New track prep (2 Viewers)

[my friends call me Zappy]

Ron Capps refered to a "new prep" on Friday Q Show. Anyone have details ? With the great air conditions & cool temps Nitro classes should have been far quicker.
Both P/S car & bike ran great numbers. All the fuel crew chiefs couldn't have guessed wrong.

 

[mikebcurve]

If that caused the terrible showing for most top fuel and funny car runs all weekend I suggest they switch back. I would be so pissed if I traveled all the way there to see that. Was there even one run where more than two cars made a somewhat decent pass?

 

[ironpony]

trying to slow them down...................?

 

[Bubba]

A couple other drivers mentioned the change in prep on Twitter as well.

 

[TooTall999]

If they're going to limit track prep, they need to be consistent so the crew chiefs have a chance to get the tune ups right. Once they get the tune ups adapted it'll be fine.

 

[Paul]

Didn't want them breaking 340mph, I think it was changed starting in Gainesville. One thing is for sure, they are certainly blowing up a ton of parts while they try to figure it out.

 

[Butch]

How many Body Lifters has Matt Hagen had at Charlotte 2-3?

 

[None]

More cost saving, less track prep equals more bonus money at the end of the year for the NHRA bosses.

 

[none]

If trying to slow them down is done by making them spin the tires,pedal,drop cylinders and blow up. They need to re-think their plan.

 

[Huge]

If the big teams have to back their tune ups down a little to get down the track then it should level the playing field a little and some of the independent teams may win some rounds. There are a lot of fans that love rooting for the independent teams. It's the teams job to get their cars down a race track. imo

 

[TooTall999]

It's a known fact that a less than perfect racing surface gives the lower horsepower teams a better chance. If the big teams have to back down their tune ups to avoid smoking the tires, so be it. Everyone has the same track surface to deal with, and you don't hear the lower funded teams complaining.

 

[Treeshaker]

Teams were informed in Gainesville about the new track prep (or lack thereof) to slow the cars down. NHRA has tried several things by rules but none have worked so lack of track prep is the next way. Teams will have to adapt.

It does level the playing field. A lot of blow ups can be prevented if some of the drivers would learn how to pedal in relation to where they are on the track.

 

[Porkchop]

Adapt to conditions or go sit in the stands! I remember the 79 World Finals at Ontario. There was a diesel truck race the week before and they killed the track especially the right lane. The racing was close and nobody hurt parts.

 

[mikebcurve]

I love seeing the underdogs win and I get what is being said but I hope we don't see too many events like that one. I have no idea but you would think they could have backed the prep down gradually rather than all at once.

 

[Dave]

If NHRA tried things via the rules that didn't work, they didn't try hard enough. Change the rear gear limit, change the tire diameter, change the cubic inch limit, lets go to 70% nitro, change the blower overdrive. There are plenty of rules that could be changed if they were serious about the restrictions. Change the header angle away from what it is even further, mandate the rear spoiler height on the funny cars. In the long run any and all of these things would still be cheaper than having a grenade go off every 2 passes or having 15 of the 16 cars that actually show up to race go up in smoke and totally ruin an entire session of qualifying. If qualifying is "test mode" then lets drop a session and just go race the things.

I understand the thing having so much glue lets just about anything stick, but that horse got let out of the barn way back in 1975 when they experimented with it at OCIR and the national record stood for 8 years. I get it that you want to control speeds and it could in turn make for pedal fests, but it doesn't work in qualifying. In fact aren't they trying to do all they can to prevent oil downs and oil clean up time from wasting the day away? Taking traction away isn't helping.

 

[TooTall999]

Taking traction away will help, as soon as the tuners establish some baselines.

 

[Dave]

And how much stuff do they have to blow up and money do they have to spend to establish them? How many events will be full of wasted qualifying sessions and smoke shows until they figure out that all their prior notes are no longer relevant?

 

[Jeff]

Is their a maximum allowed wing angle on the dragsters? I'd be cranking the wing up to load the motor downtrack. Not sure how that would work on a FC given it may upset the front end.

On WFO tonight, Alan said this was done with the blessing of PRO, so it does seem to be more about establishing baselines. I'm just not sure it's been great for the fan experience.

In golf they have a stimpmeter and usually aim for a specific green speed. I wonder if they are aiming for an upper traction limit (e.g. on a hot track it may be almost as high a number as a cooler track). The change has been alluded to since early in the year, but most who could be in the know seemed to act like they weren't supposed to acknowledge or talk about it. It would be interesting to better understand and hear something other than the track temp at the starting line.

I think one issue could be that it doesn't take much of a bump or hump in the track to lose traction and have the motor unexpectedly let go. 4 wide seems to make it a bit worse too since the attitude seems to be to get to the finish line at all costs since you can't tell what's happening across the wall

 

[DixonFan]

 

[TooTall999]

I haven't heard Jim Dunn, Jim Head, Cruz Pedregon, Jeff Diehl, or Tim Wilkerson complaining.....