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For the second time in a matter of just five days, the NHRA Technical Committee has again issued a parity adjustment for the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, and this one really comes as no surprise to no one that’s been keeping score in the performance department of what is arguably the most competitive and talked-about eliminator in all of drag racing right now.
Based on the performance statistics through the first four races of the 2017 season, which has been virtually dominated by the supercharged engine combinations, the NHRA is rolling back their overdrive percentage from 20 percent to 16.5. On Friday, just hours before qualifying opened at the NHRA Southern Nationals, technical staff reduced the minimum weight for nitrous oxide entries — the slowest of the three power adders thus far in 2017 — by 25 pounds in an effort to push their performance up to even-keel with their boosted counterparts. But that didn’t necessarily address the runaway supercharged combination.
At Atlanta, performance leader Mike Castellana recorded the second quickest pass in class history in qualifying with a 5.717 to pace the field by nearly .07-seconds (Todd Tutterow was second at 5.786, and Khalid Balooshi and Jonathan Gray had the quickest nitrous entries, both at 5.796). Based on the top three qualifiers of each respective power adder combination, the supercharged entries had a full half a tenth over the turbo cars and more than .06-seconds on the nitrous runners; that data, of course, is slightly skewed by the monstrous performance from Castellana and professional back-breaker Frank Manzo, who went on to win their second consecutive race.
Photo courtesy NHRA/National Dragster