Pro Stock driver Greg Anderson shared his strong opinion of the Firebird International Raceway surface conditions at the recent NHRA Arizona Nationals with the ESPN television audience. However, the presentation of his tirade, which wasn't unjustified, appeared to imply that the Pro Stock drivers revolted and made demands to the NHRA to finish their eliminations at the upcoming Gatornationals.
 
It didn't quite happen that way.
 
Graham Light, NHRA senior vice-president of racing operations, and Dan Olson, director of Top Fuel and Funny Car racing, worked during qualifying to identify the problems that cause two Pro Stock cars to end up on their lids and give the rest of the field serious concerns. Said Anderson that Friday night, "They want to fix it as well, but they’re not sure what it is, either."

Pro Stock driver Greg Anderson shared his strong opinion of the Firebird International Raceway surface conditions at the recent NHRA Arizona Nationals with the ESPN television audience. However, the presentation of his tirade, which wasn't unjustified, appeared to imply that the Pro Stock drivers revolted and made demands to the NHRA to finish their eliminations at the upcoming Gatornationals.
 
It didn't quite happen that way.
 
Graham Light, NHRA senior vice-president of racing operations, and Dan Olson, director of Top Fuel and Funny Car racing, worked during qualifying to identify the problems that cause two Pro Stock cars to end up on their lids and give the rest of the field serious concerns. Said Anderson that Friday night, "They want to fix it as well, but they’re not sure what it is, either."
 
After seeing the continued problems Sunday, Light was proactive, initiating a meeting with the first-round survivors.
 
"I got with the eight winners, called them down to the Tech trailer, because I heard various comments on the P.A. and we saw cars aborting the runs," Light said. "We talked about it, and we discussed the option of moving it till the next day, because it was already late in the afternoon. It was only going to get darker, and it was going to get colder. The forecast for the next day was no different than it was on Sunday. It was going to be rainy, with temperatures about the same. The wise thing was to move it off to Gainesville and finish it during qualifying. It was no extra runs. It's not going to impact time. It doesn't give anyone an advantage, going to Gainesville."
 
He said he wouldn't characterize their mood as angry.
 
"Angry is, I don't think, the right word. They were concerned," he said. "It was a challenge getting down the racetrack, given those conditions. We realized that. They realized that. That's why I brought them together. It was all of the drivers and the owners and crew chiefs. Just the eight guys.
 
"I said, 'OK, guys, we've got this problem. Here are some options. The last thing we want to do is tear up equipment, and we certainly don't want to get anybody hurt. It's late afternoon. It's only going to get colder and only going to get darker as time goes on. So conditions are going to get worse.' When I threw the option out of postponing it, they were relieved and happy to do that. As time passed and we were watching the weather forecast, we said, 'This is silly. Tomorrow's not going to be any different.' I don't know why we would think that things could change by magic overnight. We made the decision to move it. Everybody was cool with that."
 
But that wasn't enough for Light. He didn't pretend that a simple change of venue would solve the underlying problem.
 
After a conference call with all the current Pro Stock chassis builders, drawing on their expertise in wind-tunnel testing, he helped the NHRA Tech Department mandate changes.
 
"They're not extremely difficult changes. Total cost, from what the builders told us, is in the range of $350-$400," Light said. "It may scrub a little speed off the cars. But if they're more stable, then that's fine.”
 
One changes involves rear axle minimum weight. "That's just a matter of shifting ballast in the car to get a little more weight on the rear end. It's nothing they have to spend money on or buy or make any real adjustment to," he said.
 
"The other is a quarter-inch tension to the wicker. It's on the very back of the spoiler, goes from one side of the car to the other. That's an easy fix. That just gets bolted onto the car. Then to counteract that additional downforce on the back to keep the car balanced, there's . . . the splitter. It get mounted under the front bumper. That will create downforce on the front that should equal the back," Light said.
 
"We know Pro Stock cars don't have a lot of downforce, and that's intentional, because they don't want to create the drag. They want to slide through the air and run as fast as possible. On very, very good racetracks, Pro Stock cars are very stable. On tracks where conditions are marginal -- and I don't want to say the track [at Phoenix] is marginal, necessarily . . . it could be atmospheric conditions . . . it could be whatever -- they have stability problems at times," he said.
 
The changes, Light insisted, are "not solely based off of Phoenix. Phoenix was the catalyst, but it's an issue we have had as these cars go faster and faster. They're going 212 miles an hour. And you do that by having no drag. And no drag takes away downforce, which is stability. So we put a little drag into it and it shouldn't be a major change.
 
"I don't think anybody's predicting these cars to slow up much at Gainesville. They're still going to go 200-plus miles an hour," he said. "But just with a little increase in their spoiler and a little increase in the weight of their rear end we hopefully stabilize it. So it's a move that we believe is a proactive move to help under many conditions in the future."
 
For Anderson, it's a second chance.
 
"We had some serious concerns at the last race and were granted somewhat of a reprieve," he said. "So we arrive in Florida looking to have a track that gives everyone an equal chance."
 
Meanwhile, the NHRA and Firebird International Raceway officials are working hard so that one day again, racers will say the same of the Arizona facility.   -- Susan Wade