Performance back up after rule changes

National Dragster, Dec 24, 2004

Midway through the 2004 season, NHRA officials announced several rule changes for Top Fuel and Funny Car.

Beginning with the Denver event in mid-July, all Top Fuelers were required to have in place around the back of the cage roll-cage shielding consisting of .080- or .090-inch-thick titanium of the same quality and grade as that used to make the bell-housings in fuel cars. Additional changes before racing resumed in Denver were a switch to model 2300 Goodyear slicks and a minimum tire pressure of 7psi in Top Fuel, 6.5psi in Funny Car. As the season ended, only model 1430 Goodyear slicks were allowed.

Beginning with the next event, in Seattle a week later, the maximum amount of nitromethane that could be used was lowered from the 90 percent mandated before the start of the 2000 season to 85 percent. Despite the changes, warm weather in Seattle, and 700 feet of new concrete at Pacific Raceways, crafty tuners managed to set low e.t. and top speed within a few ticks of the existing track records, and Eric Medlen eclipsed the track's Funny Car speed record of 315.19 mph with a 318.62-mph speed.

Before the next event, in Sonoma, Top Fuel tuners had to adapt to a rear-wing angle limitation of two degrees maximum; previously, there had been no maximum downward angle. Nevertheless, Doug Kalitta won Top Fuel at Infineon Raceway for the fourth time since his first career win there in 1998. Teammate and runnerup David Grubnic set low e.t. at 4.567, just three-hundredths slower than Kalitta's track record. And Tony Schumacher subtly bumped the track speed record to 325.85 mph from 325.77 mph.

Despite the biggest rule change that affected performance - the lowering of the nitromethane percentage - fans of quick e.t.s and fast speeds continue to have it their way. At the close of the 2004 season, Kalitta had recorded the seventh-quickest Top Fuel e.t. ever, 4.460 seconds, in October in Reading. The four quickest Funny Car e.t.s. ever, stretching between John Force's 4.665 and Gary Densham's 4.706, were recorded in October and November. The sixthand seventh-fastest Top Fuel speeds of all time, David Grubnic's 333.58 and Brandon Bernstein's 333.41, were run in Chicago in October. Three of the eight fastest Funny Car speeds, Force's times of 333.58 mph (fastest ever), 332.75, and 330.96 mph, came in Chicago in October.

In a cost-saving change for 2005, the superchargers in Top Fuel and Funny Car have been restricted to a maximum overdrive of 1.50, or 50 percent faster than engine speed.