Changes 2016

[Jeff Teuton]

If you have any ideas about changes you might propose, now is the time to email NHRA as the various committees meet in Pomona. Your Division Director, Tech Director--Divisional or CA or IN- or just look at the pecking order in National Dragster. Remember, you will not effect much change fussing at each other in the pits or on this channel. My personal peeve 3 times removed and modified to fit the screen is in Super Stock. A 26% increase in classes to 109 classes for about 12% of the cars. Sounds like Comp with it's 'diversity'. That didn't become a best seller either.
My second is Making a stand alone place for the Shootout cars, get us out, let Indy stand on it's own, and sell us to the crowd. Hell somebody might like us. Run us when there are actually people in the stands. OK, send that stuff to all the officials. I don't even know who is on the competition committee or the stock/super stock committee. Anybody know? That is where stuff stops that we ask for most of the time. Other than Graham Light, I think Glen Gray has the most ears when he communicates. If you don't participate in this process and just complain in the pits, then I'm sorry to invoke the Chuck Rayburn rule: You got no vote.

[Dan Walcott]

I sent Bruce an E-Mail a few days ago concerning Stock . EFI vs Carbs


Put your key boards to work!! Now is the time.

[Ed Wright]

EFI vs carbs? Ask Bobby Warren what happened when he had his LT1 on the dyno, and bolted a Quadrajet on it.

[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.

[Dwight Southerland]

Michael, as my Dad always sarcastically told me and my brothers, "Don't let common sense and good judgment get in the way of what you want to do."

[denbreeden]

Last year I wrote several emails to NHRA about the new Super Stock classes combining auto and sticks and giving the automatics a hit on the index. I did get a couple of responses that they were looking into the situation. The best response I got was that they (NHRA) did not understand why I wasn't a fan of the new classes and indexes! Let's see, you took 2/10's off my index and I keep the same weight.... Yeah I could see were I should be happy about that.


Dennis Breeden

[Jeff Teuton]

Don't preach here. Send it to NHRA. Make lots of paper. On the new class issue, we were completely ignored and no one even looked at the results. I wrote a letter about 30 days ago about this and through Reading there was 12% participation in 26% (the new classes). Those numbers don't lie. Needs to go away. Based on a quick calculation from Nitro's latest, there were 105 new cars/engines in the 945 cars that ran in SS. Now go send all that to the NHRA people. Someone find out who is on the S/SS committee and who is on the Competition Committee.

[69stocker]

Who do we email?

[Jeff Teuton]

I just sent an email asking the committee members names. I would start with Glen Gray and Josh Peterson and Tech@nhra. Almost all emails are the first initial and the last name@nhra.com. Keep it simple, to the point, and remember nobody likes to be called names unless they are complimentary names. Almost all our stuff deals with tech, so the Tech Directors in each division is good. Their email is in the Dragster.

[Bryan Worner]

Mike, the rating comes from past performance of that combo. When that "275 rated" 360 goes 8.90's in SS/IA trim, I guess they just figured that adding 200-300 more lbs, it should be capable of running under 10.00. Remember, it wasn't that long ago that SS/IA and GT/FA didn't even need a license, until someone went faster than 10.00 at that weight break. Now, since a GT/HA car went under 10.00 at Indy, that class should need a license and full cage also.

I understand your argument, but based on performance of your combo in SS and or SS/GT, not surprised at all. And, lets be honest, the old indexes that these new factory combos fell under were kinda soft.