NHRA’s Technical Department made two announcements Friday effective at this weekend’s NHRA Arizona Nationals in Phoenix regarding the Electrimotion Safety Shutoff Controllers and Alan Johnson Performance Engineering Superchargers.
Electrimotion Shutoff Receiver
NHRA has temporarily suspended mandatory use of the Electrimotion Shutoff Receiver while NHRA works with the manufacturer to meet driver requests.
Top Fuel and Funny Car teams, after the just-concluded Pomona event, raised certain concerns about the automatic shutoff process, including potential wear on certain engine components, and a desire among some drivers to keep their traditional routine in place at the end of the track and manually shut down the car when they were fully capable of doing so. As a result, NHRA and Electrimotion are working to develop an override to the Shutoff Receiver when both parachute handles have been enabled. When both chutes have been pulled, the driver will be able to shut down according to his or her normal procedures rather than having the automatic device shut off the vehicle. The override kit is expected to be available prior to the Gainesville event, which begins March 11.
The automatic shutoff procedure was implemented as a safety measure to stop a vehicle in the event of driver inability to do so. NHRA still encourages the use of the automatic shutoff even during this time period when its use is not mandatory. Therefore, NHRA will install Electrimotion Shutoff Transmitters to accommodate those teams wishing to continue to use the shutoff receivers.
The Electrimotion Safety Shutoff Controllers on Top Fuel and Funny Car vehicles, activated in the case of burst panel rupture, fire bottle activation or activation by the driver, will remain mandatory.
Alan Johnson Performance Engineering (AJPE) Superchargers
The NHRA Technical Department impounded superchargers on Top Fuel and Funny Car vehicles at the Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals last weekend at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. This week in Phoenix, NHRA inspected each impounded supercharger with a representative from the applicable team. It was determined that certain AJPE Superchargers do not meet certain NHRA specifications. In addition, the NHRA Rulebook states that all engine component development, including superchargers, must be submitted to the NHRA Technical Department for review. The subject AJPE Superchargers were not submitted to the NHRA Technical Department for review. Therefore, AJPE Superchargers that do not meet the current specification cannot be used in competition. This information has been conveyed to all affected teams and to the manufacturer, and NHRA is informed that they are working to resolve the issue.
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Statement from AJPE
Alan Johnson, owner of Alan Johnson Performance Engineering, issued the following statement regarding the current NHRA investigation of AJPE superchargers provided for NHRA teams during last weekend’s NHRA event in Pomona and this weekend in Phoenix:
“All Alan Johnson Performance Engineering parts are manufactured to meet NHRA specifications. NHRA is currently examining an AJPE supercharger that was used by six teams in Pomona (Calif.) last weekend. Four of the six teams used the same supercharger during the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing season, including the Al-Anabi Racing Top Fuel team.
“The new rule that NHRA developed over the winter was not intended to exclude existing superchargers, but unfortunately it did. The area affected by the rule is a total of a half square inch.
“All Superchargers supplied to AJPE customers were made to comply with the new NHRA spec Friday morning at Phoenix. The fix did not affect the performance of the Supercharger; the current No. 1 Top Fuel qualifier is using a compliant AJPE Supercharger. Alan Johnson Performance Engineering is cooperating fully with the NHRA to resolve this matter as quickly as possible.”
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