in the world of drag racing
The latest update as of April 7, 2000
Following the release of their letter to all Federal-Mogul Dragster and Funny Car racers at the Gatornationals in March, the NHRA Technical Department has released a second letter, detailing their concerns about any "new" screw blowers and reiterating their promise to not make any rules changes to the classes in 2000. Here is the full text of the letter:
April 4, 2000
To: FM/D and FM/FC Teams
From: NHRA Tech Department
Date: April 7, 2000
Re: PSI Superchargers
Ladies and Gentlemen:
This letter is being sent to clarify recent events concerning PSI superchargers, and more specifically to explain that NHRA did NOT ban all PSI screw superchargers.
In April 1997, a letter was sent to PSI outlining a rules change which states that only those screw superchargers which were generally available to the public on January 1, 1997, are permmitted in NHRA competition. The letter further states that if any changes are desired, photos, drawings, etc., had to be submitted in advance and a request made for acceptance. (Simply making a request does not necessarily imply a change will be accepted.) The reasons for this rule change was to prevent a "supercharger war" and resultant cost escalation to the racer.
No request for changes of any kind has ever been received from PSI since the April letter. As of January 1, 1997, the "A", "B," and "D" models were the only PSI screw superchargers generally available and are the only ones permitted in competition. The "C" model never entered production, according to PSI, and was never generally available and, therefore, has never been permitted under the April 1997 ruling.
Prior to the Mac Tools Gatornationals, NHRA received information that several teams were using a new "E" model PSI supercharger. Since the "E" model is significantly different from the "A", "B" or "D" models, and since it was never submitted to NHRA for acceptance, such a supercharger would be prohibited. In order to avoid undue embarassment for competitors who may have installed this supercharger, a letter was issued to all Federal-Mogul Dragster and Funny Car teams explaining that the only PSI superchargers legal for competition under current rules are the "A," "B," and "D" models.
Also, with the support of the Federal-Mogul racing community, NHRA committed to a "hands off" rules policy for Federal-Mogul Dragster and Funny Car, whereby NO performance or parity-related rules changes would be made during the course of the 2000 season. Acceptance of any new supercharger at this time would be in direct contradiction of this policy.
NHRA Tech DepartmentAn E blower? Say what? I just thought I was confused before; now I'm really baffled. Where's it going to stop? Seriously, the "E" blower is just a figment of NHRA's imagination -- or looking at it another way -- a way for them to differentiate the various models. Although, in Norm Drazy's words, the "new" blowers that some racers were using until the Gatornationals, are simply "C" blowers, a model that was built and run nearly four years ago.
So, after reading the latest emission from Glendora, the issue must be settled, eh? Guess again, bucko. This is just the latest salvo from the (red, white and) blue side and will certainly be replied to by the grey side. It's quite a distance from California to Arizona, but with the latest weapons in the war of technology, the missiles will surely be flying back and forth in this "war" for quite some time. As always, when the latest skirmishes are fought, we'll be there from behind the lines with the latest news. Stay tuned!