NHRA VP of Technical Operations Glen Gray confirmed to CompetitionPlus.com a new spec for the Top Fuel dragster front half has been agreed upon by members of the Top Fuel/Funny Car chassis committee. The spec has now been passed onto the SFI committee in charge of chassis specs. 

The proposed spec is in response to crashes earlier this season by Larry Dixon and Phil Lamattina where their dragsters inexplicably broke in half during a run at half-track. 

If approved by the SFI, the spec will likely go into effect at the start of the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season. 

“We did have a meeting, and we are not part of the committee but sit in on the meetings,” Gray said, confirming the process. “The committee voted on several positive things. From this point, the proposed changes must now go to the SFI Board of Directors where they will vote on it.”

Gray said he expects the process to be completed within two weeks. 

“If the proposed changes pass, we’re not looking at anything being mandatory until 2016,” Gray confirmed. “These proposed changes are too excessive to be done during the season.”

So what exactly will be changed?

“Until everything is complete and approved, I’d rather not comment,” Gray said. “I will say they are positive moves to improving the chassis.”

A source close to the situation told CompetitionPlus.com the “positive” changes are essentially additional structure for the front-half of the dragster. The new specs include thicker tubing, additional diagonal bars and make slip-tube designs optional. 

Gray couldn’t confirm whether the older chassis will be grandfathered in under the previous spec. 

“The teams who race the entire tour front-half their cars on a regular basis,” said Gray. “It shouldn’t be hard for those teams to bring the cars up to spec. The challenge will be on the smaller teams, but the bigger teams like DSR, Morgan Lucas Racing and Kalitta have suggested they will do whatever they can to help those teams out if they need to get their cars front-halved quickly.”

Gray did say teams wishing to be proactive once the spec gains approval can implement the new spec immediately without violating the present spec due to the “wiggle room” in the current front-end spec.

“The present rule says you can go above and beyond what is there,” Gray said. “There will be some ‘wiggle-room’ in the new spec as well. Right now, there are teams out there with thicker wall tubing than spec.”

The new spec, Gray said, will not have as much leeway. 

“You will still have some wiggle room with the new spec, there’s just certain things which will be required that is presently not required.”

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