Just when Stevie "Fast" Jackson thought he'd seen it all, he admitted the latest actions by the NHRA to rescind rule changes before they were put into effect on the track adds a new dynamic to the collection of examples he's witnessed.

On July 1, 2022, NHRA announced they reduced the centrifugal supercharger rpm limit from 10K rpm to 9500. The screw supercharger combination would have its overdrive from 75 to 65 percent, while the roots supercharger combination would have its minimum weight reduced from 2640 to 2615.

Twelve days later, the NHRA's tech department rescinded the adjustment.

Jackson said he was in the middle of a test session with his roots combination when the NHRA's tech department took away the weight break for the combination he was testing.

"I take my car to the chassis shop and I spend $10,000 on it to take nine pounds out of it," Jackson explained. "When you play with titanium, it's about a thousand dollars a pound. I get my car lighter; we get it all done. We go run a race track. We're out testing, making runs with the NHRA-released rule package. Cost a lot to run these cars. I won't tell you how much a run is, but it's not $3,000 a run if you average it out for the year. We test for two days, and the rules that we had just been told two weeks ago, what they were, get changed.

"So basically, I wasted [the cost of] a Chevrolet pickup truck going to test. And so now we got a new rule package. So we're going to work around that, and we'll bolt some overdrive on it and change the motor around and get a different supercharger and work on the torque converter some more. And we'll get that thing back out there and test it again."

NHRA's rule reversal returned the centrifugal supercharged combination to the 10,000 rpm limit. It also took away the 25 weight break given initially.

"The weight break was a token move anyway," Jackson said. "It was never a big enough move."

NHRA VP of Competition Ned Walliser said input from the Pro Modified Rules Committee after the fact was the impetus for rescinding the previous rules amendment.

"We started a Rules Advisory Committee, which is competitors within the category, one from each power adder to then represent that power adder for the category and to bring that information to us," Walliser said. "So our Rules Committee met. Once we met, we had established what we thought would have been a direction to go. We then took that pattern to the Rules Advisory Committee, and the Rules Advisory Committee had a different school of thought. So we listened to them, took it under advisement, went back to the Rules Committee, discussed it, and that's where we ended up."

NHRA National Tech Director Lonnie Grim said rescinding the rules made sense once new data came to light following the July 1 announcement.

"In between that early July announcement, which is being referred to as Pro Mod Rule 1.0, and then it changed to 2.0," Grim said. "So for that initial release, we've still been trying to get ahold of the ProCharger combination over some time. They did receive 40 pounds going into Norwalk. And so if you looked at that event, particularly against other combinations, take out the screw, put other combinations with the roots and the nitrous, it was pretty decent. There were some areas of the ProCharger that still showed promise, especially in the front half of the racetrack, but they had some of the slower back half [times].

"Between that initial release, a few days past that, we did have a ProCharger competitor that took a car to the racetrack. Fortunately, I didn't order any parts. Had all the parts in the trailer. Added them all up, it would've been about $23,000 that he has thrown at that 500 RPM change. They didn't have firmware to race on but just to test on, trying to stay below 9,500. He had thrown $23,000 worth of change at the car and found himself still seven hundredths behind Norwalk.

"So the 500 RPM change was obviously not tested before its announcement, but we were still trying to go in a direction of gaining control of the centrifugal combination. And our number one goal is to get that particular combination off of 2,775. It's really heavy in the category. It's safe for SFI [25.1] at 2,800 pounds is the chassis limit. But still, at 2,775, it's a weight that we want to go in a different direction with and eventually move Pro Mod, as we've talked about before, as getting Pro Mod to a place that 25 or 40 pounds is really all the pocketbook needs across all power adders. We've been slow to get there, but I think we're headed in the right direction.

Jackson said he could not fault the NHRA for removing the rpm limit on the centrifugal supercharger combination.

"It would've cost those guys a lot of money," Jackson said. "All those guys said they're not going to race anymore with that. So that led to some conversations about the other parts of the rule package getting changed that I don't agree with, but all of it leads to have a plan before you open your mouth. Think about what you're going to say before you type it out and send it out to everybody. It makes us look pretty rudy poot when we got rule changes happening all the time in between races, and nobody's run anything yet."

Also included in the latest rules amendments was the nitrous combination receiving another weight break. The 903-inch Nitrous engine had its base weight reduced from 2540 to 2515 lbs, while the 959-inch nitrous engine went from 2570 to 2545 lbs.

Jackson said he couldn't make heads or tails of the nitrous adjustment, considering he's made the combination run fast with a tired setup at more weight.

"I definitely, definitely don't understand the 25 pounds off the nitrous combination," Jackson confirmed. "There's some shenanigans going on, and I'm gonna get to the bottom of it."

Beware when Jackson says he will get to the bottom of anything, as he's proven he will go to great lengths to prove a point. When it was announced the screw superchargers would be included in the Pro Modified division, Jackson warned he'd expose any sandbagging.

At the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, Jackson stuck to his word, put a screw supercharger combination in his Camaro, and drove his way to the No. 1 qualifier, top speed, and a semi-final finish.

Grim said NHRA welcomes Jackson's object lessons.

"I'm a thumbs-up, high-five, thanks for showing it," Grim said. "Because obviously, what got us over the years and all the changes that's been pushed on the centrifugal combination came from people not doing that. Obviously, there's 20 years' experience with a screw charger. If it's going to go fast, he's one that can make it go fast as well as others. And so we'll get on it early. That won't be one of those things that they look back and feel like they've spent tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars overcoming rules."

Would Jackson consider an encore performance, focusing on the nitrous combination?

"Absolutely," Jackson responded quickly. "I called Jeffrey Barker this morning, and I said, how much you think it'll cost for me to go make a run? He said, 'Well, we got to have two sets of tires, change the oil, new set of valve springs, one motor's good to go, one needs pistons. It needs this and that. We've got enough stuff."

"The problem is, it's always time and money. You know, it costs a lot to get the screw car out there, to do what it did. To go out and run the nitrous car again, it costs a lot."

Jackson said at Indy last season, his nitrous car went 5.74 at 251q miles per hour in 3000 feet of air and 2,565 pounds.

"That same combination now can weigh 2,515," Jackson explained. "So I don't know why we're so much slower than we were when I was running the nitrous car. Nitrous car leads the race day averages. They've been to three out of four finals, and they won a race, and we've just helped them again.

"I don't know if they're just trying to set up a championship run between Rickie [Smith] and Chris Thorn. Maybe that's part of the deal, but I don't understand it. At the end of the day, we got to get the rules close somewhere and leave them alone for a little bit.

"At the end of the day, I don't know financially if it makes sense. We don't have a big motor. We don't have one of the good engines. Our stuff's ten years old, but even a ten-year-old motor ran pretty good."

NHRA said it reserves the right to make changes at any time in the name of parity if legit data is presented to them.

"Fair to say. On the same token is that with our recension of the initial release, that recension came with a lot of conversation, data to support the recension, and conversation within the advisory group," Grim said. "That is not the Rules Committee. They're just an advisory committee. But they did pool all the Pro Mod racers and team owners and the people that are spending money to race the category together to introduce us to that other direction.

"They came to us with an adjustment that was equal to what we thought we wanted," Walliser added.

Traditions be damned. Once a rule is made doesn't constitute it cannot be changed in the name of doing what is right. Walliser said it's about the big picture of ensuring all combinations are on equal footing, and if this includes making changes after initially releasing changes, NHRA will do what it takes to keep the class healthy.

"There's more than one route to a destination," Walliser said. "I think as long as we keep an open mind to that, our goal is to utilize the Rules Advisory Committees, just for that reason. Bring us the knowledge. We have calculators; we have data, and we have all the information we need. They've got on-track data, and they're running it every day. So they can bring us information that we don't have access to, and I think we can bring them a perspective that they don't have access to. And working together, I feel this committee has been really good in 2022. We've only had it this year, so it's been really good."

Walliser has said on more than one occasion the NHRA is dedicated to preserving Pro Modified.

"We certainly are trying," Walliser said. "I think we're out of the box with five power adders. Who knows what's coming down the pipe? We're 100% dedicated to making this category the best it can possibly be and give each combination an opportunity to get a winning ticket and potentially a trophy."

Jackson said he is too and couldn't care less who he angers along the way to prove his point.

"Well, there's a whole lot of back door dealings going on in Pro Mod right now," Jackson said. "I'm trying just to understand what's happening. I don't understand. There's some stuff going on that just doesn't make sense. And if you got a calculator that folks are doing and thinking, I just don't understand it."