Drag Racing Makes Several Rules Changes for the Better

When the National Hot Rod Assn. season ended in November at Pomona Raceway, it was obvious to all 45,000 spectators, as well as drag racing officials and competitors, that the sport couldn’t continue in the same way.

“Something had to be done, no two ways about it,” said Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, a former champion turned team owner. “We couldn’t keep coming back, blowing up cars the way we did.”

On Friday of the NHRA Finals, Doug Herbert’s car exploded on the starting line, sending pieces over the grandstand, more than 300 feet away, as the car went up in a ball of fire. Fourteen spectators were injured, 10 hospitalized, but fortunately, no one was badly hurt.

Then on Sunday, the first four runs of the first round--about 24 seconds of racing time--took

1 hour 7 minutes. Eight times during the day, oil-downs delayed racing for more than an hour while fans watched crew members and safety personnel moping up oil as sweepers and cleanup trucks drove up and down the quarter-mile strip.

Earlier in the year, five hours of downtime had ruined four days of racing at Dallas.

So, the NHRA, headed by its new president, Tom Compton, made sweeping rules changes that go into effect this weekend in the season-opening Autozone Winternationals at Pomona. Although designed to make sitting in the stands, or watching on TV, more enjoyable, the new rules are also expected to increase safety and control costs:

* Fuel for nitro-fuel burners--top-fuel and funny cars--is not to exceed 90% nitromethane in its methanol mixture. Previously, there was no restriction. Most teams used 95%-98% nitro.

* Time between runs during eliminations has been cut from 90 minutes to 75.

* During elimination rounds, teams that oil the track will be fined $1,000 and will lose 10 championship points. An oil-down during qualifying will cost $500.

Ray Alley, newly named director of top-fuel and funny car racing, defined an oil-down violation as “any incident requiring the use of mechanical equipment, such as tractor, trucks or sweeper, to clean up an oil spill.”

“The NHRA did the right thing by putting the burden [of preventing oil spills] back in our lap,” said former driver Ed McCulloch, now crew chief for Ron Capps’ funny car. “By taking points and money away, it will force teams to take the necessary steps to stop dropping oil all over the track.

“Crews and drivers must share in the responsibility. It might cause a little more work and little more thought, but it can be done.”

Reducing the nitro mix will cut speeds slightly, although most teams figure that drag racers’ ingenuity will bring them back to last season’s level by the end of this season.

“This week, you may see some slower runs, but I expect we’ll get [last year’s speeds] back by making other changes,” said Austin Coil, crew chief for nine-time funny car champion John Force.

Dale Armstrong, crew chief for Jerry Toliver’s funny car and the man who masterminded Kenny Bernstein’s top-fuel breakthrough 300-mph run in 1992, said he expects “the performance level to be back where it was before the season is out.”

Bernstein, who is recuperating from shoulder surgery, was among many who said the 90% nitro rule would save equipment.

“Data from the testing done by [driver] Tommy Johnson Jr. shows that we are getting much less parts breakage and more usage out of parts than ever before,” he said. “For example, we’re getting seven or eight runs out of our cylinder heads now, and we’d never gotten more than one run before.

“I think this will also make for more competitive racing. Where we used to see top-fuel cars get down the track between 40% and 60% of the runs, we may see competitive runs 80-90% of the time. This will stem from killing some of the horsepower we had before because of the cut in the nitro percentage.

“Horsepower now seems to be more manageable.”

Bernstein, who had Johnson sitting in for him during testing, has returned to his top-fuel car this week.

Although teams were universal in acknowledging that something needed to be done, not all crew chiefs and drivers were pleased with the specifics of the new rules.

Armstrong, one of the keenest minds in the business, believes it will be too easy for teams to circumvent the desired effect of the 90% nitro rule.

“I don’t mean to imply there will be any cheating,” he said. “I mean it won’t take long before crews find ways around it. With 90%, everyone will figure out ways to squeeze more air into the engine compartment until it explodes like it did with 95 or 98.

“I applaud the NHRA for doing something because we were on a runaway course in speed, safety and costs. Sooner or later, something had to be done. I just don’t advocate the way they did it.

“I would have preferred to limit the compression ratio, in the way NASCAR uses restrictor plates for Winston Cup cars. There is a need to reduce pressure in the motors and that would be a more manageable method. Monitoring nitro levels will be difficult to control.”

Fuels will be measured with NHRA’s hydrometer and if teams exceed 90% nitro, the run will be disqualified.

Prudhomme, a winner of 49 top-fuel and funny car events before retiring to become a team owner, objects to losing points over an oil spill.

“The [$1,000] fine is enough, but to see a guy win a round, then lose half his points because he spilled oil on the track, that’s not right,” he said. “If that happened a few times during the year, it could cost a driver the Winston championship. I hate to see them fool with the points.”

Drivers receive 20 points for each round they win during eliminations.

Most officials said the new rules should eliminate the possibility of a major explosion, such as Herbert’s in November, but McCulloch said that was wishful thinking:

“When Herbert hit the throttle, the explosion blew those parts 300 feet. He was probably using about 98% nitro. If he’d been using 90, with everything else the same, they’d probably only have gone 295 feet.”

The 75-minute turnaround rule is not expected to have much effect at Pomona because it is relatively easy to get the cars from the end of the strip to the garage. However, at some tracks, they must thread their way through the crowds, which is time-consuming.

“It’s going to help the rich teams and hurt the little guys,” said Force’s Coil. “Teams with a big budget can have more new parts available, and more crewmen to make quick changes. Teams working on a shoestring will struggle to get their damaged pieces repaired and some may find it tough making it back to the line in 75 minutes.”

The changes were made after consultation with owners, crew chiefs, drivers, sponsors and officials.

“You can never please everyone, but I think they came as close as they could to a consensus,” said Wally Parks, founder of the NHRA. “Tom Compton did a fine job in putting the package together.”

ROLEX 24 HOURS

After 50 years out of racing, Cadillac returns with a factory entry in this weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona Beach, Fla. It also plans to run in the 24 Hours of LeMans.

Butch Leitzinger, one of last year’s Rolex winners, has switched from Rob Dyson’s Riley & Scott team to drive the Cadillac Northstar LMP sports car with Andy Wallace and Frank Lagorce.

The last time a Cadillac raced was 1950 when two cars finished 10th and 11th at LeMans.

Dyson Racing will defend its title in the 24-hour race with Elliott Forbes-Robinson, James Weaver, John Paul Jr. and CART veteran Max Papis.

LAST LAPS

The Sprint Car Racing Assn. will open its season for non-winged cars tonight and Saturday night at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix. Two-time champion Richard Griffin will be challenged by local favorites Cory Kruseman, Rip Williams and Mike Kirby as well as Kevin Doty, of Milan, Ill., winner of last year’s inaugural race. Perris Auto Speedway will host the SCRA on Feb. 12 as its track opener. . . . Northern Light Technology Inc., an Internet search engine, has become title sponsor of the Indy Racing League. Northern Light reportedly signed a five-year, $50-million contract with the IRL. The deal provides for a $1-million bonus to the series champion. . . . Fuel altereds, drag racing’s funny car forerunners, will be remembered tonight in a “Salute to Fuel Altereds” at the NHRA Motorsports Museum on the Pomona Fairplex grounds. A reception will be held from 5-9 p.m.