Unfortunately, I haven't made it to too many races recently, and my memory isn't as good as it used to be, but this is my personal experience: I went to an IHRA race here in Tulsa, I can't remember the year, probably 2009 or 10, (a year or 2 before the track went to NHRA sanction), and the race was a BLAST! Full quarter mile racing, huge nitro pit warm-ups (Terry McMillan fogged-in the entire pit area), including throttle wacks, and night qualifying with flames you could see from outer space. Bobby Lagana Jr legged his family fueler to the No. 1 spot and you could have seen Bobby Sr's smile from outer space too. I went to the Motorplex the next year or 2 yrs later to an NHRA race and when I was in the stands I wondered why the nitro cars kept shutting down early. It literally took about 5 or 6 pair before I remembered they were only racing to 1000 ft. It sucked. I don't care what anyone says, there is a huge difference between a quarter mile and 1000 ft, from the spectator's point of view, and it isn't good at all. I've been a rabid fan of drag racing for over 45 years and I've also had the privilege of working on a nitro crew for a short time, and I think sticking to 1000 ft is going to cause long-term complications. I realize that the change came after we lost Scott, and like others, I thought the change was necessary at the time, but the time has come to slow the nitro cars and go back to 1320. OUR sport was built around the quarter mile!
Yes, there needs to be a performance differential between the pro nitro cars and the sportsman cars, so my proposal is this: make the two classes (TAD and TAFC) into true pro nitro feeder classes: drop the alcohol and injectors, and run a blown nitro combo similar to a nostalgia car in both classes. Single mag, single pump etc. The way things are now, a sportsman racer gets experience running either nitro or a blower, but not both.
