Index Change

[Bob Don]

In the grand scheme of things, this will only hurt the marginal cars close to or not that far under. This will actually be good for the fast cars as they now have an extra .15 to play with. (1.25 trigger plus -.3 index = 1.55 under old index vs. 1.40 under old index before changes).

Does anyone have any insight into whether IHRA will follow suit????

[danny waters sr]

Originally Posted by Bob Don

In the grand scheme of things, this will only hurt the marginal cars close to or not that far under. This will actually be good for the fast cars as they now have an extra .15 to play with. (1.25 trigger plus -.3 index = 1.55 under old index vs. 1.40 under old index before changes).

Does anyone have any insight into whether IHRA will follow suit????

I doubt it very seriously .

[The Hawk]

The reason I can`t Mark is my car is only about .25 under now. I ran better than .30 under twice this past season,but never at a Combo or NHRA event. I know,I know,work on it,blah,blah,blah. Fact of the matter is,if I`m going to spend money on that thing,it won`t be so I can run low 16`s up here,I`m going to put a small block in it and run Pro or Super Pro. I`m tired of spending money on a slow car and it`s time to pick up the pace. The only reason I continued to stick with the slow car deal was because of Stock. So there you have it. I can walk away proud of my accomplishments in the class with no regrets.

[Mike Meier]

Boy am I glad I ripped up my NHRA renewal bills when they came in the mail. Being treated like a deadbeat criminal at my last LODRS gave me a push out the door to the IHRA, but this is like slamming the door on my *** on the way out.

I hope IHRA doesn't copycat the change, but even if they do a change of scenery would be nice.

[Mark Yacavone]

Originally Posted by Lane M Weber

The reason I can`t Mark is my car is only about .25 under now. I ran better than .30 under twice this past season,but never at a Combo or NHRA event. I know,I know,work on it,blah,blah,blah. Fact of the matter is,if I`m going to spend money on that thing,it won`t be so I can run low 16`s up here,I`m going to put a small block in it and run Pro or Super Pro. I`m tired of spending money on a slow car and it`s time to pick up the pace. The only reason I continued to stick with the slow car deal was because of Stock. So there you have it. I can walk away proud of my accomplishments in the class with no regrets.

Lane, I've got nothing against not spending money. That's why I do everything myself.
Let's be realistic here though. You've had that combo for the better part of 20 years now and it has the potential of being number one qualifier. A half second under the old index shouldn't be that hard to achieve ,without spending a big pile of money.
You're just not going to get a lot of sympathy on here with that program.
Same thing goes for the guys trying to run a 5.0 Mustang with the stock short block.
Sometimes you just have to open the wallet a little.
It killed me to have to buy a torque plate for a 2300 Ford for $400 ,but nobody in the Valley had one, so I had no choice, to get it right.
Like I said ,I'm sympathetic about having to spend a bunch of money on these things, but it never was intended to be Affirmative Action Drag Racing.
Good luck, whatever you decide to do.

[The Hawk]

I haven`t posted on this thread looking for sympathy. I was just posting how I felt. Once the dragster deal for me ended a couple of years ago I was ok with just running the Skyhawk,but it`s getting a bit old now. I may change my mind,you just never know?

[buzzinhalfdozen]

Tracy, while I'll concede that there are some of those $50,000 dollar engines out there beating up some indexes, I doubt it's the norm. I don't have $50 large in my entire operation. Now I'm certainly no genious and I've been able to run under with my junk, of course that's most likely due to the "soft" indexes. So now I go from having a second under car to a .7 under car.....so what? As stated by a few on here , yes a few racers are gonna be affected in a bad way by this however they do have a choice, step up or move on.Not trying to be mean about it but that's just the hand that's been dealt. If I were in that spot I'd have to weigh my options and make a decision based on what I was willing and able to spend. Joe

[z28camaroman]

Isn't this where the indexes were about 20 years ago? I remember NHRA softened them up somewhere in that time frame. Now they are putting them back where they were before?

Jerry
#1710

[SS Engine Guy]

Senerio:

Racer A has a legal 1.00 under really nice, close to correctly factored race car.

Racer B has a grey area 1.30 under really nice, no where close to correctly factored car.

Index drops 3 tenths.

Racer A now has a legal .7 under really nice, close to correctly factored race car.

Racer B now has a grey area 1.30 under really nice, still no where close to correctly factored car. (He threw out the weight, moved the timing, quit lifting to gain his 3 tenths back).

There used to be 3 tenths seperating the two cars. Now there are 6 tenths seperating the two cars. Which car would you buy if the prices were the same? How much is a 1.30 under car vs. a .7 under car in terms of $100 dollar bills? How much money and time (which is money) would it take to pick up six tenths or even 3 tenths?
In my opinion this BS "rule of the week" just made the legal, close to correctly factored car worth less (not worthless). This rule just took money out of pockets in a number of areas. It has devalued alot of the combos out there with a pencil. It has given a racer a "need" to cheat to protect his investment when correctly factoring combos would have solved many problems. It has given a reason for "protecting" your combo, now more than before.

And while I'm at it I'll be damned if I can understand why fees go up all around and I can't even get a hard copy rulebook out of the deal. If you are that close to broke you might as well go ahead and fold. But we all know that isn't the case.............

[Tracy Robbins]

Originally Posted by buzzinhalfdozen

Tracy, while I'll concede that there are some of those $50,000 dollar engines out there beating up some indexes, I doubt it's the norm. I don't have $50 large in my entire operation. Now I'm certainly no genious and I've been able to run under with my junk, of course that's most likely due to the "soft" indexes. So now I go from having a second under car to a .7 under car.....so what? As stated by a few on here , yes a few racers are gonna be affected in a bad way by this however they do have a choice, step up or move on.Not trying to be mean about it but that's just the hand that's been dealt. If I were in that spot I'd have to weigh my options and make a decision based on what I was willing and able to spend. Joe

I understand exactly what you're saying Joe, but it's sad that a lower budget racer should be forced to "move on"? As I stated before, NHRA's profits/car counts are down is this going to bring in more participants or force some to "move on"?
Personally, I will still go to whatever races I can get into and be competitive enough to run the index...until the index gets hit again.