The California Independent Funny Car Association announced two major changes effective beginning at the 39th Annual Governors Cup Championships held at Sacramento Raceway September 19-20, 2008.These changes will go into effect at this event and will continue through the remainder of the 2008 Season and carry in to the 2009 season. The first change will be to a 7.20 index. The second will be a change in the performance correction factor to determine how a breakout run is used in qualifying.

“Simply put, it’s time” said CIFCA president Jamie Leppenan.” Our customers are the fans and track promoters. Over the past couple of years track promoters have been asking us to start thinking about running quicker. By instituting the change in the later part of the 2008 season it will give our teams plenty of time to gear up for the change as well as give track promoters a preview of what we can offer in 2009. The hope is to generate more races for the group.” The California Independent Funny Car Association announced two major changes effective beginning at the 39th Annual Governors Cup Championships held at Sacramento Raceway September 19-20, 2008.These changes will go into effect at this event and will continue through the remainder of the 2008 Season and carry in to the 2009 season. The first change will be to a 7.20 index. The second will be a change in the performance correction factor to determine how a breakout run is used in qualifying.

“Simply put, it’s time” said CIFCA president Jamie Leppenan.” Our customers are the fans and track promoters. Over the past couple of years track promoters have been asking us to start thinking about running quicker. By instituting the change in the later part of the 2008 season it will give our teams plenty of time to gear up for the change as well as give track promoters a preview of what we can offer in 2009. The hope is to generate more races for the group.”

The second change that will be made in conjunction with the index adjustment is the performance qualifying correction factor. The performance correction factor is used only in qualifying if a car runs quicker than the 7.50 index. The current correction factor is 0.30 seconds penalty plus the difference to 7.50. What this means is if a car runs a 7.495 in qualifying, the time that will be used will be 7.805. Under the new 7.20 index, the performance qualifying correction factor will be reduced to 0.20 plus the difference to 7.20. “The reason for this change is to make all CIFCA cars run a little bit quicker. It does not make sense for a car that is trying to run low 7.20’s or high 7.10’s to be behind a car in qualifying who is still running 7.50’s. We want the performance of the group to increase as a whole.

Historically, this represents only the fourth index change in 24 years of CIFCA competition. The 7.50 index has been around since 1992. In 1992 the average elapsed time of an alcohol funny car was 6.71 @ 204 mph. The 2007 average for alcohol funny cars was 5.97 @ 241 mph (source draglist.com).

“Track Owners and Fans all want to see us go faster, however it has to be done in such a way that makes sense. The ultimate goal over the next couple years would be to have a high 6 second 200 mph alcohol funny car show. This change can not be made over night as there our multiple changes that need to be made. These changes include: License Upgrades, Safety Equipment Upgrades, and possibly power plant changes. For a sportsman group, these changes have to be done over time so teams are not alienated and can continue to afford to race. The goal is to keep the same 16 car qualified fields that we have been having while making the show better”.