Wondering what stock racers think

[Alan Roehrich]

Originally Posted by HawkBrosMav

Please don't completely go off the rails on this one..

This is from a relatively newbie to the class (2009) before the AFHS how were the HP numbers regulated to keep things fair? If a guy went 1.3 under what happened? How were combos adjusted as to not allow one guys to find a super soft combo an out run everybody for eternity?

I for one agree the AFHS is very problematic and easily manipulated to maintain your combos competitiveness for class. It's also a stupid system that only punishes those who have found the most HP in their car. So it basically discourages us all from working to get faster and faster cause we we'll all then have to slow our stuff down so we don't have to add weight. I'm sure it hasn't been this way forever, but I haven't been involved long enough to know how it used to be...

I for one am all for something like this..

"Do away with the AHFS and Indexes as we know them.
All non-competitive combos get 15-20% HP reduction immediately.
At Indy, all Class Winners automatically qualify for the field, the rest of the 128 cars are furthest under the RECORD.
Class Winning ET BECOMES the RECORD. If no-one in Class, then previous record stands.
Following season (starting at the WinterNationals), the RECORD becomes the INDEX. The RECORD stands for 1 season (Winters to World Finals) but is set every year at Indy.
Anyone running under the RECORD at any NHRA sanctioned Event during the course of the year is subject to immediate tear-down AND HP hit."

What you're suggesting is just untenable.


Who decides what is "uncompetitive"? Because there's a lot of stuff out there that is being seriously sandbagged.


At Indy, you'd be rewarding people for searching for a single for class and avoiding a race.


And if you void the indexes, and run off records, what do you do where there's a "class minimum" instead of a record?


Who is going to tear down and tech all of these newly minted record holders?



If you start qualifying and racing off the record, your field will shrink dramatically, and rapidly.




Sorry, what you're suggesting just isn't viable, from the racers' side, or from NHRA's side.




Again, the simple solution, that doesn't keep anyone from qualifying because they can't run under a new indexes, is to leave the indexes alone. Just adjust at least the review trigger in the AHFS to a combination average of 1.00 under.


If you really wanted to increase performance as a factor, again, without reducing the indexes so that some who can currently qualify couldn't, is to start paying real money and real points for qualifying and for class eliminations.For those chasing money and championships, they're going to step up their performance, and maybe even move to a class with a few more cars. This will also drive the AHFS to correct combinations that are way soft, because people are going to try to take advantage of those in order to collect points and dollars.


By doing that, you substantially change only qualifying and class eliminations, while leaving regular eliminations changed only by the impact of a few people adjusting their class to score points and/or money. So people not able to run very far under still get to participate, they can qualify, and they can run the "dial in" eliminations.