By Jeff Burk
Photo by Ian Tocher
3/8/05

n the first day of qualifying for the second race of NHRA's 2005 POWERade series at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, AZ a press release appeared on NHRA.com. That press release was nothing less than monumental in the 50-plus year history of drag racing. For the first time the term "spec engine" was mentioned in the same space with the words "Top Fuel and Funny Cars."

The press release, which I will quote in portions of this article, combined with another NHRA tech department decision that makes a rev-limiter mandatory for NHRA Top Fuel and Funny Cars beginning with the NHRA Gatornationals, effectively puts the final nail in the coffin of any unlimited fuel class in drag racing. That situation has been de facto for some time, but by issuing that press release the NHRA actually made it official. The Top Fuel and Funny Car classes are officially just another spec -- albeit a very fast -- drag racing class similar to Pro Stock, Super Stock and Alky dragster.

For some time now both the NHRA and IHRA Top Fuel and Funny Car classes have been among the most heavily regulated classes in any motorsport. The reasons given for virtually every rule change in the past were to curtail performance, reduce engine failures, and to lower the cost of racing fuel cars. Up to now the rules have failed to accomplish any of those things.

There is no doubt that the cars are quicker and faster than they were before the nitro percentage was reduced. From my casual observation there are just about as many explosions and oil downs as there have ever been. I've not found one team owner who would say any of the rule changes for fuel cars have done anything but cost them money, and I talked to a variety of team owners from Don Schumacher to Jack Wyatt.

So, the question now is how will the spec engine rule and a mandatory rev-limiter affect Top Fuel racing in the near term?  NHRA spokesmen have said that the "spec" engine program is designed to level the playing field by improving the flow of quality parts from the well-funded teams to the lesser funded teams and to reduce the cost of fuel racing by outlawing the production of exotic, expensive engine parts through a mandated moratorium on engine and engine component development.

Here is a quote from the NHRA release:

"The NHRA engine moratorium is intended to control the escalating cost of drag racing at the sport's highest level, while at the same time maintaining equity between the highly financed operations and the less-financed teams. It is NHRA's opinion the engine moratorium and direction of an NHRA 'Spec' race engine, in Top Fuel and Funny Car will strengthen the flow of used parts from better-financed teams down to other competitors. This will offer the lower-financed teams the opportunity of equal performance potential with the higher funded operations. The engine component and cylinder head moratorium

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includes, but is not limited to, engine blocks, cylinder heads, intake manifolds, fuel injectors, and superchargers. This includes any redesign, reconfiguration, and/or significant modifications to existing components."

One of the NHRA employees who is responsible for enforcing the rules told a gathering at Phoenix in John Force's technical center trailer that NHRA felt both current and potential corporate sponsors of fuel teams were concerned about race team's cost of maintaining a competitive engine program. However, based upon the conversations I had with several team owners with corporate sponsorship their sponsors were concerned about just one thing: How many people will see the cars with my company logos on them. One crew chief I talked to (who asked not to be identified) told me that the sponsors couldn't care less how the teams spend the sponsorship dollars.