[cutta]

Anybody have a legit plan for the transition from "current" Pro Stock to what Pro Stock should be? How do you soften the blow of telling teams to sell off millions of dollars of product(ie their current engine programs) to start new engine programs with current production engines. Also, a rule set has to be formed as well between all the different combos and a decision has to be made on whether things will stay naturally aspirated or go boosted(that could be a major talking point as most PS guys are faithfully NA). Considering the people that are already pouring millions of dollars into Pro Stock, you most definitely need their support in whatever plan you come up with because if teams like Ken Black and Allen Johnson decided to retire, your program could be in serious jeopardy because there's no guarantee you could replace their support and money.


In my opinion, I think NHRA needs to develop a 3-5yr transition plan to make Pro Stock more appealing. The first change that should be implemented immediately is a move to carbon fiber stock dimension bodies and rules to adjust for any aerodynamic disadvantages OEM to OEM to maintain parity. The next rule change(within a year) should be a move to fuel injection. Third, they need to develop a plan of how to bring the engines being used closer to OEM production platforms that way teams don't have to throw away all of their current parts. It will still be expensive but it will soften the blow.

At the end of the day, its not a simple fix because you still are having to convince millionaires to trash their current programs and build completely new ones. Thats a hard conversation to have and even harder to keep teams from calling it quits.