The surprise decision by the NHRA to ban overhead cam and/or multi-valve engines from its Top Fuel/nitro Funny Car ranks effectively eliminates such engines from all competition, and most specifically attempts to ban the Australian designed and developed McGee and Sainty engines, since these are the only ones in the world going down the track at the moment.

It was a surprise move, the more so because none of the bodies or individuals around the world who might have been expected to have been notified about the impending rules change had any inkling that it was there in the new NHRA Rule Book. It caught racers in the USA off guard, as much as it did those in Australia, or even supposed NHRA allies, such as ANDRA. I presume there are many, but we haven't been able to find one person who knew about it until after it was already in print. We don't recall seeing a word about in the weekly National Dragster NHRA house journal.

I don't wish to make it sound as if someone was being sneaky here, but let's just say that there are aspects of this which were handled differently to the way similar rules changes have been handled in the past.

It's easy to jump to conclusions about this issue. The NHRA is under some pressure to limit the performance of nitro cars in the USA. Limits on braking areas, insurance risks and premiums, scared parts suppliers wary of being drawn into class action law suits if one of these ever quicker cars gets into the crowd, and so on, are all making life tough.

Drag racing has been the only unlimited motorsport for a long time. All others have boundaries imposed, but this sport has been open-ended, and that's always been one of its great attractions, so the very notion of slowing any part of it down goes very much against the grain with many people.

However, having to face this pressure to limit performance, the NHRA has been looking at ways to bring it about. Some have suggested that the simplest way would be to impose a limit on rotor length and/or overdrive ratios on superchargers, with maybe some sort of limit on injector hat sizes, if you want to limit power, but it seems that almost every other option is being considered first, with one of the favoured methods being to limit engine capacity. This would seem a little cock-eyed, since it would result in changes to rod length and crank stroke, plus maybe even pin height, which would make all sorts of hardware changes, on top of the need to develop all sorts of new tune-ups.

If you do favour the capacity limits, however, you are faced with the likely superiority of overhead cam and multi-valve engines, with their inherent breathing and revving advantages, and that leaves the antiquated pushrod engines which have been the standard in these brackets out in the cold. Suddenly the KB, JP-1, TFX-type engines are potential scrap aluminium.

You could be excused for jumping to the conclusion that someone is out to protect anyone else in this industry.

In 1976, when the McGees first took their four-valve, DOHC engine to the USA there was much concern within the US nitro ranks about its potential to dominate the existing scene, despite or maybe because of it winning an NHRA Best Engineered award. If the stories from the time are to be believed there were at first requests, then petitions to have it banned.

To the NHRA's credit they simply explained that these were the big boys' brackets and if someone came up with a better mousetrap then everyone would have to learn to deal with it. Now it might appear that the mousetrap is looking a little tighter, or racers of the 1990s are less adaptable. Or are the stakes so much bigger now?

What makes this rule change more notable than in any other bracket is that the Top Fuel/nitro Funny Car brackets are supposed to be universally regulated, with the French-based FIA accepting the NHRA Rule Book as its standard for these classes. Plainly, the FIA figures there's a chance of drag racing going international, and it figures that if it does it will be through Top Fuel, not the sort of misguided attempt which tried to launch an international Alcohol Funny Car championship several years ago.

One might suggest that if the NHRA is to be the standard then it should at least have the courtesy to field potential rules changes in these brackets with other member countries of the FIA Drag Racing Commission. It would seem commonsense, and common courtesy.

To its credit, ANDRA has gone to bat against the new rule, to support the local Sainty engine, and in a press statement released only days after the 1998 NHRA Rule Book was released, stated that it would oppose these rules at the next meeting of the FIA Drag Racing Commission, due to be held in New Zealand in March 1998.

Does this mean that if one of the member countries adamantly stands against a rule change, such as this, and its stand receives support from other member countries of the Commission, that the FIA could dictate to the NHRA over the nature of its Rule Book? If it does, would this force the NHRA out of the Commission, or break the nexus between its Rule Book and that of the international drag racing community?

All interesting questions, and the sort of mess feared by some senior NHRA people, who have been privately expressing concern over the decision to so willingly go along with the FIA, which they see principally as a predatory organization.

However, at the end of the day we must come back to the core of this argument, and that rests with a decision to limit drag racing to 1950s technology. Because it doesn't matter how much you dress one up in fancy alloys, miles of braided hose and square metres of nozzle area, those 426-based Hemi engines are still pretty low-tech.

If there's to be a long term future for the awesome Top Fuel cars should it not at least advance technologically to overhead camshafts and more than two valves per combustion chamber? You'd be flat out finding too many pushrod engines on showroom floors these days. If this attitude had been taken to the first use of superchargers, or slicks, or wheelie bars, or aerofoils, then we'd be still watching race cars running 8-second times in Top Eliminator.

Drag racing grew out of hot rodders' enthusiasm to tinker with their race cars, to make them quicker and faster by the sweat of their brow and the acumen of their judgement, not by buying horsepower from a catalogue. This decision goes against every tradition of the sport, or does the NHRA see Top Fuel and nitro Funny Car as being the domain of other than big boys in the 1990s?

More power to ANDRA's arm next March.