Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Hoven
It seems like a lot of the problems we've seen in stock as far as rule bending really became amplified when the majority of racers decided to just go out and "buy horsepower" from select engine builder. Most not even batting an eye on how that extra horsepower was made. Unfortunately, it has evolved into a game of who can hide their "enhancements" the best. What seems to be true for most combos, is that if you build an engine exactly as the rulebook states, you aren't going to be anywhere close to those that spent the money to have a really fast bullet built. While it's easy to blame the NHRA for everything, I can't help but think us racers share a deal of fault for allowing stock to get to this point. It seems like NHRA has made up their mind as far as policing these enhancements, so as far as I'm concerned, building an engine to uphold the "integrity" of stock eliminator, is sort of a waste of time if you really want to have a chance in a heads up situation. I've yet to see a trophy for "most stock" car. Personally, I like to stick with the "built, not bought" program, but if I wasn't a broke college student, maybe that'd be different.
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This absolutely nothing new. This has been going on since the beginning. The cost of admission may have gone up 10-20k on enhancing but people have pushed the rules since the start of all this. There have always been a large portion pushing it hard. I even sold a car 20 years ago because the engines were going north of 20K. Little did I know that was going to be industry standard for good parts......not just enhanced parts, good parts.
There was never a system in place until the AHFS. Like it or not, it took the arbitrary "you went fast the last two races and your combo is in National Dragster getting 5 - 15 hp in the next issue. What we are really missing is people looking at cars. I may be one to ask for it but when i can practically order lunch for who is tearing down next to me in the barn at Indy, we are not checking randomly.
It was clear to me from the get go that .70 under runs are gold and you need as many of them under your belt as you can get.