Albert,
Good Question.
Many of us have been drag racing long before the Viper was a gleam in the eye of its designer, so I feel it would be wise to take a look at the NHRA "class" layouts for guidance. The NHRA has been in operation for 50 years and is the most widely recognized sanctioning body regarding drag racing.
Class racing is where vehicles that are built alike can compete to show who has the most powerfull combination of similiar modifications....hence the title "class"
Class racing uses an INDEX system. A given combination of parts should net a given elapsed time. Anything faster than this given(index) time is considered competitive and this is how the best of the best tuners and drivers are recognized. An example: The INDEX for a Stock Gen 2 Viper is 12.30. There are faster Vipers but its usually track or driver skill. The STOCK GEN II CLASS INDEX of 12.30 will allow heads up racing for all stock Gen II Vipers
Example 2: Heads and Cam Class INDEX: 11.20. Any Viper with Heads and Cam Mods should be able to run 11.20. The faster you are from the index the better your mods and more powerful your car, hence the winner.
All CLASS cars use a heads up pro tree for starting and the fastest car is the winner. This will work with nitrous cars, s/c, stroker, whatever.
Whats really nice about this is that in the event that a race needs to be combined, you can run a stock class viper against a stroker class viper simply by dialing in the class index of each car and handicapping the race through the drag strip timing computer. This is how the NHRA accomodates over 1000 cars every weekend at their national events.
The difficulty always lies with the honesty of the racer. The NHRA allows for and mandates tear downs of any class winner that beats the class index by more than .52 of a second....I believe. Or the class winner can be requested to tear down his engine or drivetrain by any competitor in his class. This of course is at the expense of the driver who REQUESTS the teardown, should the inspected parts be found to be class legal. So, if you are trying to run a stroker in a stock cubic inch class.....
I know this sounds like alot of work, but keep in mind that as our industry grows it becomes harder to keep everyone happy. To set up a realistic class matrix NOW will make things run smoother in the future and set the example for future generations of Viper owners. Take a look at the recently formed and now exploding Sport Compact Series...classes are changing, some are being eliminated and racers are frustrated.
I would be more than happy to help set these class indexes up. Something else to consider is that the index for given classes can and does change. Say the head and cam index is established at 11.20.....as time goes on and heads and cams are further developed the class gets faster. Once the class averages faster than .50 seconds quicker than the index, the index moves to a quicker number. SWEET!
In any event, this should get the conversation started.
Tom
