No Shake Zone comments

As s TARA member, I eagerly await the Indy meeting- Sadly, I don't anticipate any good news for the TAD class- I believe car counts will have to drop drastictlly such as the recent show at Brainerd for NHRA to even contemplate a change. We have parked our TAD for the rest of the year untill something happens. It.s only Aug and our season is over. No use breaking parts with little hope for returns. D.Shields performance at Mission will tell a large story if there are 3-4 a/fd cars entered.

[ August 19, 2003, 06:24 PM: Message edited by: was R4K ]

 

I don't think you could have said it any better Will.

 

Carefull Will- Kevin has escaped from NITROMATER.

 

Will, according to KB since I cannot afford $3-400,000 to go racing in TAD. I have No right to comment on such forums! Well, I have been a Big fan of both Alky classes for 12 years. As for your column Will, as Long as Lucas is title sponsor of the class and has a A-fuel car in the class. I would be shocked to see any rule changes! I'm beginning to think NHRA wants just one Alky class(TAFC), otherwise they would'f made changes last year if not sooner! The Big argument on their Part has always been Santos. Nearly one year after he last raced, we still Hear "What about Santos"? In all of RS 5 crowns, how many 5.10-.20 or .30 A-fuel passes were made? I don't recall RS ever going up agains't a 5.13 or 5.17 or 5.20 out of the Meyer car! That being said, the numbers at Indy will tell the tale. If we see the usual top 4 qualifier's are A-fuel cars, and the usual .15 hundreds advantage throughout Elims. I doubt you'll see many blown cars at remaining Natl. events!

 

Well I happen to help one of the blower cars at the races and it is dissappointing when you go up there and run the best that day for the blower cars and get absoulutly creamed especially when the guy pedals. That sucks. You have pretty well hit it good on your ideas. As for the Santos deal hey the other guys that had blower cars didnt have the tune up they did and that is an oh well if they did they would have competed with him. As it stands now nobody with a blower car can run with the good afuelers and can barely run with the ones that aint got it figured out yet. I still think the percentage is the way to go as it can be easily adjusted without cost and I do believe that Meyers Lucas and Riechert are expecting something to happen and wont complain when it does. I dont think that they want to go out and just race themselves if they are competitive then they want as many there as they can just to beat the best. We will be at Indy hope there is something done.

 

I agree that the largest percentage of a/fuel cars would not have a problem doing something to level the playing field. I do believe that NHRA would like to keep a definite performance distinction between the Top Fuel cars and TAD, so that would mean slow down the a/fuel cars. On the surface, the lower percentage of nitro seems obvious. My fear is that in adjusting to a new tune up we can tear up alot of stuff - dropping holes can be very hard on parts. And an a/fuel car that is down on power can shake just about as hard as a blown car. The team I'm involved with runs on a very tight budget, and we really can't afford to test. Right now we have a decent handle on the car, but last year we torched alot of stuff. The thought of going through that again is not to appealing. But I know there are alot of alcohol guys reeling from blowing up stuff trying to run with a/fuel...no easy answer here. I'm still trying to come up with one that doesn't shaft one or the other. I do think an established a/fuel car ought to run in a closed session with someone from NHRA there and try different percentages of nitro to see what difference it makes (ideally with financial help from NHRA in case of motor damage) before any specific number is adopted as a new rule. I believe this is similar to what happened with the original 90% rule (Snake's teams?). Just my 2 cents.

 

King- I wish you were a fan of PSB instead of TAD/TAFC.... You are a work of art.

 

F-O-R are you trying to make a point? FYI, I think PSB sucks!

 

Russ, I was always told that running less Nitro lights easier! I was told that by a current A/Fuel racer! How does running less % cause more dropped holes?

 

and King would know...he knows everything

 

F-O-R what in the world are you trying to say? Make your point!

 

Running a lesser percentage of nitro may make the fuel easier to light, I do believe that the alcohol would act as an accelerator. That change would affect how much lead I would try to run.
How much fuel can I now burn? What does this do with the clutch? I've seen cylinder drops from being lean or rich. The fuel may be easier to burn, but it's now got different characteristics and that is what will lead to dropped cylinders until we figure it out. It may not correlate real well with T/F, that blower on top makes a big difference.

 

Will, I want to see this class healthy and with full fields at all events. I hope that includes a/fuel and blown alcohol. I appreciate all you are doing on behalf of the alcohol catagories.
I would love to see a qualifying list like you have posted. When I drove TAFC the most fun races were the close ones...kind of like Tony S. after losing in the final to Doug K at Brainerd - even though he lost he was cleary pumped up about being involved in such a close race.

 

How about making the A\fuels run a real clutch (No go kart clutches)
Just an idea
Thanks
Bob

 

Will, excellent column. I've been lurking here for quite sometime and this issue has been a constant theme.

Here is my .02 cents worth:

NHRA has a bad history of revising rules when the "fix" didn't work. Race-to-race, the latest "current" rule changes, and, not keeping up will be disasterous. Any rule that aims specifically at one will increase costs, whether allowing other blowers or decreasing nitro percentage, and, will be under constant review
for "fairness".

I think a parity rule should affect both. My proposed "solution" is limiting tire size. All the horsepower in the world doesn't mean anything if you over-power the track. To me, this is the cheapest, most effective method. Both types would be affected the same way. My "solution" will not appeal to all, maybe none, but, it will surely would even the paying field and make for more of a drivers race.

As for Indy being "judgement day", I don't see much being done. I am a TARA member and volunteer, and unfortunately, I have not seen the membership grow as it should have in order for TARA to have any clout.

Bob, sorry to hear you're gonna park the hot rod.