Top Draster wheelbase

[Brian Hansbury]

sweet i appreciate the offer and will probably take you up on it are you gonna ask him about a meeting when you email him .?.....if the clubhouse is central location for most i will see if we can use it of not my house or shop or i am open to ideas .....maybee some bench racing while we are all together ...all ideas are welcome

[ScottHall]

I talked to Wayne last night, and he wanted to go on the record and explain why the 7.49 or quicker is what the T/D series will be based off.
I have been helping with the details on this so I speak for what Wayne and I have talked about.

Two reason why this came to be the maximum E.T. break.

First; One problem that has always occurred with having a 7.50 or slower car is the chassis cert and the license are different then going 7.49 or quicker. What has happened many times all over the country and happened to me at the first T/D race last year is a racer who goes 7.48, and isn't licensed, or chassis certed to go that quick. So now we as a series have two different set of rules, two different sets of technical requirements, and face the issue of a 7.50 racer going 7.48 and getting a win light. When that happens, they disqualified by the NHRA rules.

Knowing that all cars are licensed and chassis certed to 7.49 or quicker, we will never have "two sets" of rules to make sure we follow.

Second, and the biggest argument with cars going 7.70 to 7.50 is that if they really wanted to run Top Dragster anywhere they went, the money and parts would be invested to get there car to run 7. 20 or 7.30. The track has asked that we produce a Top Dragster series with FAST cars. We know by the responce Wayne received that over 20 cars that are 7.49 and quicker are interested. This is another reason thet the 7.49 or qucker has been created.

Some of the sponsors of this class rely on racers upgrading there cars to quicker. By racers spending money with our sponsors, the two to three tenths they need to go 7.49 and quicker show that they are investing in the "Advanced ET" aspect of NHRA drag racing.

We are going into this knowing that we may have a few short feilds based on weather, or the economy. The fact is that we could look at every class and say, why don't we allow a 9.99 car to run Super Pro, even if they don't fall into the spec, or why not let some Top Sportsman cras into the Top Dragster feild so we can have a full feild. When does it stop?

Ask any racer who has built a Top Dragster how much effort and time they put into building there car. They will all tell you that they created a TOP DRAGSTER, not a weekly bracket racing car, or a Super Comp car, but a Top Dragster. The same agument is that racers who have a 7.50 to 7.70 car didn't build a Top Dragster, they built a reliable weekly bracket racing car or a Super Comp car with no throttle stop.

Wayne and myself can't bracket race on Nitrous because we go 6.99 or quicker. Can the rules be changed so we can at least bracket race in the 6 second range? No. So we find Top Dragster races to run instead.

We know the people who don't care for this ruling. And I'm sure they are saying that we will have short feilds because of it, but the class needs to have set standard that it can grow from. We know from the races at New England Dragway that the quickest 16 cars are in the 7.30's anyway, so we felt that when the class is up and running, the 7.49 or quicker will not even be a consideration.

Wayne will be back in a few weeks from Florida. I can be contacted at scott@tedblackmotorsports.com

Any e-mails I get will be fowarded to Wayne and the possibilty of meeting could be made. Any responces I get will be made public so others can be aware of counter acting points that have been. We are not here to only give one side, but have respectful discussions.

Scott Hall

[masracing]

Thanks Scott

I appreciate the work you guys have been putting into these races.

I have a lot of respect for Wayne as a racer and for the way he conducted the last minute races year. There is no one who is more committed fair competitive racing. Just the scheduling of these races to ensure they do not conflict with or take away form the NED series and all the hard work that their comittee put into that deal says a lot.

My offer still stands like I told Wayne let me know if there is anything I can do to help out. Either before the season or on the race days. (Well except maybe sweeping your trailers) anything related to the races though I am in.

As I said before I see both sides of discussion on the et break. In fact I was more in favor of hte 7.70 However, having talked to you at the banquet and thinking about it I trust Wayne's opinion on the 7.49 deal.

You know as well as I do a 7.70 car can easily become a 7.30 car with some "tune up in a bottle". We saw this all the time at NED last year. I am hoping to go from 7.1s to well into the 6s with mine. Should be an interesting learning curve

My thoughts on the meeting were mainly to make sure everyone is on the same page. If we did it, it would be really nice if a track official or two could be there so we could coordinate what they need from us on race days and in turn what we need from them. For example run order and other details. I hope that neither Wayne or you take this meeting suggestion as implying that you are not being fair and open about he planning process. I know this is not the case at all. I think others realize that as well. As I said in my earlier post this would be something I would be willing to help coordinate if it would take some work load from you guys.

I have spoken to a few racers recently with very fast cars that said they would be interested but had concerns about track prep. I assured them that the track has committed to work with us and make the track the best it can be. I will say in my opinion that last weekend we ran there in October even with the very cold track temps the track was excellent on Sunday. I was running 60 fts better than what I ran the following week at the Dutch Classic. This can be a great deal very close to home if everyone works together.

Thanks

B.J. Masiello

[krugracing12]

Brian
I don't think a meeting is going to change the format that has been chosen by the 2 people that are organizing the program. It is unfortunate that the NHRA div 1 rules for T/D are not good enough.


Scott,
I can appreciate wanting to race with people who have the same Go-Fast mindset. BUT TOP DRAGSTER IS STILL A BRACKET RACE. Remember how quickly the heads-up Pro-Comp class attempts at LVD and NED turned into spending contests. As I posted earlier if all of the "fast" cars come out, us 7.50 - 7.70 guys wont qualify anyway, and at $100.00 a DNQ the odds of non-qualifiers coming back twice is unlikely. I like Wayne and I would have enjoyed supporting the program. But I am cannot justify buying a $ 800.00 plate set-up and a $1200.00 firesuit to try and go faster at a place that my and other 7.50 cars already have downtrack traction issues.
The first time some of the traveling folks come down and go double "0" on some one but have to lift or miss the number because they blew the tires off at 800 feet, you may have a hard time getting them to come back.

Bill Krug

[pentastarrail]

Brian,
You'll be fine with the 598. You should run easily in the 7.00's.

Kruggy,
You state some good facts but only time will tell. If Howard tells Scott and Wayne that he's going to prep the track, all they can do is say OK. Scott and Waynes point is dead on, the reason the TD series is what it is, is because any 6.99 and quicker car has no place to race. People are very fortunate to be able to race every weekend so close to home.

Now if Howard agrees to put the Super Pro ET break at 6.00 so the TD (and TS) guys can play every week I would say that would be a different story. (actually that would be SOOO cool, someone running 12.90 at 98 MPH being chased by someone running 6.00 at 230 MPH)
Maybe we should talk to Howard :-) ........

There are a number of people stepping up this year with spray or different combos so it should be interesting to say the least.

Man it's a been a long winter...

[Michael Galofaro]

Hopefully he does prep the track as it should be done for cars who might attempt to go in the mid 6's (and in your case Frank - high 5's - LOL).
Last year was really not a good judge of things - yeah he did nothing to the track but it was also snowing in the morning. And due to a small parts breakage I was not able to make a single qualifying run.

However being that the track is somewhat local (a few hours) from everyone -from the boys up in NH to the guys down here in Jersey - IF the track is right then the series will grow and we will not have issues with the 7.50 max.

Not to come across like an ***, but be happy Wayne is running the series because I would say make it much lower than that. And yes this topic has been beaten but we all want a nice close to home series. However if that includes 3 maybe 4 of us running in the mid-high 6's and 12 other cars running 7.4 and up I will stay home. That is not a top dragster race - esp when half the cars down at atco are running 7.30 or faster.

Only time will tell - like I said to people I speak with who run the class - I am giving the Series ONE race - if the track is horrible then I will never come to another one. If Howie uses his head and really preps the track we can have a nice local series.

Just my 2 cents - I might be wrong

[krugracing12]

Gentlemen,

With the exception of the guys that are looking for the low qualifier spot, Most of the T/D guys I know try to use as little spray as possible. The old adage is "just enough to get in the show". I can't see beating the equipment like a "rented mule" just have a lower dial-in at a bracket race. At the risk of sounding "Frugal" when I bought the 598 engine I have now, I was aiming for 7.50 ET. The car is capable of qualifying at the usually never full T/D in D1, have a decent MPH in S/C and still be reasonably competitive at a "bracket race" at LVD 10 miles from my house. If I lived near ATCO or NED (tracks that consistently have enough "bite" for faster cars to be regularly competitive) I would have bought a 632". I will be at ATCO in T/D at the open with my "slow but steady" barely under the index car . If I qualify, I will gladly take the disadvantage of being the slower car. With this economy I will keep that $2,000.00 for the NOS and -15 Fire suit in my pocket, and avoid the risks and aggravation that come with using spray.

I wont get into an LVD bashing session and not for lack of effort on the staff's part, but in recent history the "bite" down track is inconsistent at best. I don't know if it is the water table, the old blacktop condition or inconsistent traction compound formulas, But 7 second dragsters should not have trouble sticking. Hopefully new blacktop will cure this but it may take a while for it to come around and with the usual head/cross winds that are present on the top end, running 180mph plus could get very dicey.

Bill