Departments - Missed Races

Attention Nostalgia Top Fuel: Big Brother is Watching

3/8/04

Jeff "Mr. Pammy" Utterback is a message board troublemaker who's also lead welder-fabricator at So. Cal. Chassis-builders Hansen Chassis. Jeff first got hooked on drag racing when his father worked and raced at Lions in the swinging '60s and got bit by the Nostalgia bug in the late '80s. Jeff actually possesses a current competition license with personal bests of 6.52 @ 208 mph. In his past, he's been an aerospace welder of 16 years and former BMX pro. He is currently the sub drummer for the '60s surf band The Surfaris and lives in Santa Monica, CA with his wife Pammy (the queen of all media) and their two sons Morgan and Miles.

es, I'm back. Lucky you. Last month I talked about the Nostalgia Funnies and I mentioned the proposed rules. Well kids, the real rules for F/C are up now. If you are so inclined, you can view the rules in their complete form at vratech.com.

As far as the Funny Car rules go, there's nothing Earth-shattering or significantly different from the lowdown I gave you last month, and the general tone seems to be if you show up with something close to what they're aiming for, you won't be turned away. Bravo, Goodguys!

And if the Nostalgia Top Fuel guys were feeling left out in the new rule department, someone (NHRA) heard their plea and handed down some 11th-hour changes to the GG VRA rules for the 2004 season. Never mind that they issued these last-minute adjustments on Feb. 18 and the season starts March 12. That's plenty of time to scramble and do a complete overhaul on your combination, right?

The reason for these Top Fuel rule changes? Ever since the unfortunate Rance McDaniel and Gerry Steiner incidents, NHRA has started paying closer attention to our little "hobby" and just where it is going. Now don't get me wrong, racing is a dangerous endeavor no matter how you do it, but 5.70s at almost 260 mph will make anyone in the legal department take notice. Well, that and an impending lawsuit by a NTF driver who was injured at the track. Last year, NHRA created the Special Fuel Category Supplement with specifications that Nostalgia Fuel Racing is supposed to fall under, including a 5.99 E.T. ceiling, which has been obviously ignored by the teams and the tracks. It seems that NHRA has noticed that people are ignoring this limit and is out to make it a little tougher to get to those 5.70s this year. NHRA tech has seen the photos of cars going through the lights at close to 260 mph. Looking at snapshots of tires that look as if they are about to grow off the rims, they are becoming a little concerned, to say the least.

That, my friends, brings me to the highlights of the Goodguys Vintage Racing Association Nostalgia Top Fuel rules adjustments:

No air bottles allowed, period. No air mag retard or air operated lean out or air over on a BDK valve. No "yes and not" switches that everyone says do not matter. No reworked timers that aren't timers anymore. No air operated chute releases. None. No more. Nada.
4.6 lbs. Per cu. inch. up from 4.4 lbs. It seems to be a clear message that NHRA would like smaller motors to be built.
Floater rear ends mandatory. And they should have been from day one, in my opinion.
14% over on blower. Down from 18%. Another attempt at slowing the cars down.
0.850 inch vane in fuel pump. Down from 1.1 inch. Again, another move toward more moderate speeds.
Mag retard or hi-speeds can be cable operated. This was probably instated to eliminate any air bottle shenanigans.
They also have a 450 cu. inch max down from 470 cu. inches last year. Again, another push to make the engines smaller.

So it seems NHRA would like things to calm down a bit. Is that bad? I, for one, like what NHRA is trying to do with the GG VRA NTF rules. My only bitch is that I can't run my car with a 426 in it, but that we will address at a later date, believe me!

Another less technical but equally interesting observation is that there is a new ladder - which I both like and don't like. I like that number 1 races 8 etc. in the "A" show and 9 races 16 in the "B" show etc. What's not cool is splitting the show into two. I know the Goodguys like having one less round of racing (and one less round of payouts) on Sunday, but the way the racers seem to feel about this probably has to do with the way the alphabet is laid-out, you know, "A" is better than "B". If that's the case, who wouldn't want to be in the "A" show? And the attitude of some racers seems to be, why bother at all with the "B" show? Even if you win, there's still the feeling that you're not the real "winner." When I was going with the Hansen & Kuhns NTF team, even if we were in the bottom half of the field, we liked to think that we had a chance of going to a final in a 16-car show. So let's go back to a 16 car show, 'kay?

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Things have evolved since the beginning of the Nostalgia movement. Some will say it has evolved past the spirit of the original intent. As a chassis builder I may be biased, but I think you'll agree that 30-year-old pipe and specs aren't the cutting edge at saving your ass at 200+mph. I'm glad that SFI wrote specs for front motor cars. And if NHRA feels that the reins need to be pulled back slightly as far as the motor goes to keep drivers from buying the farm, than so be it.

I know I'm not the only one who is curious to see what sorts of E.T.s and speeds the NTF teams come up with this year, whether they can find a combination that works and is legal before the March Meet and whether the Funnies will outrun the dragsters at some point because of all the new restrictions placed on NTF. 2004 should be an interesting year for the teams and the spectators to say the least.