The NHRA has announced that it will suspend the Automatic Horsepower Factoring System for the 2016 Chevrolet Performance US Nationals in the stock and super stock categories. This is huge news because it will essentially unleash the two categories and allow the competitors to hammer the gas harder than they have been able to (without penalty) for years. This is another interesting element added to the already jam packed Chevrolet Performance US Nationals event and it is something that we’re thinking stock and super stock fans will not want to miss. This happened because of racers who have been asking for it to happen and the NHRA obliged their wishes.
For those of you not understanding what this means, modern stock and super stock racing has what is known as the Automatic Horsepower Factoring System. This is a way that the NHRA has tried to prevent certain car and engine combos from running away from everyone else. Stock and Super Stock cars have indexes that they use for qualifying purposes. The amount of time you go under your index helps to determine your qualifying position. If you run one second under your index you are hauling, if you run two seconds under your index, NHRA would effectively adjust the index, lowering it and making it harder for you to qualify as well.
What this has created is a scenario where people want to “protect” their index and therefore they do not run their stuff flat out because they do not want to “get horsepower” and see their index drop. With the Automatic Horsepower Factoring System effectively “shut off” for the weekend at Indy, we are going to see some the wildest action that the two classes have had in many, many years.
Pray for cool weather for round one qualifying on Wednesday at Indy!
Here’s the full release from the NHRA:
Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals Super Stock and Stock Runs Excluded From Automatic Horsepower Factoring System
NHRA has announced that the Automatic Horsepower Factoring system will not be used during this year’s Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals. As a result, runs made by Super Stock and Stock competitors at any time during the event will not count towards class averages, nor will they be used to trigger index or horsepower adjustments.
This decision was reached as the result of competitor requests and multiple conversations with members of the Stock and Super Stock Sportsman Racer’s Advisory Council (SRAC). During those discussions, a significant number of competitors expressed the desire to show the full performance potential of their cars during NHRA’s most prestigious event without fear of future horsepower and/or index penalties.
The AFHS will remain in effect for all other NHRA Mello Yello Series national and Lucas Oil Series divisional events.
Can’t wait to see the C/SA shootout between the 6BBL Mopars and 427 Fairlanes/Comets!
Now we can see what these Stock/SS are really capable of running! Wheelstand city!
So exactly how stupid does NHRA think the racers are? Jeez I wonder if anybody “official” is going to be there logging EVERY run that’s made. Naaaahhh.. I’m sure it’s all on the up and up.
What better way for them to find out what the real potential of all the classes are without having to ask anybody? Then magically within days after the event, ALL of the classes will take a tremendous leap forward and now all the low buck guys will be SOL again!! Thanks!!
Around PA anyway, sportsman racing is a VERY tight community. It’s been my experience anyway that whenever somebody really wanted to let it all hang out and bomb the index to basically ruin the fun for everybody else….there was a “discussion” with their fellow competitors before they ever got off the return road!!
Yes it would be awesome to finally not have to play games anymore, throw the throttle stops in the garbage can where they belong, and stop playing the “letting off the gas game” but as long as the goon squad is waiting in the wings with the rule book and an eraser I doubt if it’ll ever happen. IF it does I’ll be shocked.
You know that is exactly what they will do. They really want to see how fast can they really go. TRAP!. Caught and found DEAD>
Good Article but your description of the AHFS is a little off .. we can get hit with HP for going 1 second under the index not 2 seconds . They have a complex system in place that factors a percentage if you go 1 second under more than 1 time at a race then take all your previous runs and add a certain percentage to it to change your hp rating for that particular combination your running , what it basically does is make you add more weight into your car to slow you down . While this rule change for INDY is a welcome change it is making some sceptics ask why only this race or why have a system in place period if they are going to do this …