To: Austin Ford From: Bill Hawk

[427_ED]

I think the Challengers and Cobra Jets are capable of 9.70's in A/SA right now. Probably capable of 9.80's in B/SA. They're holding them back, saving the combination.

[Rich Biebel]

For those not old enough to recall the old stock eliminator.....you were handicapped off the national records. Class winners and low qualifiers made up the eliminator field. Many racers could run under their records and some cars could really bomb the records but usually did not unless there was an eliminator title on the line Yes records counted during big races for a while if it was a final. Setting a record counted for division points......ET or Mph and seperately at one time. People used to just "nip" their record to get the points. Rules were often different at various tracks and events. Some tracks raced under the rules that you could not go under your record by more than a tenth and win except the final.....or even 2 tenths......All this needed changing and the index system was a real good way to do it. It just has not been upraded with the cars performane of today and the AHFS seems like it was a good attempt at evening out the cars that were way off HP wise.....It appears to be causing the class to look foolish with all the shutting off runs at times at a fast race like Indy just was.


No I don't race a stocker anymore but I am an interested observer and have raced a few stockers over the years...,,,and still enjoy watching the category and the cars......

[LilBlueDeuce]

Bill...that is what I meant. Thanks for the correction. I am 0 for 2 today.

Rich...thanks for the further explanation of how things used to be. It sounds like even back then, sandbagging was a part of class racing.

I still love watching Stock and SuperStock. It is just more fun watching them run out the back door.

[bill dedman]

No problem... I love those '32 Fords....

[treessavoy]

Originally Posted by Ryan Horensky

Tree Savoy....Apparently you do not know much about sportsman racing in stock eliminator in this era. I am friends with Bill Hawk, but have never had the opportunity to meet the Ford's due to our geographic location in the country. People try to save their combinations at every race. The horsepower system makes that even more difficult. For instance: my father runs a 68 Shelby in A/SA currently. If we go 1.15 under and do not attend another national event we can get horsepower on our combo, because there are no other 68 Shelbys racing in the entire country with our combination to dilute the average. Its pretty disheartening to have to put weight in your car because you made one fast run during the season at a big race and do not attend another race during normal conditions to run average ET's. Especially if you put up a huge run during extreme conditions, but do not have the opportunity to go that fast at any race during the course of the season. Bill had no other choice but to get the combo hit if he wanted to run A/SA. I can see why the Ford's may be upset by what happened, but I can also see Bill's perspective on the situation. I myself am finishing up graduate school like Austin and do not have the funding to travel to races the way I want to. I think this is just part of racing.....and disagreements come with it. Hopefully both parties can make up and still be friends after what has transpired. I'm not trying to play mediator....just trying to state to tree savoy that stock elimator is not balls to the wall first one to the finish line wins type of racing. I don't think it has ever been with the exception of class elimations and heads up races. Besides that we all have to put dials on our windows and go bracket racing 95% of the time

Ryan Horensky
1273 C/SA

Ryan,

Since I'm new to this sport, started in 1964, I'm glad you explained this style of non-racing to me.

All of this is bull s**t!

Drag racing is: run all out, get to the stripe first and it's always been that way. You "new wave" racers think it's all about protecting your HP. NO, it's about running as quick as you can and winning or losing.

When I first started racing it was off National records, you ran as hard as you could in order to re-set that record and you were proud to see your name in the magazine and paint "NHRA Record Holder" on your car.

How proud are you to say that you dumped a race because you were afraid of getting hp?

Real Drag Racers run hard to the finish line, the rest of you are just playing some game.

JimR

[lstanford]

It's to bad that people with a disagreement don't just call one another and settle the problem in private. I was always told that you don't wash your laundry in public. Politics and games have ruined drag racing for the majority of us.

[Bart Kilraine]

Balls to the wall,1st. to the strip would be great for stock eliminator,for the 7 or 8 cars that showed up !

[Jeff Teuton]

I have no dog in this hunt. My dogs ain't as good as either. I didn't read the whole string, so bare with me. NHRA considers the 428 with iron heads and aluminum heads as the same instead of two different engines as in the case of the 396 iron/aluminum engines. I think this is wrong and over the last year or maybe longer I have partitioned NHRA to treat the 428 and others and hopefully when (2057) Mopar gets a replacement head ( now that is my dog) that the combo would be treated the same as the Chevy and not the Fords. That is each combo is it's own engine family. If that were done, Charlie & company as well as Hawk & associates could do what they wanted and wouldn't have to type so much. That is the basic's of the problem; the details take to long without refreshment. But I have a new approach; Now that Ford is the car of choice of NHRA, maybe another letter.

[Mike Voth]

Originally Posted by 427_ED

I think the Challengers and Cobra Jets are capable of 9.70's in A/SA right now. Probably capable of 9.80's in B/SA. They're holding them back, saving the combination.

From what I've been told, maybe 9.40's or .50's.

I would love to see what the AA/ combo would run...juuuuuuust once.

[Evan Smith]

Mike,

Probably 8.90s!