With nearly one-third of the 2004 season in the books, the NHRA Technical department is reviewing areas that have been the basis for a number of phone calls. One such area is current indexes in both Stock and Super Stock. The conversations have been from a certain class is too soft, or others are too tight to allow vehicles to be competitive, and yet others have voiced concerns that across the board all indexes need a major overhaul. With that information as a backdrop, the NHRA Technical department presents two differing ideas to allow the racing public to voice opinions and concerns over these initial ideas.

1. At the same time of the first Automatic Horsepower Factoring System review (which is scheduled for after the Sears Craftsman NHRA Nationals in Madison, Ill., June 25-27), lower all indexes across the board by two-tenths of a second. This would step all categories back on equal footing, and all combinations and classes would be affected. For instance, SS/AA index would be moved from the current 10.00 to 9.80 seconds.

2. At the conclusion of the 2004 season, review each class on a case-by-case basis and set a pre-determined median average of an accepted under-the-index number. From this, review all runs at the national, divisional, and National Opens and develop a class average for all classes within Stock and Super Stock. Based off the pre-determined median average, adjust each class accordingly to have the class average meet the number.

An example of this process would be that NHRA, through discussion with the racing public, develops a pre-determined number of .75-under as the median all classes must meet. A review of B/SA shows the class average is .90-under the index, thus the current index of 11.55 would be lowered to 11.40 for the 2005 season. The reverse would happen if the class average were below the .75-under, such as GT/E, if the class average was only .50-under, the index would be adjusted from 10.80 to 11.05.

Send your opinions and other possible directions on possible index adjustments in Stock and Super Stock. Send your comments on this topic to racerinput@nhra.com.