2019 NHRA rules changes (1 Viewer)

[Jeff]

I see the NHRA released the first round of rules changes for next year.

For TD and TS, they formalized the new 6.10 minimum dial. I think separating it from the chassis certification limit of 6.00 is a good idea, but I also that that SFI should transition to MPH to define safety limits.

Hopefully its not a typo but the revisions also indicate that TD/TS will be run at 18 national events instead of 14 .... Geographically and logistically we are much more limited than that, but more is better! Hopefully the NHRA will release the class schedule and the divisional schedule soon. I don't always think they realize the lengths we go through to attempt to plan our life around this hobby.

Could TD/TS finally get the invite to Indy????

Pro Mod goes to 12 events (from an indicated 10 ... I didn't recall how many they did exactly).

Qualifying points for pro mod and TF Harley (at least I don't recall them before).

Female (mainly) nitro drivers will be much more limited on their wardrobe choices under their fire suits (more coverage, nomex only, no jewelry).

Didn't notice too many other barn burners in there.

 

[Bob]

TD/TS ran at 18 national events this year. They didn't run at:

Houston
Richmond
Indy
Reading
Las Vegas 2
and don't run at Pomona next month.

 

[Nunz]

I would love to see TD/TS run at Indy, especially since Indy gets about 1/2 the Comp cars that it used to, even though still more than any other event.

 

[JB3]

... Pro Mod goes to 12 events (from an indicated 10 ... I didn't recall how many they did exactly) ...

Pro Mod was 12 races this year and will be again in 2019

https://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCStory.asp?ID=347485&NewHash=NHRA-SUMMIT#indextop

 

[Jeff]

Thanks for the correction guys. I was looking at the way the edits were shown on the 18 to 19 rules changes (replacing 18 for 14, and 12 for 10) .... so clearly not a great job of "track changes" in the way the text was displayed and a terrible job of double checking facts on my end!!!

 

[Cliff]

Jeff, what MPH limit would you think would be best for TD/TS? I know some dragsters have run close to 240 this year, and quite a bit of 5.90 break outs.

 

[Nunz]

Jeff, what MPH limit would you think would be best for TD/TS? I know some dragsters have run close to 240 this year, and quite a bit of 5.90 break outs.

I’m sure Jeff will have a better answer, but I would think that a 6.10 ET limit would inherently cap the MPH to something reasonable.

 

[DrRocket]

....Female (mainly) nitro drivers will be much more limited on their wardrobe choices under their fire suits (more coverage, nomex only, no jewelry).

Didn't notice too many other barn burners in there.

I guess I know where my mind is at. I initially read this as "more cleavage"...

 

[Jeff]

Jeff, what MPH limit would you think would be best for TD/TS? I know some dragsters have run close to 240 this year, and quite a bit of 5.90 break outs.

Well, I do think Nunzio is right but at the same time we have 8.90 cars rubbing 190 (and yes a few at 225), but my view is that when the SFI decided on the various chassis ET breaks they did so assuming a vehicle was running all out. A 6.0 ET at 240 mph is a far cry from all out ... an excellent example of that is the very impressive nitrous car of JB Strausweg running 6.05's at 218. If the engineers think its safe, I'm fine, but it just seems odd. My point is magnified by how I see some of the cars come out of the trailer ... thousands of miles going down the road not properly supported, then some of the huge torque loads put on during a high speed run and I'm worried that we are going have a chassis fail rather dramatically and have more than one driver hurt.

But, of course, the obvious answer is about 1 mph faster than my wife's car can go! Haha, we are still with the largely outdated nitrous power adder .... I'm thinking about getting a blue hangtag to put on the roll cage given the HP and MPH the other power adders are making.

David, as I read the rule book last night I was thinking long-sleeved turtleneck, but clearly my description didn't do that justice for your quick read!

 

[Cliff]

I was thinking that a lot of the T/D nitrous cars can run low 6's like JB's car. then the thought hit me, what if.... What if there was a class where you could run a 960" nitrous motor (like PDRA) in a dragster. I'm thinking 5.40's or maybe 5.30's at 260 + - ..... Of course, no class exists, just fun to think about. BTW, I noted that Rickie Smith is going to a turbo entry for 2019. I guess the 902" motor that NHRA allows is not competitive anymore. Wish NHRA would allow the bigger 960 or (gasp) even a 1000" motor. Can you hear Alan, Yes folks, this car has a one thousand cubic inch engine! Heh

 

[stitcherbob]

I guess I know where my mind is at. I initially read this as "more cleavage"...

file that under "Safety Equipment".....more cockpit padding

 

[Jeff]

I was thinking that a lot of the T/D nitrous cars can run low 6's like JB's car. then the thought hit me, what if.... What if there was a class where you could run a 960" nitrous motor (like PDRA) in a dragster. I'm thinking 5.40's or maybe 5.30's at 260 + - ..... Of course, no class exists, just fun to think about. BTW, I noted that Rickie Smith is going to a turbo entry for 2019. I guess the 902" motor that NHRA allows is not competitive anymore. Wish NHRA would allow the bigger 960 or (gasp) even a 1000" motor. Can you hear Alan, Yes folks, this car has a one thousand cubic inch engine! Heh

Turbo's are the way of the future. Horsepower with no parasitic drag. You just need a monster amount of torque multiplication down low to get em moving. It would be cool to play with a 3 speed and a torque converter just to see what you could get done from the launch to say the first 1/2 second of second gear .... that is where the turbo handicap seems to end. Could you have some wild first gear and starve the converter to give it some move down low, then get it back to where you need it from say 200 feet on?

Motors on big loads of nitrous go through oil rings after 20 passes or so. Then its really hard to keep the cylinders round in large displacement blocks. Just lots working against you. That said, for a fast bracket car I find them to be very tunable and predictable. Better technologies have passed them for the heads up stuff.

With respect to JB's car and low sixes .... what is so impressive about his deal is that he does it at such a low MPH. He murders the 60 ft. On average we probably run E.T.'s .08 slower than him, but his 60 fts are .05 quicker than ours. My view is that the bracket race is at the finish line, I'd like to be slower down low and carry reasonable MPH at the finish line. My dream is to have 3 different set ups to run a 6.10 at .... one at say 217mph, one at 222 mph and one at 227 mph .... let the person in the other lane decide which package we are on. That was what we were supposed to be testing in Vegas yesterday and tomorrow, but the motor decided our season had ended. I'll be carrying a spare head next year to give me more flexibility to deal with that kind of issue.

Will Hanna is starting a 3.80 index class (1/8th mile) for the TD's in SE TX in 2019. Pro tree first to the finish line 3.80 or above. It should be fun to play with and generally less than 3 hours from the house.

 

[Cliff]

Thanks for the info Jeff. Always interesting to read your thoughts on this deal. I like the idea of a heads up 3.80 class. I know that some of the PDRA T/D can go 3.60's, usually the blower cars, but 3.80 is a good number that you can run w/ a milder tune-up. Did Will say at what events he would run this class? Just curious. Oh, what do you think of 1/8 mile VS 1/4 mile? There are so many races now that are 1/8 mile, like big $ ET races, PDRA, and a lot of door car classes. I read that at least one organization wants to add T/D and T/S to the mix, 1/8 mile.

 

[Jeff]

Cliff, most tracks around here are 1/4 mi, but run 1/8th mile for almost all events except NHRA divisionals. I enjoy 1/8th mi, but my wife/driver sorta prefers 1/4 .... when the finish line comes in under 4 seconds by the time you think you have the car good in the groove (finish steering, getting pushed around by the track/wind/etc.) you look up at the finish line is passing. Too much happening too quick to do anything but the most basic top end driving. If your track rarely runs 1/4 mi it is much safer to run 1/8th mile. Also, if your tune up is just a bit lean you can get away with it many times in 660ft when at 1320 you'd have a hole in that piston.

As an aside, I think our fastest 1/8th mi ever is a 3.91 (that said we almost never run slower than a 3.99 1/8th) so I'm gonna actually have to focus on getting to that 3.80 index. We've run a few pro tree races (in fact one of Jen's Wally's is from an NHRA pro tree top dragster race years ago) .... she likes em, although its generally easier if you stage last because you can get hung out, you just have to get used to leaving the starting line with only one hand on the wheel. If you are running against a turbo car you sorta tend to try and stage real quick and see if you can throw off their boost building process (or if they jump in real quick and start spooling then give them the full 7 seconds to put heat in their tranny).... all stuff more unique to a pro tree. You've got to remember.... burnout to turnout you have no friends....

 

[Cliff]

Thanks Jeff. I pay attention to the 1/8 mile ET & MPH. I got started watching the PDRA races and a lot of the 1/8 mile races that you can see on the computer, & really got interested in it. So that made me wanna check 1/8 mile times when following a big show race. Like 2.91 ET for T/F, & I think that was a high 290 MPH run. Can't remember who did it, but thought, wow, 0 - 296 MPH in 2.9 seconds... 299 is the fastest speed so far in 1/8 mile. Man, I remember when Bernstein ran the first 300 in T/F, and now they are doing it in 1/8 mile. I'm also amazed at how quick you guys are running in T/D. Your car is a bottle rocket and you guys go 6.11 - 228, and that is quick to me. I hope you guys get a 3.8 tune up and go win some races. It's cool to look on Drag Race Central and see Jen is qualified. I root for you guys. Well, please keep us informed at how this class goes. Sounds really interesting.

 

[Jeff]

Thanks sir. I was cleaning out my desk at work the other day and saw a divisional picture from 2007 with a 7.17 dial on the car. I think that was one of the first years we drag raced a big car ... my how things change. Happy to tell about what do, if anyone is willing to read it!

 

[Cliff]

Jeff, you probably know this, but there is a S/C team in the Seattle area called the Dirty White Boys. The man's name is White. I first saw that car at Seattle in 1990, thought it was a cool name. Might have been named after a song or a rock group. Anyhoo, they are still racing today, same name. With todays political climate, they must get some flack. heh

 

[NITRO JUNKIE]

Turbo's are the way of the future. Horsepower with no parasitic drag. You just need a monster amount of torque multiplication down low to get em moving. It would be cool to play with a 3 speed and a torque converter just to see what you could get done from the launch to say the first 1/2 second of second gear .... that is where the turbo handicap seems to end. Could you have some wild first gear and starve the converter to give it some move down low, then get it back to where you need it from say 200 feet on?

Motors on big loads of nitrous go through oil rings after 20 passes or so. Then its really hard to keep the cylinders round in large displacement blocks. Just lots working against you. That said, for a fast bracket car I find them to be very tunable and predictable. Better technologies have passed them for the heads up stuff.

With respect to JB's car and low sixes .... what is so impressive about his deal is that he does it at such a low MPH. He murders the 60 ft. On average we probably run E.T.'s .08 slower than him, but his 60 fts are .05 quicker than ours. My view is that the bracket race is at the finish line, I'd like to be slower down low and carry reasonable MPH at the finish line. My dream is to have 3 different set ups to run a 6.10 at .... one at say 217mph, one at 222 mph and one at 227 mph .... let the person in the other lane decide which package we are on. That was what we were supposed to be testing in Vegas yesterday and tomorrow, but the motor decided our season had ended. I'll be carrying a spare head next year to give me more flexibility to deal with that kind of issue.

Will Hanna is starting a 3.80 index class (1/8th mile) for the TD's in SE TX in 2019. Pro tree first to the finish line 3.80 or above. It should be fun to play with and generally less than 3 hours from the house.

Hey Jeff I have a question, what kind of parts do you carry with you in the trailer? pistons, rods , valves etc?
By the way I saw you on all access a couple races ago and I thought your nitrous system was really neat!

 

[Jeff]

Let's see if I can type out a good rundown:
1. complete new in box ignition system, coil, plug wires, rotors, caps, mag pickup etc. If those are "loaned out" they get replaced new.
2. fuel pump
3. all stuff to make new fuel or water hoses, crimp collars, crimping station
4. water pump
5. second set of carbs (just did this)
6. new starter
7. complete new electrical system relay boards switch board delay box timers
8. third member
9. matching/mounted rear wheels/tires
10. complete set of rocker components and valve springs
11. 3 new of each length of pushrod
12. enough spark plugs to change all 8 every run (I usually let them go two runs)
13. new transmission
14. all parts to fully rebuild torque convert (i run a Chance NSX, really nice piece ... my favorite part to mess with)
15. new set of copper head gaskets
16 replacement for all fluids that run in the car
17. complete second brake system (except we run carbon fiber brakes and the second system is normal steel)
18. 4 extra parachutes, two for short tracks (bigger panels ... only used on two bad tracks we run at)
19. 2 extra pilot chutes (we probably go through 4 parachutes and 8 pilot chutes a season)
20 new scoop (nitrous cars have this bad burping problem)
21 soon to be one complete assembled head
22. lots of Racepak new spare parts
23 nitrous solenoid rebuild kits, complete solenoid, injectors, a million nitrous jets
24. second set of Performance Weld headers

Sam that's probably all the parts that could go down the track. As long as the short block and Daily oil pump are in good shape I should generally be able to fix almost anything. My son is an excellent welder and he's had to drive 4 hours each way a couple of times .... that's before Mark built me a second set of headers. We've had a couple of occasions to weld on the frame but fortunately always an improvement at home, not a repair at the track.

My entire "racing" shop is in the trailer. Like many teams, when I work on the car in my home shop its almost all out of stuff in the trailer. Now I have quite a large machine shop at home, overhead cranes, welders, CNC plasma table, sandblast booth, powdercoat booth etc .... but all of the short block engine work is done by David Nickens' shop (10 miles away), Dan Davinci does my carbs (30 mi away) , and Wendell Dunaway does my transmissions (200 miles away) .... I'm simply not smart enough to do that stuff but i have a lot of input on what gets done. I can do most all of the stuff on the race rig and trailer. My tool collection has been growing leaps and bounds lately, but its supported by an oilfield tool job shop my 25 year old son runs out of the same facility (we really just started that business in late May). The only employees he'll ever be allowed are UR10e's so its a pretty cool place if you like automation and seeing 5 or 6 CNC's running simultaneously with only 1 guy doing the hard stuff.

Sam, I may be misinformed but i understand you are 15 years old. Is that correct? I've always been very impressed with your writing and point of view ... at my normal business I get to see a lot of writing by recent college graduates and you have good skills sir.

 

[DixonFan]

Let's see if I can type out a good rundown:
1. complete new in box ignition system, coil, plug wires, rotors, caps, mag pickup etc. If those are "loaned out" they get replaced new.
2. fuel pump
3. all stuff to make new fuel or water hoses, crimp collars, crimping station
4. water pump
5. second set of carbs (just did this)
6. new starter
7. complete new electrical system relay boards switch board delay box timers
8. third member
9. matching/mounted rear wheels/tires
10. complete set of rocker components and valve springs
11. 3 new of each length of pushrod
12. enough spark plugs to change all 8 every run (I usually let them go two runs)
13. new transmission
14. all parts to fully rebuild torque convert (i run a Chance NSX, really nice piece ... my favorite part to mess with)
15. new set of copper head gaskets
16 replacement for all fluids that run in the car
17. complete second brake system (except we run carbon fiber brakes and the second system is normal steel)
18. 4 extra parachutes, two for short tracks (bigger panels ... only used on two bad tracks we run at)
19. 2 extra pilot chutes (we probably go through 4 parachutes and 8 pilot chutes a season)
20 new scoop (nitrous cars have this bad burping problem)
21 soon to be one complete assembled head
22. lots of Racepak new spare parts
23 nitrous solenoid rebuild kits, complete solenoid, injectors, a million nitrous jets
24. second set of Performance Weld headers

Sam that's probably all the parts that could go down the track. As long as the short block and Daily oil pump are in good shape I should generally be able to fix almost anything. My son is an excellent welder and he's had to drive 4 hours each way a couple of times .... that's before Mark built me a second set of headers. We've had a couple of occasions to weld on the frame but fortunately always an improvement at home, not a repair at the track.

My entire "racing" shop is in the trailer. Like many teams, when I work on the car in my home shop its almost all out of stuff in the trailer. Now I have quite a large machine shop at home, overhead cranes, welders, CNC plasma table, sandblast booth, powdercoat booth etc .... but all of the short block engine work is done by David Nickens' shop (10 miles away), Dan Davinci does my carbs (30 mi away) , and Wendell Dunaway does my transmissions (200 miles away) .... I'm simply not smart enough to do that stuff but i have a lot of input on what gets done. I can do most all of the stuff on the race rig and trailer. My tool collection has been growing leaps and bounds lately, but its supported by an oilfield tool job shop my 25 year old son runs out of the same facility (we really just started that business in late May). The only employees he'll ever be allowed are UR10e's so its a pretty cool place if you like automation and seeing 5 or 6 CNC's running simultaneously with only 1 guy doing the hard stuff.

Sam, I may be misinformed but i understand you are 15 years old. Is that correct? I've always been very impressed with your writing and point of view ... at my normal business I get to see a lot of writing by recent college graduates and you have good skills sir.

You have any pics of your race car?