Black Tuesday?

[Sean Cour]

Originally Posted by Marvin Robinson

SS Engine Guy has nailed the heart of the problem... If NHRA is going to continue to factor (which I think is a good way to equalize the cars, given the CORRECT factors for each combo), they need to man up and get it done right to eliminate "sweet" combinations and take the penalties that exist for some off the table. (428 Pontiac gets less hp than 455 with same heads and cam??? 455 Olds gets same hp with or without RamAir??? - soft factors for Ford CJ and some smallblock Chevy combos?? there are other examples, but you get the point)

They also need to be more responsive to input from respected racers... maybe a REAL S/SS consulting board consisting of a half dozen or so racers/builders in each division?? You can let the racers vote on thier own representatives, then let the tech directors and racer's advisory board hash this stuff out. I know some of this is supposed to be going on already, but the system seems broken... there is also a lack of transparency.

I think these changes would help to increase car counts, and promote a little more trust in NHRA's relationship with Sportsman racers. Some good ideas could come from this arrangement as well.... a substantive and reasonable exchange of ideas between NHRA and racers is needed (where have we heard THAT before??)

Marvin-

The factoring will never make everyone happy. You know why? Because their will always be the spenders to go fast, and the ones that just want to be able to run under the index.

Their is nothing wrong with this scenario. But when NHRA decides to do something, it effects everyone, slow or fast. The way the AHFS is now, is better than it use to be. I absolutely hated the fact that the human element was dishing out horsepower. If NHRA didn't like you, you got h.p. If "you made it look too easy" you received h.p.. At least people know how the h.p. is dealt now.

I thought something was being done when we elected the Sportsman Racing Committee. That lasted a long time, didn't it? NHRA doesn't want us, at least at National events. They're trying to do less policing...i.e. lowering indexes and raising triggers.

Now we have racer's complaining about the factors. The racers made these factors (most of them) the way they are. When I started racing the 350/295-300 was rated at 310 in SS. It's now 327, after three years. When I was racing stock with a '97 Camaro, LT-1, it was 275. I think now it's 341. This is all done by the racers.

Yes, NHRA has it's faults, lots of them. If you follow any of the Pro's, they also aren't happy all of the time.

I friend once told me a pretty good line...Don't hate the player, hate the game! Sometimes that's all this is, a game.