It is my
opinion that sportsman racing is moving in a new direction. There are
reasons for this, some internal to the sport and some external. Before
I talk about where I think it’s going, let me talk about where it’s been
in the past and where it is now.
In the
past, the few sportsman drag race organizations that offered racers a
national or regional series to play in, had as their backbone, several
heads-up classes available. Some of these classes included the
so-called “entry level” variety, a higher end class (or classes) for the
naturally aspirated racers and several classes for the more serious
racecars, particularly cars with power adders such as nitrous oxide or
superchargers.
Over
the years, these classes evolved. Some classes stayed, some went away,
some new ones were added (drag radial for instance). The classes became
more sophisticated. The rules became more definitive. The race cars
and their owners became more capable. The race cars and related
equipment became more expensive. The days of a racer being able to
bring his street-strip car to an event, find a class to race in and have
a chance to win, were over. Now, the racer was required to build a car
specifically to fit into a specific class. And since, in most cases,
the car was built for a specific class, the racer was basically stuck
racing in that particular organization.
As
the cars became more expensive to build and more expensive to race, the
number of participants slowly drifted away. To be able to build and
race a competitive race car (meaning a car that could win) required more
money and more time than some of the racers wanted to devote to “a
hobby”. These racers didn’t want to completely drift away from drag
racing, nor did they want to rely on the local bracket races to get
their kicks, but something was needed to fill the gap between local
bracket racing and heads-up racing in a series. Into this gap, the
“open comp” concept was created.
Open
comp was a basic dial-in class but with just enough differences to
entice some of those that had drifted away from all-out heads-up classes
to look at. It was not necessary to scratch build an all out race car.
In some cases, a street car or a street-strip car was all that was
required to be competitive. Open comp became a drivers class, a
class where the driving ability was more important than how much money
was invested in the car. Unlike the heads-up classes, open comp classes
were not “check book” classes. It still cost money to go racing but the
amount of money you spent on your car was not that important.
But
still, some participants were not satisfied. Sure, they could enter
their car (or truck) into an open comp class, but they still had to use
a dial-in and to many, a dial-in was not much different than bracket
racing.
These
participants wanted to race in a heads-up class, but not have to spend
much money on their cars in order to have a good chance of winning.
This, of course, is not possible. This would be like taking a Super
Model out to Denny’s for dinner on a cheap date. It won’t happen.
It’s an oxymoron, like jumbo shrimp. Heads-up racing, particularly if
winning is desired, is extremely costly. It takes the best parts
(meaning the most expensive parts) if you want to have any chance at
all. And even the best parts are subject to breakage, meaning that you
could be (and will be) buying these expensive parts over and over during
a racing season. For many that once raced in heads-up classes on a
reasonable budget, this was becoming impossible.
But……….
They
still wanted to go heads-up racing. What to do, what to do? There is
only one avenue open for a participant that wants to race in a heads-up
class, with a reasonable chance of winning the event, and still maintain
a ceiling on his race car expenses, and that is to put a ceiling on how
quick the car can run. This ceiling is called an “index”.
Index
racing is very simple. When the starting line light turns green, both
cars leave together (heads-up) and the first car that gets to the other
end wins, as long as it doesn’t run quicker than the class index. The
index can be any elapsed time that the sanctioning body wants it to be.
In most cases, there are two or three different indexes to consider.
For instance, the lowest index (for example) may be 12.50 seconds
elapsed time, meaning that any car that wins that round and doesn’t run
quicker than 12.50 elapsed time is the winner. Pretty simple. Other
indexes may be 11.00 seconds or 10.50 seconds or even a mid 9-second
index. And because almost any car, including some basic street machines
can theoretically fit into one of these index classes, a custom all out
race car, designed around specific rules, is not required.
It’s
like having your cake and eating it too, versus having cake that eats
you.
Heads-up Index racing is a wave of the future. Check it out yourself;
you are going to see more and more Heads-up Index classes in the
evolution of sportsman drag racing.
This is
the only way for many sportsman racers to continue with heads-up racing
on a budget.
