There can be little doubt that the current qualifying process of two runs on Friday and another pair on Saturday needs some adjustment. In Pro Stock, for example, during the hotter summer months the Friday evening session has become all important. Simply put, make a bad run 

Friday and the odds are that you’re going home Saturday afternoon rather than Sunday.

In an effort to even out running conditions between the Friday evening and Saturday sessions a number of plans have been put forth. One that’s alleged to be a favorite of PRO president Kenny Bernstein is to lock in the top 8 runners after Friday evening, and fill the field with the final 8 from the best times on Saturday.

In other words, even if conditions prevent the kind of elapsed times that might come up on the clocks on Friday evening from being repeated on Saturday, the eight quickest runners in the third and fourth sessions would still have a chance of racing on Sunday.

There can be little doubt that the current qualifying process of two runs on Friday and another pair on Saturday needs some adjustment. In Pro Stock, for example, during the hotter summer months the Friday evening session has become all important. Simply put, make a bad run 

Friday and the odds are that you’re going home Saturday afternoon rather than Sunday.

In an effort to even out running conditions between the Friday evening and Saturday sessions a number of plans have been put forth. One that’s alleged to be a favorite of PRO president Kenny Bernstein is to lock in the top 8 runners after Friday evening, and fill the field with the final 8 from the best times on Saturday.

In other words, even if conditions prevent the kind of elapsed times that might come up on the clocks on Friday evening from being repeated on Saturday, the eight quickest runners in the third and fourth sessions would still have a chance of racing on Sunday.

We’ve also heard from unimpeachable sources that a top level major sponsor met with a senior NHRA official on Friday at Bandimere Speedway during which an alternative plan was suggested. Under this version the top four performers in each qualifying session would be locked in so that even under the worst running conditions of a race weekend, which would presumably be the final session on Saturday afternoon, four more drivers could still make Sunday’s eliminations field.

To avoid confusion, after the final session the elapsed times of the 16 qualifiers, regardless of when they recorded them, would be listed in order as they are now, so the quickest runner would still be listed as Number 1, with the slowest still Number 16.

There are a couple of reasons why it’s possible that an alteration in the qualifying procedure could take place before the end of the season, and one of them is the continuing poor television ratings for the Saturday qualifying program. People are tuning out rather than in because the Saturday show has no conclusion, i.e., there’s no actual race to cover, and since the bulk of those shows are devoted to Saturday’s rather than Friday’s action, when the best runs are usually taking place, potential viewers are tuning elsewhere and saving their need for TV speed until Sunday’s evenings eliminations telecast.

MORE ON POSSIBLE QUALIFYING CHANGES

This issue, which we first raised this past weekend, was the subject of much discussion during the Mopar Mile-High Nationals, so we sought out NHRA sr. vice president Graham Light to get “an official” comment.

COMPPLUS: Is there a chance there’ll be a qualifying procedure change before the end of the season?

LIGHT: It’s something we’re seriously considering. With as competitive as the cars are, Friday night’s become one shot qualifying in a lot of cases. That’s not fair to the teams, the fans or the sponsors. We’re talking to a lot of teams and are looking at possibly a policy change.

COMPPLUS: If you made apolicy change that resulted in something there being four spots guaranteed after each session, or a system that guaranteed eight spots after Friday and another eight on Saturday, do you think that would be met with resistance, or would the driver be accepting of it?

LIGHT: First of all, from the racers I’ve spoken with they all seem to feel tht there needs to be a change. Now, how that’s structured, well, everybody has a different opinion. There’s a lot of talk out there and a lot of ideas. There are ideas of seeding cars from certain sessions as you suggested, and there are ideas of accepting elapsed times from certain sessions but not seeding (the cars). That might mean taking so many (elapsed) times from Friday night, and then mixing them in with the best times from Saturday and mixing them up so they’d fall wherever they’d run on the qualifier’s list.

There are some people who are talking about what you said, four, four, four and four. In other words, four cars from each session. Other people are suggesting eight and eight – eight from each day, guaranteeing them spots. There’s another concept that says accept only so many times from Friday night’s session, and then fill in the rest from Saturday.

COMPPLUS: It appears to be fairly complicated.

LIGHT: I don’t think it’s complicated. It’s deciding what’s fair for all. We’re in the midst of the Countdown, which is starting to heat up, so you don’t want to tamper with the system too much that would in any way interfere with that. At the same time we want to do whatever’s fairest for all (the racers), and particularly the fans. It’s all about putting on a show for the fans while at the same time having a level playing field for the teams and sponsors.

COMPPLUS: Let’s switch gears for a moment. Is there likely to be a switch from 85% to 90% nitro for next year?

LIGHT: I don’t know what to tell you on that. There’s really no significance to 85%, it’s just the number we’re (currently) at. Dan Olson has been meeting with a lot of teams and evaluating things. If it makes sense we’re seriously look at it.

We also discussed the issue with several others, including tuner Lee Beard, who manages the Matco Tools Special driven by former photographer Whit Bazemore. “I think there are pros and cons to any change,” he said. “When you look at Chicago, for example, after Friday night it took something like a 4.57 to get in the show. We had run a fifty-nine-one on the first session Friday afternoon and then had a mechanical failure that night. Saturday (because of a hot track) it was impossible to get in.

“The downside to guaranteeing spots is the guy who ran that fifty-seven on Friday night, which might have made him ninth, well, it’s going to be difficult to go to him and say that doesn’t count. It’s always going to be difficult to tell a guy who’s made a god run that it didn’t count.

“I think it be better to take a different approach to our qualifying run times and our racing time. Having been around drag racing for a long time, and remembering those spectacular shows they had at places like Orange County on a Saturday night, or at places like Seattle, I’m a big time fan of night racing. I think we should be more user friendly to our fans and our racers and qualify and race at night”

When asked about the need of most spectators to be heading home on a Sunday night to go to work Monday, Beard suggested that the whole show take place on Saturday evening. “Either start the races on Thursdays, or run three sessions on Friday. Let’s just back up to three (qualifying) sessions. In the heat of the summer, to have those spectators sitting out there in that 90 degree weather versus having them sit there in, say, 70 degree weather is better. I know if I was paying the money that’d be my choice of when I wanted to see a race.

“Backing up a bit, I think it’s going to be very hard to tell someone that the great run they made Friday night isn’t going to count. It’s kind of like when the timing system doesn’t work and we make a great run. We can look at the computer and know the car might’ve run somewhere in the four-fifty range, but the clocks didn’t work, so we don’t get the run. That’s pretty frustrating, so I can’t even imagine what it would be like to make that good run Friday night and even if it put you twelfth or thirteenth, are you going to tell that guy that it doesn’t count?”

Defending Mile-High Nationals Top Fuel champion J.R. Todd also had some thoughts on the subject. “I kind of like the idea of changing things. It doesn’t put as much pressure on you to get down the track on Friday. If you don’t make that shot it’s not as tough to make it on Saturday. There are definitely a bunch of good cars that aren’t getting in the show now, so that’s why you’re hearing all that talk about a change coming. I don’t think it’s going to happen, though.”

Snap-on Tools Top Fuel driver Doug Herbert feels that changing the qualifying procedure “would be confusing for the fans. In some ways it’s probably good, but in general I think it would be more confusing. In reality (a change) would probably be better for Pro Stock because fuel car generally can get down the track on Saturday if the track’s not bad. Lately they’ve been doing a better job of track prepping, but how are you going to explain to the fans that this guy went faster than that guy, but he’s not qualified? If I had a vote on this I’d vote to leave it alone until we have a better idea for this.”

Tuner Mike Kloeber feels that “if they make a new set of rules and they’re the same rules for everybody than I see no real change. The night sessions that everybody runs good in are the same opportunity for everybody. I know it’s difficult to bump in if you (don’t perform well) in that night session, but I’m not lobbying for or against a change