Qualifying with no AHFS

[Bryan Worner]

So all of you hardcore, go as fast as you can on every run guys, think about this. You go build a killer (soft) combination and are flying in Feb-April. You go 1.20 under and get an instant hit. You keep pounding on your combination all year long, then after the first review period, you get even more hp. So now you head to Indy, your biggest, most important race of the year, since you are a total performance guy. You thrash and thrash on your combo, only to qualify in the bottom half of the field, since you now carry 10-12 more hp than you did at the beginning of the season. Then, you go out and lose class eliminations (your Super Bowl) by a couple of hundredths or thousandths. How pissed off would you be? Or, better yet, you get to the late rounds of that same eliminator and get beat by a slim margin in a heads up race. Would you just say, oh well, that guy is faster than me, he must've worked hard on his stuff, back to the drawing board??? When, in reality, had you "taken care of" your combination all year long, you would've won those races easily.

This is not a bust on you hardcore performance racers, just something to think about. I love winning heads up runs and class eliminations as much as you do, but my main goal is to be taking home another big man at the end of the weekend!

So do we want to change the rules to give the "fast guy" the advantage again, or have the drivers win these races? I vote driver!

[Dick Butler]

Not sure how qualifying w/o, factoring affects the winning by a fast guy.,It would,seem to favor your "soft" car example instead. Then w/o ahfs you save your HP easier so your,advantage to qualify over guys who have to work harder to stay able to qual
? What about having to work hard AND out drive others? It is a performance class.

[joe176]

Yes the discussion was no AHFS for qualifying ... Cannot get any combo hit ... Only in eliminations

As far as being the fast guy and a driver .. It has been proven that both can be accomplished ....... I won Atco divisional 2008 from the pole .... Never flagged the combo .. Just ran fast in qualifying and manipulated the car for eliminations to take the win round by round under the 1.00 trigger ... There is no hidden agenda about this idea .. It's the FUN factor ... No one should be threatened by this ... We build these cars for performance .. Don't We ??

[Bryan Worner]

I agree with what you are saying. My beating the c(s)ombo reply was for the guy(s) who think we should run them as fast as they can go every time. While Stock and SS are performance based, which can be shown in class eliminations, I believe that if you take away the AHFS during qualifying and class, nobody will ever get horsepower. Look how the new Fords and Chryslers have gotten so much hp since they were introduced. The only combos there that are still totally soft are the ones that have been protected, the rest are now in the ball park. So, take that away and have them introduce a new soft combo, they would never be given the hp they deserve.

Like I said, there are flaws to the system. The class average is one of them, but it has become a little more relevant now that FWD and RWD have been separated in GT. I believe if we keep tweaking the AHFS, it can work the way it is supposed to, but you will still not be able to run your car wide open all of the time and not get hp. I believe that is what you are looking for, like the old days when you could go 1.39 under at a LODRS race and be #1 and not get hp.

[joe176]

Originally Posted by Bryan Worner

I agree with what you are saying. My beating the c(s)ombo reply was for the guy(s) who think we should run them as fast as they can go every time. While Stock and SS are performance based, which can be shown in class eliminations, I believe that if you take away the AHFS during qualifying and class, nobody will ever get horsepower. Look how the new Fords and Chryslers have gotten so much hp since they were introduced. The only combos there that are still totally soft are the ones that have been protected, the rest are now in the ball park. So, take that away and have them introduce a new soft combo, they would never be given the hp they deserve.

Like I said, there are flaws to the system. The class average is one of them, but it has become a little more relevant now that FWD and RWD have been separated in GT. I believe if we keep tweaking the AHFS, it can work the way it is supposed to, but you will still not be able to run your car wide open all of the time and not get hp. I believe that is what you are looking for, like the old days when you could go 1.39 under at a LODRS race and be #1 and not get hp.

You hit the nail on the head Bryan ... I agree ... The system does need fixing ...some new combos have already been factored into oblivion ..... And yes the old days were better for qualifying fun

[MR DERBY CITY]

Originally Posted by Mark Yacavone

You only get two TT's at a 3 day Nat.
We'll make two @ .90 under ..and watch you ,buddy.
(At least that's the plan for next time.)

I thought the PLAN was two@ .90 under, looks as though you guys received at least 1 tick for the 1 second under pass at the Phoenix pts. meet.

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by MR DERBY CITY

I thought the PLAN was two@ .90 under, looks as though you guys received at least 1 tick for the 1 second under pass at the Phoenix pts. meet.

Nope... Not until you have two in a rating period.
First and only one is a throw away.
Just have to work the system, as written.

Truth is , there a window of 9 hun , for 2nd spot.
Half of the players were right up front with us Saturday morning.
Not knowing if anyone else could move up, were were looking for - .98, -.99.
By that time , I knew there were 5 byes coming up too.
So ,it is what it is..No big deal either way.
BTW, Mike and BJ had one more shot to take it back, and chose not to.

Hope The Mighty Quinn is all recuped.

[joe176]

Glad to see NHRA give class racers the biggest race of the year with no AHFS !!!!
Maybe in the future they can expand this idea some more

[Darrel Goheen]

Being new to racing stock only starting last year the thing that bothers me the most is a heads up race possibility. I'm sure stock/super stock has always been run this way but I don't like the heads up race with a car in the same class. I'm all for class eliminations to reward those for all the hard work to build a fast car but I could be soured very quick with stock and super stock racing when I spend hundreds of dollars on travel and entries and end up with a heads up race when I'm normally about in the middle of the pack or slower with other D/SA cars and in most cases losing the race because of the quicker car in my class instead of just losing the way I normally do. Am I alone in these thoughts? I don't understand the heads up racing only for same class cars vs dialing in all pairs at their index and whoever crosses finish line first wins.

I was fortunate last year and only had one heads up race and that was in class elims.

[Ed Fernandez]

What's old is new. This is the way things used to be in the golden years. The smartest, shrewdest guys ruled. Of course back then you didn't have the Mickey Mouse cars then and NHRA ran a tighter ship.