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It would be very interesting to know what events took place for them to turn around and end up running the class...following the pull-out

Rickster



From Dragracingonline

Guess you can decide which version you want to believe

The Internet was full of misinformation regarding the NHRA Pro Stock issue during the third round of qualifying at last weekend’s NHRA Seattle race. First, there was no boycott or refusal to race by the NHRA Pro Stock racers. Indeed, NHRA’s Graham Light made an instantaneous decision that may have prevented some Pro Stocker from crashing and he deserves to be praised for that quick decision.

After the first pair of Pro Stock cars went down the track during Saturday’s third of four rounds of pro qualifying, Warren Johnson was extremely vocal about the lack of traction compound sprayed on the last three hundred feet of the track. While he was expressing his opinion to the TV pit reporter, the next pair of cars had already done their burnouts and were in the process of staging.

Light immediately made the call to pull them out of line and run the nitro classes. He knew that the nitro cars’ tires would carry traction compound way past the 1,000-foot mark. He was right. They ran the nitro cars and then the Pro Stocks followed with no repeat of the earlier traction issue.

The NHRA is caught between a rock and a hard spot. The tire people and car tuners admit that if the track is sprayed with traction compound for the entire 1320 feet the nitro cars tires are much more likely to “chunk” when the driver steps off the throttle at the 1,000-foot mark, which is why they don’t spray the entire quarter mile.

The Agent thinks in the future you will see the Pro Stocks run after the nitro cars both in qualifying and on race day. A big tip of the Agent’s fedora to Graham Light and his crew for getting this one right, and probably preventing some Pro Stockers from crashing at Seattle.