[Alan Roehrich]

The Modified classes were placed in Super Stock (some of them) when NHRA killed Modified Eliminator in order to give us Super Gas, after the 1981 season. The GT cars came in shortly afterward, to encourage the OE's to invest in drag racing, since nothing they were building to sell was of any interest to 99% of racers. The FWD GT classes came a bit after that, as a natural extension, when the OE's almost completely ceased rear wheel drive production. The Factory classes are much like the FI classes were to Stock a few years ago, pretty much the only way to protect the traditional cars and combinations from being completely annihilated, and made totally obsolete.


IHRA tried the Crate Motor Stock and GT Stock classes, th'ey didn't get picked up by NHRA, and I doubt NHRA is considering it now.



The Factory cars, years ago, would have been treated like the Super Stock Hemi cars were, and shoved straight into Super Stock, but not allowed in Stock, except for, once again, NHRA wanted a cash transfusion from the OE's, and wanted the OE's to get involved again.


I can remember a close friend, who shall go unnamed, came to dinner in our pits one night, about 2010. He proceeded to tell me that he didn't "see how the Factory car he was driving could be in AA/SA with our ancient 69 Camaro 427/427 (435)". They had pulled the engine out, and put it on the dyno before they ever made a pass. He told me that "it made more than 100HP out of the box" than my relatively competitive 427/425 did.The two cars were rated almost the same, his was at 425, ours was at 435, because we had 401 heads on it. So he was 10HP/75# lighter than we were, and 100+HP better, without turning a screw. Admittedly, we were never a threat to set the A/SA or AA/SA record, but we have a few class trophies, and a few heads up wins, so we weren't a back marker, either.


I'm all for a combination starting with a rating that makes it relatively attractive and competitive. But having a 100+HP advantage on the dyno and a factor/rating 10HP lower than an established combination is pretty much just stupid.