Jim Head is concerned the NHRA's new testing policy could force him to drive the entire 2009 season.

As a driver/owner on the tour, Head has made it known he was willing to step aside as the driver should an up and coming youngster with the right sponsorship package come knocking on his door. However, the NHRA's new testing policy – a limit of four days of testing for the entire season – is a serious roadblock to putting a new driver behind the seat of his Funny Car.

With just about any action on the drag strip considered testing, Head is wondering just how could anyone get the experience needed to adjust to a driver change, short of during actual competition.

If you race IHRA, each day counts towards those four allowed tests. If you race a match race, the same applies. If you make one run, and it rains out the day, it is still one of the four allowed tests.

Veteran Funny Car Driver Still Seeking Replacement …

Jim Head is concerned the NHRA's new testing policy could force him to drive the entire 2009 season.

As a driver/owner on the tour, Head has made it known he was willing to step aside as the driver should an up and coming youngster with the right sponsorship package come knocking on his door. However, the NHRA's new testing policy – a limit of four days of testing for the entire season – is a serious roadblock to putting a new driver behind the seat of his Funny Car.

With just about any action on the drag strip considered testing, Head is wondering just how could anyone get the experience needed to adjust to a driver change, short of during actual competition.

If you race IHRA, each day counts towards those four allowed tests. If you race a match race, the same applies. If you make one run, and it rains out the day, it is still one of the four allowed tests.

Complicating Head's situation is his recent poor test at Phoenix, the last “free” test afforded teams before the season starts this week in Pomona.

“I was really pleased with the first pass,” Head said. “We had trouble on Sunday and blew the blower off twice. That was a real tricky race track, extremely tricky. I finally decided after a while that it wasn’t worth testing.”

Head has been in the sport long enough to know changing around his combination to suit the needs of a complex test session is never a good thing.

“What’s the sense?” Head asked. “You change around everything just to get down the track in Phoenix and then have to change it back around for Pomona. I didn’t really learn a whole lot.”

Leaving Phoenix with very little data, Head now considers himself in the minority of those nitro racers not in favor of the new NHRA testing policy limiting teams to just four days of testing throughout the season. Head would like to see some provision for a team that changes drivers, not on a temporary basis, but on a permanent one.

Should he hire a novice nitro racer, the team will need test time to become acquainted.

“What if I put a new driver in the seat, what am I going to do?” Head asked. “How am I going to get them their 20 to 30 laps to allow them to get confident if I can’t test? That’s my personal concern.

“I’m all for saving money, but sometimes you save money by testing.”

Head believes in testing because of the money you save in the long run. He remembers the days when he was one of the very few who did test.

“I had just come out of the sportsman ranks and I tested regularly with my Comp car,” Head admitted. “I tested the fuel car and my fellow competitors said I was crazy and I couldn’t do that. They told me it wasn’t right to put a fuel car down the track unless someone was paying you per lap. I told them I couldn’t afford to keep going to the national events and blowing my car up. I’ve always been a proponent for testing.”

The Head method of testing differs from the typical team relying on the short runs to get the data he needs.

“Usually, I learn what I need to learn by the 330 mark,” Head said. “I wish I had a quarter for everyone I see drop a cylinder at the starting line and leg it through the finish line only to blow it up in Phoenix. That’s not my idea of testing. You work on what you need to work on whether its burnouts or 60-foot (runs).”

Entering his 25th season behind the wheel of a nitro burner, Head realizes he is closer to hanging up the helmet than ever before; and despite the economy knows there are drivers out there looking for an opportunity.

“I’m not one of those doom and gloom guys, but new racers will always come out of the woodwork,” Head said. “I don’t know where they get the money, but they always tend to show up.”

Head just hopes there’s enough opportunity with which to prepare them, outside of actual competition.