Edwards & Young Racing – Seattle & Kent, WA.

March 5, 2013

John Ramsey, Ed Garfield:
 
With the implementation of the automated shifters in Pro Bracket this year and your 2013 schedule set, I offer as a consideration for your 2014 season a gear jamming type event or two for the stick-shift cars in line with the rules of the B.C. Super Shifters operating on a full tree with dial-ins.
 
An E.T. class open to all stick shift cars, including clutchless transmissions, that use a clutch operated by the driver’s foot to leave the starting line. Here are the key B.C. Super Shifter rules:
 
GENERAL COMPETITION RULES AND GUIDELINES

1. All cars must meet NHRA tech requirements as per ET Rules. (i.e. cars running 11.99 require a scatter shield and roll bar also belts as per NHRA rulebook.)

2. All cars in competition must have a clutch engaged transmission.

3. The operation of the clutch shall be a direct action of the driver’s foot. Approved dampening system will be allowed for non soft lock clutches or clutchless transmissions. No adjustment allowed by driver or crew after the burnout box and therefore must be covered if mounted inside driver’s compartment.

4. All gear changes must be a result from direct action from the driver. Pneumatics, hydraulics shifters prohibited.

5. Any clutch assisted automatic must be manually shifted.

6. No timers or delay boxes allowed.

7. Once the vehicle is in motion, nothing can affect its operation other than driver. (i.e. no throttle timers, electric shifters)

8. No vehicle substitutions during eliminations.

9. All competition ladders will be run as per NHRA Sportsman procedures.

10. Coin toss for lane choice. Whoever wins toss has the option of changing their mind and choosing the other lane if they so wish, but it must be done before entering the burnout box.

11. Qualifying will be determined by reaction time.

Their complete rules are available at: http://www.bcsupershifter.com/rules.html

An E.T. bracket with a limited schedule at Pacific Raceways would give the stick-shift cars a level playing field and with time I believe will draw interest from racers and fans alike that enjoy the stick shift cars.

Respectfully,

Roger Young – [phone] – Edwards & Young Racing – NHRA #6035

cc: Frank Nelson, Jr. – Division 6 Director

On March 6th I offered these additional thoughts to John Ramsey and Ed Garfield:

John, Ed I had a few additional thoughts on this proposal.

 1) You could work with the B.C. Super Shifters Assoc. but I would prefer to see the track offer something like a “Gear Jammers” bracket and have control of the operation, entry fees, etc.  You could set the spread of the bracket E.T. wise, i.e. 8.00 – 14.00 (just an example) as with the other brackets, modify the rules as needed.

2) Such a stick-shift bracket could fit in well with your Nostalgia race.

Looking forward to discussing this proposal with you.

Roger Young [Phone]

March 12, 2013:

I spoke with Ed Garfield, drag strip manager at Pacific Raceways this afternoon. Ed intends to have a shifter class for their nostalgia race in July and will consider putting a shifter class on their 2014 schedule.

If you race at PR feel free to share this page on FB (Facebook share button below).

Thank you & enjoy the video! – Roger Young

httpvh://youtu.be/kIb52QJOx2o

According to the Division 6 2013 E.T. rules posted here, automated shifters are now allowed in Pro Bracket. Why?

1) To allow more dragsters in Pro Bracket?  As if their dominance in Super Pro wasn’t enough?

2) To make it even more difficult for stick-shift cars to compete? As if automatics didn’t already have an advantage?

MAKES NO DAMN SENSE TO ME!

Apparently this rule change was voted on by the tracks within Division 6 to fall in line with Division 7 rules. Yes, let’s genuflect to California and Glendora just one more time for the sake of going along to get along!   

Won’t be long before the young drag racers are sitting in the stands with a RC contoller going down the track. What a load… like there aren’t enough super categories to run all the electronic gadgets you want?

In my opinion, NHRA destroyed Modified Eliminator and Pro Stock Truck, now our local tracks seemingly want to eliminator stick-shift cars all together or make it nearly impossible to compete on a level playing field.

I will shortly offer a proposal to Pacific Raceways suggesting a bracket for stick-shift cars on a limited schedule. A class that would fit in nicely with their upcoming nostalgia race in July. We’ll see where this goes.   – Roger Young