The NO SHAKE ZONE - Looking forward to 2006

It's time for another installment of the NO SHAKE ZONE - Alcohol Racing Without the Shake! In this installment we take a look at what we feel needs to be done for next season.

First off, we've had a very up and down year in alcohol racing. We've had a good year of side by side racing for the most part, but we've lost some of our own. Let's take a look at this year and what needs to be done for next year.

TAD-

NHRA made a move over the offseason to bring parity to the class. In a class where you pit apples against oranges, it is no easy task. Initially, it was to be 96% nitro. Ashley Force struggled with it in testing, and then there was the hydrometers that weren't calibrated right, and some teams were running less than 96% in pre season testing, so 98% was given to the afuelers this year. NHRA also stated they would keep a close eye on the situation, and if the A/Fuelers gained a performance advantage, they would hit the percentage.

Art Gallant unloaded and ran his first 5.20 ever on his first run, a few runs later, Bill Reichert goes 5.19 and 5.21, Michael Gunderson goes 5.21. The big argument was wait until it gets hot. Enter Tom Conway and Steve Torrence. They essentially dominated every race they have attended this year during the 'hot' season in the southern part of the country, including nearly dominating in Joliet in the middle of July. On a national level, the car has been a 5.20 bracket car. In addition to Conway and Torrence, Randy Meyer's car has ran well at times in the heat, including winning some hot weather/altitude races in Div. 5, Aaron Olivarez has been on a tear of late, Gene Snow ran very strong in Indy, Art Gallant is dominating in Div. 1, and the list goes on. A/Fuelers are still running well when the weather gets hot.

Indy was a very good barometer because we got to see the top performance blown car in the country - Hillary Will and the top performance A/Fuel car in the country at the same race. Torrence ran a 5.24, Will ran a 5.32.

Everyone said wait and see, and we held off most of the year casting our judgement. The results are in: the A/Fuel car still has an advantage except when you combine heat with altitude.

I know some will say you can't make apples and oranges equal, but in TAD, NHRA's gonna make fruit salad. So you have to look at it in a way to make the class as equal as possible. You also have to realize that certain combinations are going to have their advantages and disadvantages. I think at the perfect level of parity, you're going to see more A/Fuel cars at the top of the qualifying list than blown cars, and when it gets hot vice versa. Having two types of cars also creates fan interest, and NHRA is sitting on a gold mine they aren't promoting, and we'll touch base on that later in the column.

I think for next year, the A/Fuel cars should be limited to 97%. What we should be aiming for is high .20's being the perfect runs in both blown and A/Fuel in good conditions. At very least they should go to 97.5, but I think 97% will not kill the A/Fuelers, and knock the edge off so to speak to make it to where we see Torrence and Will heads up in the low .30's at Indy, not 3 A/Fuelers in the .20s and no blown cars.

In altitude situations like Vegas, I think the A/Fuelers should be given 99%. Take a look at the data, and tracks above a certain altitude should get 99% and if you feel like going to Denver, give them 100%.

The above is based off real data this year by real competitors still racing. The 'what if' arguments are going to be made on both sides of the fence, and they are both too subjective to make any decisions off of.

TAFC

The difference in rules between IHRA and NHRA in the TAFC category is not helping the class' future. Getting the rules at least close would help build the class for the future. Also, the IHRA needs to go back to 16 car fields.

First off, we need to kill the myth screw blowers kill parts. Bad tuneups and driver errors kill parts. You can tear up a roots motor with a bad tune-up or overrevving just the same as you can with a screw. There are years and years of data for a roots blower, so it's fairly easy to acquire a decent baseline for that setup. The PSI owner's manual provides a competitive fuel system for a PSI, and there are several tuners/fuel system guys out there that can start you with a good system that will run 5.80's and quicker without really leaning on it or revving it too hard.

I think we need to look at a 3 to 5 year window for the IHRA class to transition to screw blowers. Let the screw blowers in at NHRA rules, add 75 lbs and take a page from Nascar, put a 3" wicker bill standard on a screw blower car. Very easy changes to make between venues, and would probably result in a tenth or so off a screw blower car. If 3" isn't enough, put 4".

The IHRA has traditionally been a place for the lower buck racer to run. Don't get me wrong, there are some very competitive racers like Rob Atchison, Jim Sickles and Mark Thomas that run very hard, have decent budgets and would do well with the NHRA guys if they had screw blowers. So a budget racer runs a roots because he thinks he has a chance on the IHRA level. He doesn't run NHRA events because even though he has a limited budget, he's still a competitor and doesn't want to face a car with a blower advantage. So he doesn't go to NHRA races. There's also the stigma that he's automatically going to kill parts if he bolts that damn PSI on there.

On the IHRA side, you don't see all of the stars of the category either. The past few years have been the Rob Atchison and Mark Thomas show over at IHRA, with Jim Sickles getting in the mix this year. Letting the screw blowers in would open the door for more big names to run IHRA. It also would be a big help to their western expansion goals. Now races at San Antonio and Edmonton have full fields.

Lets look at this from a budget racers perspective. I realize if they let screw blowers in tomorrow, most of your budget racers won't be able to pick up the phone and order a new screw blower from PSI. However, you could sell your roots and fuel system and have a pretty good part of what you need to make the switch. It's going to take a new injector, reworking or replacing your fuel system, new bag, and probably a new gearset or two for your trans. Now before someone uses new prices to argue against this, lets remember we're talking about the budget racer here, and he or she don't always buy new. He finds a used one off this site, or somewhere, part here and there and can probably have a screw blower set up for around 10k. Depending on how good of a roots set up they had depends on how much of a chunk of that they can take away.

A budget racer's goal is to run as good as he can for his budget. Some smarter racers run numbers that exceed their budget. Some racers have big budgets and don't run proportional numbers. You can run 5.90s and 5.80's pretty easy on parts with a roots. You can run 5.80's all day with a PSI and never hurt a part. A budget roots racer doesn't lean on his motor because he knows he don't have the money to fix it. He also doesn't over-rev it or put too much compression because he wants to max the life of his parts. He also probably realizes if he leaned on it, stepped on a few things in the combo, and revved it a little harder, he might run faster, but he just can't afford to. Take that same principle to a screw blower, put a fuel system on there from someone with screw blower experience, don't turn it higher than you can afford, don't lean on it, and you can run fat and happy 5.80s and 5.70s when you get it lined out.

What we have to do here is make a decision that not only does good right now, but good in the future. If we introduce the screw blower into IHRA, it creates more venues for a guy with a TAFC to race. I think that will increase car counts in both sanctioning bodies. The growth that will create will trigger new teams to join. I think over the past few years, potential new teams have built Pro Mods instead because they feel more comfortable with their future. If TAFC shows growth, you'll see more new teams.

When I've brought this up before, I've seen people say that most will just quit. I disagree. Maybe a few will. Maybe a few will take some time off to regroup. You already have to buy a new blower to stay competitive in IHRA as it is. If you don't have a new PSI Hi Helix on order or on your car, you're at a disadvantage already. Atch had his when he ran 5.76 in Norwalk a couple of weeks ago. You have to buy new parts and peices if you want to keep up. The cold reality of heads up racing is you either buy/make the parts to keep up, fall behind or quit.

Combining the rules will lead to future growth in TAFC.

Promotion

What does any promoter of any sporting event love? One thing is a rivalry. It's college football season, so lets look at some of their rivalries. Do you think it would be crazy for promoters, TV and the media not to pump up Ohio State vs. Michigan, Texas vs. Texas A&M, Auburn vs. Alabama, Florida vs. Florida St., Florida vs. Georgia...

There is a HUGE rivalry in the TAD ranks - A/Fuel vs. Blown. There's adamant fans of each. Why the hell do we have to be civil and play nice? Everyone that has a TAD needs to jump on this band wagon. There needs to be an informal agreement behind the scenes to pump this up. Both sides need to have a thick skin, and not get their feelings hurt if a blown racer talks smack, or vice versa. One of the things the TAD class brings to the table is the blown vs. nitro rivalry. We need to exploit it, and build interest in our class. Then we need to use that interest to get more sponsors. TV needs to pump it up. The announcers need to pump it up, and the racers need to do their part too.

We as alcohol racers also need to explore the possibility of racing on Saturday, if we could get it promoted by NHRA. NHRA could bill Saturday as Pro Qualifying and Lucas Oil Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car final eliminations. We need to be the Busch League of NHRA. The Busch cars don't race on Sunday when the Nextel Cup cars are at the same track. They wouldn't get the same TV coverage they do if they did. Why not open it up to where we race on Saturday, and get same day TV? Or even better, LIVE.

Promoting the alcohol class eliminations will build value to NHRA's Saturday show. Now you can see some elimination rounds and see some winner's crowned, along with Pro Qualifying. I think if Lucas could help underwrite the cost of getting Live or Sameday coverage either in it's own show or integrated with Pro coverage, it would earn a good return on their investment.

When the Busch cars race somewhere the Cup cars aren't it's a BIG deal. We need to get back to making it a big deal when the alcohol cars come to towns where the nitro cars don't. Thats why we need to get away from the current broke divisional system and create a regional system, or just seperate the two series.

There are prime targets for a regional series. Put TAD, TAFC and Pro Mod on a two day or night show. Run these events at safe tracks that are looking to bring in a crowd. Now you have a system that isn't broke. The track can bring in a crowd and the racers now have something that's marketable.

Right now the divisional system is broke. Most tracks don't promote the alcohol cars. By getting a date, all they have to do is put up the money to get the date with NHRA, and its nearly guaranteed to make money off sportsman entry fees. They don't advertise, so not many people even know the alcohol cars are coming, so they're not looking for nor relying on a crowd to make money. So all the alcohol cars do is cut into the track's gate money. It's a money losing deal for the racers because who can win a race and not spend $2,500? The money sucks and sometimes you're running your car at unsafe tracks chasing points. Not to mention, if there aren't crowds, the event has little or no sponsorship value. NHRA can't make the tracks advertise.

Some tracks do advertise. They see the value, and they bring a crowd. These are the tracks that would be prime targets for a regional TAD/TAFC/Pro Mod series.

Being the star attraction at a packed house has tremendous marketing value. There's two types of sponsors. Companies that are legitamately looking for exposure, and the guy with a big company that wants to stroke his ego. It's hard to stroke that ego at a national event with an alcohol car because that guy can take his money and hand it to a nitro guy, and now he's getting he's hanging with the pro's on the pavement. Well, if you have a good regional series, you can get these types out there, and let them get their kick. If you're on a real business deal, same thing, that marketing rep or board member will have good things to say from an event like that.

The first thing that comes to mind when racers are asked what can make things better and that's more money. Well, NHRA or IHRA aren't going to significantly increase purses anytime soon. So we need to make the class more marketable and create more interest. If we start creating more interest, we have a case for more money from NHRA.

So in closing, let's close the gap in TAD, promote the rivalry, merge the rules in TAFC for future growth, and make our class more marketable. If we can do the above, 2006 should be one hell of a year!

Ok, you're at the end of the column...time to give us your take. Let's keep it objective and see if we can't get some good discussion and ideas out of it.

 

why does nhra need to have 4 blown cars and 4 a/fuelers test? yeah, that would be great in a perfect world, but we see more than 4 blown and a/fuel at every race in the same conditions. the standard a/fuel line is what if santos were still running, what if shields were still running blown....etc. when it comes to parity everyone wants the blown cars compared to santos/grimes and shields. but nobody on the a/fuel side this year wants to be compared to conway and torrence. hillary will has been the closest thing to running santos like numbers, and they had nearly a tenth on her most of the weekend.

why wait a few years to fix what we know already is a problem? why wait until a goodwill center won't even take a blown car again to make a change? it's evident there's a tenth again, so hit the nitro just a little.

the key to improving the class is getting car counts back up. keeping the blown car as a viable combination is vital to increasing the car counts.

 

last year most blown racers wanted the C blower, but NHRA does not want to go down that route, or they would have last year.

the blower is about the only thing that is going to get a tenth out of the blown cars. you can't take enough weight out of one. yeah, santos was at 1905 lbs with a 433 motor, but this would require new cars with lightweight rearends that tear up pretty quickly. i wouldn't advocate a change to the a/fuelers that required building a new 60-70k car no more than i would something that would require the blown cars.

500 cid+ motor? without the additional od (125) or a new sfi spec that would allow them to turn a small motor 125 od might be worth something. keep in mind, the sfi specs on od were made back before the modern day msd rev limiter. the safety concern is how many rpms a smaller motor will turn w/o a rev limiter in the case of driveline failure. the od limits are designed to keep the blowers from turning higher than their structural limits in these situations. with new more reliable rev limiters, a case might be made for a higher sfi spec for the smaller cid motors. if this is realistic, it may be an avenue to look into.

lets try to keep this clean. i haven't heard any fc guys comment...

 

santo,

i think 75 lbs and a 3 to 4" wicker bill would knock a tenth or more off the screw blower cars.

bob-
a/fuel fc? if ihra would let screws in, i think it would be a good venue to introduce them.