[bill dedman]

Mark,

Thanks for "coming clean." I WILL pay attention to what you have to say, now.

You said, "There IS no problem besides the one YOU want to create."

It just seems to me that when two or three percent of the cars of one type (turbo cars) can nail down over fifteen percent of the #1 qualifying slots at national events, there is a problem in the way things are being done.

If that doesn't ring a bell with you, then we simply don't analyze situations in the same way.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, and, to post it on here, as am I.

RE the Buicks *Grand Nationals)? They are not a good canddate for this exercise for a couple of different reasons, the first being that they have offset-ground rod throws which minimizes crankpin overlap, making the cranshafts inherently weak and prone to breakage at high boost levels. Better cranks are available, but the stock ones are not very strong. You're right about following along behind with a broom...

The second reason is, that NHRA closely followed the performance of these cars and hit them with significant horsepower, in the past, so qualifying well against their index at the perscribed factored horsepower is not that easy to do. I don't remember one of these cars qualifying #1 at any time in the recent past, do you? The four cylinder cars that usually make the #1 slot theirs, have not been the subject, generally, of such close scrutiny by the HP Factoring Committee, and it's not such a stretch for them.

Like I told Jim Wahl, I can't see NHRA doing anything about this situation, so all my caterwauling has probably been a waste of time, but I felt like something needed to be said.

Thanks again for using your name; it gives you GREATLY enhanced credibility!!!