Pro Stock’s transition to the electronic fuel injection era in 2016 – the most significant rule change since NHRA went from a weight-per-cubic-inch basis to 500 cubic inches for all in 1982 – was a smashing success. “EFI is modern, it’s current technology – it’s what Pro Stock is supposed to be,” said NHRA Director of Engineering Tim White, who worked side by side with Holley to make it happen.

“I looked at all the different companies that had EFI systems available and came up with a huge spreadsheet with every possible criteria that had to be met,” White said. “Holley was the only one that checked every box, that really had an off-the-shelf solution. They made my decision easy. The wiring harness, all the components, sensors, injectors – the entire package – was all right there. With just slight tweaks to the software, everybody was up and running immediately.”

Jason Line, the eventual world champion, and teammate Greg Anderson quickly established themselves as the favorites, running 6.50s at over 210 mph at the first race of the year, the Winternationals, and each won eight races en route to a 1-2 finish in the final NHRA championship standings. “Whenever you do something completely different like this, you’re always worried that there’s going to be some problem, but I can honestly say that we didn’t have one problem with Holley EFI,” said Anderson, the four-time NHRA Pro Stock world champion. “I mean none. Nothing failed, nothing went wrong, nothing ever did anything except exactly what it was supposed to do.”

Holley’s Robin Lawrence and Doug Flynn worked closely with White to make it happen. “Racers are always going to resist change – I don’t blame them, after all the work they have tied up in what they had – and this was a pretty big change,” White said. “But the guys from Holley knew the components, knew the system. They did what they said they were going to do. They worked with just about every team on a personal basis. They’d have two or three people at every race all year until right toward the end, when they didn’t all need to be there because there was nothing for anyone to do – everything worked.”

All 24 Pro Stock event winners in the 2016 NHRA season relied on Holley EFI, and Line, Anderson, and their Summit/KB Racing Chevy Camaro team watched other top teams close the gap considerably as the season went on. “The teams came up to speed rather well, and we dug in as a team and worked with NHRA, engine builders, and teams to make it all work,” said Lawrence, Holley’s Director of EFI and Business Development. “By mid-season, the competition was as close as ever and there was a good variety of winners.”

Seven drivers scored at least once and teams picked up about four-hundredths of a second over the course of the year, from Anderson’s 6.582 low e.t at the season-opening Winternationals in Pomona, Calif., to Line’s 6.545 at the same track at the NHRA Finals, and 1 mph, from Line’s 210.34 in February to his 211.43 at the end of the year. “It was close racing, especially in the second half of the season,” White said. “From a technical perspective, you’re talking about racers basically having to start all over, and doing it in not a whole lot of time. This was announced at Denver in July of 2015, which left four months to finish that season and three months before the 2016 Winternationals. It was pretty impressive, and it took everybody to do it.”

Anderson and Line leaped to an early lead, watched it almost completely evaporate with the points reset after the regular season concluded with the U.S. Nationals, then held off all challengers in the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs, facing off in a fitting head-to-head final in the last race of the year. “We got the jump on everybody, but by the end of the year, they’d basically caught up with us,” Anderson said. “And that’s the way it’s going to be in 2017, right from the beginning – close.”

“Going into the second year of EFI, it’s not a matter of the teams getting used to it, learning the software, learning the nuances,” Lawrence said. “They’ve got it figured out now. They’re to the point where they’ve refocused their R&D and their biggest gains are coming from other areas.”