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LEICESTER NOTES

by Jeff Burk

NEW RULES BOMB BLOWER CARS
While Troy Critchley managed to get Johnny Rocca's supercharged Pro Modified into the final round, it was apparent that the supercharged cars are now at least a tenth (or more) slower than the nitrous contingent. The quickest nitrous car at the race was Quain Stott who ran a 6.33. The quickest blower cars was Jim Oddy's Corvette at 6.42!

ROCCA READ THE RULE BOOK
Johnny Rocca has been using a four-speed in his Ironhorse '49 Merc for most of the 2000 season. Although Rocca had a transmission in the car when he showed up at New York, he had removed the shift mechanism and left the trans intact. It complied with the new rule, which stated that supercharged cars could only have three FORWARD gears; it didn't rule out a third planetary.

By leaving the old planetary in the car, the was that it gave the car an actual final ratio of approximately 4.90. That's why the first tow passes on the "horse" were in the 6.40 range at just a couple of mph over 200. By Saturday, the nitrous contingent had figured out what Rocca was doing and confronted Bill Bader with the evident. The new new rule wll undoubtedly restrict the Pro Mods to two planetaries.

ROMINE RETAINS POINTS LEAD; FULERS CLEAN AT NY
Despite his second straight win over Paul Romine, Bruce Litton is still trailing the Indiana Top Fuel racer. The reason is that IHRA's rules regarding oil downs cause the oiler to forfeit points and Litton has had his share of mechanical woes this season.

For the first time this year there wasn't any oiling of the track by the fuel cars at an IHRA event, but several other classes-including alky funny-had serious breakage problem.

PARKER'S ALTERED GOES 232+
Neal Parker's five-second AA/A that competes in IHRA's Pro Outlaw class stunned the crowd in Leicester when he ripped off a 232.01 in qualifying. DRO believes that to be the fastest speed for an alky-powered Altered. The speed is even more impressive considering Parker uses a Jim Oddy-built 500+-inch rat motor for power.

ODDY SETS NEW RECORD, KIND OF
Jim Oddy's 1954 Corvette set a new record of sorts for the supercharged Pro Mods under IHRA's new restrictive rules for the class. In the second round of eliminations on Sunday, driver Fred Hahn booted the Summit-backed Vette to a 6.542/224 pass.

"We can get the car to run the back half of the track pretty good," Oddy told DRO, "but we're still very weak for the first eighth."

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