Don't shoot the messenger, but I have some questions & thoughts... AND I plead COMPLETE ignorance on the subject of electronics in brackets & Super-class racing right up front.
1. Some of you mentioned big-money bracket races. Are they for electronics only, or do they have footbrake classes, too? If both, how do the turnouts compare between the two?
2. Any big-money footbrake-only races? I recall there were in the past, but don't ask me to define what "past" means since I can't remember what I had for breakfast.
3. What if there were serious MPH limits applied to the Super classes? How would the 10.90 and 9.90 classes change if the two classes were limited to 130 & 140 MPH (or even 5 MPH slower?) respectively?
4. What would happen if ALL electronics were banned? Would car counts tank simply because everyone had to go back to footbraking it? If so, why? If there's still a good paying purse, what difference does it make?
5. If electronics don't actually make the car easier to bracket race, then why should people complain if they all simply went away? Wouldn't that still maintain a level playing field, or are you concerned about the cheaters that will still find ways to build hidden electronics into their combinations?
6. Top Sportsman has a cut-off based on quickest qualifiers, right? What if -- and again w/ the no-electronics idea still in play -- ALL classes were broken out by qualifying time? The first 32 go to Class A, the second fastest 32 go to Class B, etc.? This would (or "should") keep the cars in any given class somewhere reasonably close in ETs, and reduce the concerns about a 9-sec. car racing a 14-sec. car (unless you only had those 2 cars show up).
7. Gawd, I hate watching a throttle-stop car... Oh, did I just say that? Yeah. Sorry guys, but those are total thrill-killers from a spectator standpoint.
Flame away. But I'm really curious about this stuff. I did a little bit of local heads-up DOT radial racing 15+ years ago when the cars were still running double-digit ETs, and some street car footbrake-only bracket racing, too. I like heads-up stuff better, simply because it's "pure" drag racing. But I did have fun running brackets, too, and would like to participate more regularly in the future.
At this point, it's been so long since I've done anything but test & tunes ('cuz I'm one of those people who always looks for tweaks to make the car faster) that I'm sure some people on here think my opinion doesn't matter either way. However, sometimes it takes someone who isn't buried into it up to their eyeballs to have a different -- possibly even better -- perspective on things.
BradH,
It is my OPINION that going to a big money bracket race with anything less than a Pipe Rack and a full arsenal of all the latest electronics is just contributing your funds to the pot.
Ever since the "Matty box" days, and watching the lip service paid by promoters about how they check for illegal stuff(NHRA included) I have no faith in the system.
The NHRA super classes are broken, just like Pro Stock, and there are no easy ways to fix them.
One of the biggest things that no one wants to address is the .5 pro tree that Super Street uses, versus the .4 pro tree that Super Gas, Super Comp, and just about every heads-up class in the country, whether they are index or no-breakout.
You see many racers staying in Super Street and adding as much as 500lbs to their full tube cars, because they like the fact that just about any car can hit the .5 tree.
Building and maintaining a car that consistently go red on a .4 pro tree at any track is expensive and difficult. The guys who have such cars don't want to give up that advantage, and they are often the loudest voices in the room anytime the discussion comes up to move Super Gas to a .5 tree. So many cars that appear like they should be in SG, stay in SST.
MPH limits have been discussed, many times, and always seem to get shot down. Once again, only racers already active in the class are being asked the questions, so who knows what it would take to bring in new blood?
Banning Electronics from Index ClassesThe biggest problem with many index classes at big races, is that you don't get enough time runs, often only two or three over a two day period, then first round is 24 hours later. There are such huge swings in weather and track conditions that trying to hit the index without electronics under those parameters is darn near impossible.
I experienced this first hand at last year's NHRA's Heritage Series race, The March Meet. I was in D-Gas, a 10.60 index class on a .4 pro tree, with no electronics. We only got 1 time run Friday morning, 1 Saturday morning, and first round was Sunday Morning. When we got up Sunday morning the weather was completely different and I knew from my SST days we were going to be a tenth or more slow, but without electronics, I had no method to adjust for that much swing. Also, out of the twenty or so cars in the class, only about three were truly equipped with the ability to hit the .4 without taking a bump, or guessing, and I couldn't help but think the class would be better served to be on the .5 SST tree.
