Top Sportsman/Top Dragster now 6.10 Max ET
While racecars are always evolving, slowing them down or getting engine builders and drivers to literally stop making them faster is NEVER going to happen. The days of turning off the throttle stop on your .90 car to run wide open in these classes have been gone, blowers, nitrous, and pro chargers are a must to compete with these guys and thats why the cut to get into these 36 car fields are so fierce. In TD pretty much all of the top half has the capability of going in the 5’s, with TS right on their heels, and NHRA feels things have been getting out of hand and unsafe. There was talk throughout the year about what NHRA was going to do with it, and here it is…
Beginning in 2019, the minimum class index for Top Sportsman and Top Dragster will move from 6.00 to 6.10. The maximum dial in will not change. The revision will bring the class ET breaks in better alignment with chassis requirements and the current rules package for vehicles running in the Top Sportsman/Top Dragster category.
– Qualifying runs quicker than 6.100 (3.700 eighth-mile) will be placed on the bottom of the qualifying list in reverse order following the slowest posted qualifying time.
– Runs between 6.000 and 6.100 during eliminations will be treated as a “break-out” run. Double-breakout rules and “first or worst” rules apply.
– Runs quicker than 6.000 (3.660 eighth-mile) in qualifying or eliminations will be an automatic disqualification from the event and the driver will receive 0 points from the event, which will be charged as 1 of the driver’s 8 eligible divisional or 5 eligible national scored events for the current season.
TS: 6.10 to 7.99 (1/4 Mile), 3.70 to 5.29(1/8th Mile)
TD: 6.10 to 7.70 (1/4 Mile), 3.70 to 4.99 (1/8th Mile)”
Not letting the drivers unleash their cars to show true potential is a big downfall, isn’t that what this is all about? Should they have gone the other way and updated the cars and rules to go 5.90s, 5.80s? IMHO I think what they are doing is correct for the safety of all drivers, but I also think these classes were meant to be the fastest bracket class in racing, so why are we limiting the class even more?