One year ago, the NHRA’s not-so-factory hot rod eliminator, Pro Stock, was the talk of the drag racing community, as the series had made the difficult, perhaps necessary, but certainly unprecedented move to position the class for the future, revealing a new rules package designed to stimulate increased interest in a class sorely lacking it. That decision was met with criticism from every angle, from the racers who would bear the costs of research and development and new parts, to those buying the tickets and flipping on the television to see it. The audible calamity that followed the NHRA’s announcement carried well into the season — not helped at all by the fact that one team who hit on the combination right out of the gate set up, for the first 13 races, what looked destined to be one of the most lopsided campaigns in drag racing history.

Eventual champion Jason Line and Greg Anderson, stablemates at Ken Black Racing, breezed through the first 13 events of the season, from Pomona in February until Denver in mid-July without suffering a defeat; their only real challenges came from psuedo-teammate, Bo Butner. But once Allen Johnson put a chink in the armor by winning at Denver, it became a brand new ballgame — one that saw six additional winners visit victory lane, including Vincent Nobile, Drew Skillman, Shane Gray, Chris McGaha, and a pair of underdog, Cinderella-story-like wins by Aaron Strong and Alex Laughlin — for a total of nine different winners on the season.

But the season also saw its struggles: short fields on numerous occasions, the mid-season retirement of class-vet Vieri Gaines, and end-to-end frustration for reigning champ Erica Enders and teammate Jeg Coughlin, Jr.

The performance fall-off that many predicted, in large part to the mandatory rpm rev-limiters and the lack of experience with electric fuel injection, was, by mid-season, only a minor incremental damper on the racers, with Jason Line carding low elapsed time of the season at Englishtown with a 6.519 and Anderson scoring top speed at the same event with a 212.93 mph lap (the existing national records are 6.455 and 215.55).

It would be just as fair to say the season — and the experiment — was a success as it would be to say it was a failure, and that point can (and will) be debated all winter long. What will be more telling is where the class goes from here, with a season of change under its belt and the EFI-era now solidified.

So, what’s your take on the ‘new’ Pro Stock, one year later? Did the NHRA make the right decision or the wrong decision, and if so, what would you have done/do differently?

Photos courtesy NHRA/National Dragster