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We toiled with this class for a few more seasons before we found ourselves with a car that would run the index on a very consistent basis, get a good light anywhere we went, and was relatively low-cost. With all the bells and whistles and a pretty good driver, we found ourselves on the losing end of races decided by .004 seconds or less with great regularity. While this made for good racing, one only needs to have an entire season of getting spanked like that to start re-thinking this whole deal. And that's what we did. We tried our hand at local Quick 16 competition, and did well. We bracket raced almost every weekend, and had fun. We even quit racing for a while, and didn't really miss it. We had always wanted to go fast, so we tried Comp Eliminator for a brief period until we saw just what kind of money it took to have just a .450-under car.

Along came the crate motor craze and we jumped right in. We purchased a Ford Racing 460 crate motor and installed it in the now thrice updated chassis and went bracket and 8.90 racing again. We enjoyed a great amount of success while racing with this little engine. It was just powerful enough to run 8.60's wide open, yet docile enough to hardly ever spin the tires or make any silly runs. But, as time went on, the painful losses re-emerged and we decided to make the change we had always wanted to do--Top Dragster.

Once I knew we were never going to compete in the 8.90 class again, it allowed me to have a "moment of clarity" regarding the class, and the solution to its problems came to me. A solution that makes so much sense yet will undoubtedly be met with great resistance by some of the racers. The fans will love it. The parts manufacturers and engine builders and chassis companies with froth at the mouth over it. Most of the drivers will do back flips over it. Hope you are sitting down while reading this.

The solution is to get completely rid of the elapsed time based indexes altogether. "Huh?" That's what I said. No more E.T. indexes. "How can the HRA's control the classes? Won't they become head's-up, money spending wars?" No. At least no more than they already are. The big paradigm shift will come in the form of mile per hour limits.

Drag boat racing already does this in what they call their bracket classes. Run as quick as you possibly can without exceeding your class' mph limit. Almost sounds too simple. This formula can be applied with ease to the existing 8.90, 9.90, 10.90, and even the classes of Top Dragster and Top Sportsman. By creating a system of standardized cubic inch, weight, and specification limits, these classes are quite possible with little or no changes to the current homogenized machines that populate each class.

The following chart outlines the basic rules that each class would adhere to. I used the NHRA version of the class names for familiarity:

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