Changes 2016

[Michael Beard]

I have already e-mailed both Bruce Bacheldor and Dave Mohn regarding the arbitrary safety rules thrust upon the "Factory" cars. Bruce never responded. Dave said he would look into it, after I approached the argument from one of NHRA's highest priorities: "CYA".

What will the insurance company say if there is a SS/JA or GT/HA in an accident that is deemed "safe" by NHRA running 10.00 with a roll bar, -1 jacket/pants, no Competition License, etc., when at the same time they will have 10.50 & slower cars that are required to have a full roll cage, -5 jacket/pants, Competition License, etc. in order to be deemed "safe" by NHRA?

Which is safer, a 3350# car with a 275HP 360 running 10.50's, or a 3350# car with a 275HP 340 running 10.50's? When the safety requirements of a vehicle change based solely upon the decals on the windshield, there's a problem. Safety rules should be based on ET, MPH, and chassis construction, period. If they want to make every car in the country 10.99 & quicker require a full roll cage, -5 suit, Competition License, etc., fine, do that, but the rules should be the same for everyone, not arbitrary based on what year the body or engine is.


Last year, when NHRA created the new Factory classes, they combined sticks & automatics, and utilized the stick index, which resulted in various levels of index hits for automatics. There are a number of Super Stock classes that have sticks & autos combined, in which the autos get a 5% weight break. My question was: if they get a weight break, why don't I? *OR* If I don't, why *do* they? I don't really care which way it is, but I *do* expect consistent application of rules.

The worst thing was that despite numerous back-and-forth e-mails, NHRA absolutely ignored the question entirely -- not only refused to address it with so much as a "no comment" or "because I said so", but refused to acknowledge that the question had even been *asked*! Absolutely staggering.