicative of , anything coming from the big 3. That concept should have died 30 years ago.
Pro Stock truck sucked , frankly , because like myself , most didn't CARE for a "truck" as a platform for a drag car. That should have been applied to the CARS..
As I stated in another thread......this will be interesting to see who cries the loudest and what new life is injected in to ProStock .

Alan's suggestions would retain the current drivetrains other than changing to F.I. A zillion dollars worth of engines saved.

Going with current engines, we have Chevy and Dodge with strong push rod 2V engines. Ford not without going to their race-only cup style stuff. That would bring up bore spacing issues among others. Easy answer would be to allow all 3 to use cup engines. Then it's just small block versions of what we already have...only slower.

Go multi-valve, DOHC, and Dodge, and Chevy don't have V8's currently.

Go with DOHC 4V V-6's, or 4 cylinders and all 3 have engines. N/A, they'd be too slow. So, I'm guessing you want them boosted?

What are your ideas here? Just trying to understand what you think would/could work.

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by blkjack

the five year body rule has been gone or do you want to bring it back?

SECTION 16 - PRO STOCK
DESIGNATION
PRO, preceded by car number.
Reserved for 2005 or later NHRA-accepted 2-door or 4-door
coupe or sedan (domestic or foreign) production vehicles

The comment about "the 5 year rule" was simply a suggestion.


I'm not convinced Pro Stock has to have any real changes to survive. The reason I posted what I did was to suggest what could be done to move the class slightly toward a new direction, rather than the wholesale changes being proposed, because a lot of people smarter than I am don't believe Pro Stock could survive massive changes.

It may be that with new leadership, and the new television and promotion package, Pro Stock can become more healthy (read: more competitive teams, and more spectators) without any changes at all.

Having talked to a few Pro Stock racers over the years, I do not think the class could survive the radical changes being proposed by some. Wescott's post pretty much sums it up. If you force racers to throw away the cars they already have, AND their engine programs, the vast majority are done, whether they want to be or not. It simply is not financially feasible. Ken Black might be able to do it, maybe Cagnazzi, Skillman, and possibly Allen Johnson. Few others.

Pro Stock hasn't really been about racing what the factories are selling since around 1973 or so. Remember, they were racing Vegas with 327 small blocks, Pintos with 351C engines, Camaros with 368 big blocks, Hemi powered Arrows, and various other combinations not even remotely like new cars of the time. The closest Pro Stock ever was to what the "race what they sell now" crowd is wanting is in the earliest days, when Jenkins put a tunnel ram on a ZL-1 Super Stock 69 Camaro for match racing. Three years or so later they were racing tube chassis V8 powered econo cars.

A lot of people have been proposing FX classes to showcase the new cars. That's a great idea. I am completely in favor of a new FX class that showcases the new cars. But it is completely wrong to try to force Pro Stock to become that FX class.

I find it sort of bizarre, and somewhat amusing, that some people, who do not race Pro Stock, out and out demand that people already racing Pro Stock throw away millions of dollars of equipment, so that the people who do not race Pro Stock can have a class that they want to see, but will not invest a dime in racing in.