CHANGING THE QUALIFYING PROCESS?
There can be little doubt that the current qualifying
process of two runs on Friday and another pair on Saturday needs some
adjustment. In Pro Stock, for example, during the hotter summer months the
Friday evening session has become all important. Simply put, make a bad
run
Friday and the odds are that you’re going home Saturday
afternoon rather than Sunday.
In an effort to even out running conditions between the
Friday evening and Saturday sessions a number of plans have been put
forth. One that’s alleged to be a favorite of PRO president Kenny
Bernstein is to lock in the top 8 runners after Friday evening, and fill the
field with the final 8 from the best times on Saturday.
In other words, even if conditions prevent the kind of elapsed times that might come up on the clocks on Friday evening from being repeated on Saturday, the eight quickest runners in the third and fourth sessions would still have a chance of racing on Sunday.
There can be little doubt that the current qualifying
process of two runs on Friday and another pair on Saturday needs some
adjustment. In Pro Stock, for example, during the hotter summer months the
Friday evening session has become all important. Simply put, make a bad
run
Friday and the odds are that you’re going home Saturday
afternoon rather than Sunday.
In an effort to even out running conditions between the
Friday evening and Saturday sessions a number of plans have been put
forth. One that’s alleged to be a favorite of PRO president Kenny
Bernstein is to lock in the top 8 runners after Friday evening, and fill the
field with the final 8 from the best times on Saturday.
In other words, even if conditions prevent the kind of
elapsed times that might come up on the clocks on Friday evening from being
repeated on Saturday, the eight quickest runners in the third and fourth
sessions would still have a chance of racing on Sunday.
We’ve also heard from unimpeachable sources that a top level
major sponsor met with a senior NHRA official on Friday at Bandimere Speedway
during which an alternative plan was suggested. Under this version the top
four performers in each qualifying session would be
To avoid confusion, after the final session the elapsed
times of the 16 qualifiers, regardless of when they recorded them, would be
listed in order as they are now, so the quickest runner would still be listed
as Number 1, with the slowest still Number 16.
There are a couple of reasons why it’s possible that an
alteration in the qualifying procedure could take place before the end of the
season, and one of them is the continuing poor television ratings for the
Saturday qualifying program. People are tuning out rather than
MORE ON POSSIBLE QUALIFYING CHANGES
This issue, which we first raised this past weekend, was the subject of
much discussion during the Mopar Mile-High Nationals, so we sought out
NHRA sr. vice president Graham Light to get “an official” comment.
COMPPLUS: Is there a chance there’ll be a qualifying procedure change before the end of the season?
LIGHT: It’s something we’re seriously considering. With as
competitive as the cars are, Friday night’s become one shot qualifying
in a lot of cases. That’s not fair to the teams, the fans or the
sponsors. We’re talking to a lot of teams and are looking at possibly a
policy change.
COMPPLUS: If you made apolicy change that resulted in something
there being four spots guaranteed after each session, or a system that
guaranteed eight spots after Friday and another eight on Saturday, do
you think that would be met with resistance, or would the driver be
accepting of it?
LIGHT: First of all, from the racers I’ve spoken with they
all seem to feel tht there needs to be a change. Now, how that’s
structured, well, everybody has a different opinion. There’s a lot of
talk out there and a lot of ideas. There are ideas of seeding cars from
certain sessions as you suggested, and there are ideas of accepting
elapsed times from certain sessions but not seeding (the cars). That
might mean taking so many (elapsed) times from Friday night, and then
mixing them in with the best times from Saturday and mixing them up so
they’d fall wherever they’d run on the qualifier’s list.
There are some people who are talking about what you said, four, four,
four and four. In other words, four cars from each session. Other
people are suggesting eight and eight – eight from each day,
guaranteeing them spots. There’s another concept that says accept only
so many times from Friday night’s session, and then fill in the rest
from Saturday.
COMPPLUS: It appears to be fairly complicated.
LIGHT: I don’t think it’s complicated. It’s deciding what’s
fair for all. We’re in the midst of the Countdown, which is starting to
heat up, so you don’t want to tamper with the system too much that
would in any way interfere with that. At the same time we want to do
whatever’s fairest for all (the racers), and particularly the
fans. It’s all about putting on a show for the fans while at the same
time having a level playing field for the teams and sponsors.
COMPPLUS: Let’s switch gears for a moment. Is there likely to be a switch from 85% to 90% nitro for next year?
LIGHT: I don’t know what to tell you on that. There’s really
no significance to 85%, it’s just the number we’re (currently) at. Dan
Olson has been meeting with a lot of teams and evaluating things. If it
makes sense we’re seriously look at it.
We
also discussed the issue with several others, including tuner Lee
Beard, who manages the Matco Tools Special driven by former
photographer Whit Bazemore. “I think there are pros and cons to any
change,” he said. “When you look at Chicago, for example, after Friday
night it took something like a 4.57 to get in the show. We had run a
fifty-nine-one on the first session Friday afternoon and then had a
mechanical failure that night. Saturday (because of a hot track) it was
impossible to get in.
“The downside to guaranteeing spots is the guy who ran that fifty-seven
on Friday night, which might have made him ninth, well, it’s going to
be difficult to go to him and say that doesn’t count. It’s always going
to be difficult to tell a guy who’s made a god run that it didn’t count.
“I think it be better to take a different approach to our qualifying
run times and our racing time. Having been around drag racing for a
long time, and remembering those spectacular shows they had at places
like Orange County on a Saturday night, or at places like Seattle, I’m
a big time fan of night racing. I think we should be more user friendly
to our fans and our racers and qualify and race at night”
When
asked about the need of most spectators to be heading home on a Sunday
night to go to work Monday, Beard suggested that the whole show take
place on Saturday evening. “Either start the races on Thursdays, or run
three sessions on Friday. Let’s just back up to three (qualifying)
sessions. In the heat of the summer, to have those spectators sitting
out there in that 90 degree weather versus having them sit there in,
say, 70 degree weather is better. I know if I was paying the money
that’d be my choice of when I wanted to see a race.
“Backing up a bit, I think it’s going to be very hard to tell someone
that the great run they made Friday night isn’t going to count. It’s
kind of like when the timing system doesn’t work and we make a great
run. We can look at the computer and know the car might’ve run
somewhere in the four-fifty range, but the clocks didn’t work, so we
don’t get the run. That’s pretty frustrating, so I can’t even imagine
what it would be like to make that good run Friday night and even if it
put you twelfth or thirteenth, are you going to tell that guy that it
doesn’t count?”
Defending
Mile-High Nationals Top Fuel champion J.R. Todd also had some thoughts
on the subject. “I kind of like the idea of changing things. It doesn’t
put as much pressure on you to get down the track on Friday. If you
don’t make that shot it’s not as tough to make it on Saturday. There
are definitely a bunch of good cars that aren’t getting in the show
now, so that’s why you’re hearing all that talk about a change
coming. I don’t think it’s going to happen, though.”
Snap-on Tools Top Fuel driver Doug Herbert feels that changing the
qualifying procedure “would be confusing for the fans. In some ways
it’s probably good, but in general I think it would be more
confusing. In reality (a change) would probably be better for Pro Stock
because fuel car generally can get
down the track on Saturday if the track’s not bad. Lately they’ve been
doing a better job of track prepping, but how are you going to explain
to the fans that this guy went faster than that guy, but he’s not
qualified? If I had a vote on this I’d vote to leave it alone until we
have a better idea for this.”
Tuner Mike Kloeber feels that “if they make a new set of rules and
they’re the same rules for everybody than I see no real change. The
night sessions that everybody runs good in are the same opportunity for
everybody. I know it’s difficult to bump in if you (don’t perform well)
in that night session, but I’m not lobbying for or against a change