Could nitro-burning A/Fuel Funny Cars finally…finally….become a thing in the National Hot Rod Association?

Citing dwindling participating in its Top Alcohol Funny Car division in recent years, the NHRA Tech Department on Wednesday issued a statement seeking input from existing and potential competitors on the viability of introducing an injected-nitro combination into the category to boost car counts. Read the bulletin:

The NHRA is looking for ways to enhance competition and participation in TAFC.  In doing so, we are contemplating the addition of A/Fuel Funny Car to the existing TAFC category. The category would be run very similar to our existing TAD category with parity adjustments on an on-going, as needed basis.  Our efforts are to enhance competition as well as entice racers to join TAFC with an option other than supercharged alcohol burning engine combinations. The A/Fuel option has potential of being a less expensive option to participate in the category.  Obviously engine and Funny Car body specifications will need to be discussed and finalized, as they will play a vital role in parity for the category.  We simply wanted to see if there is any interest in this direction for TAFC. 

Longtime followers of the sport know, of course, that injected-nitro Funny Cars racing with supercharged, alcohol-burning cars is nothing new. In fact, the story is something of legend.

In 1998, when the A/Fuel Dragster combination was just catching on in the Top Alcohol Dragster ranks in the NHRA, Virginian Scott Weis debuted an A/Fuel car in the IHRA Alcohol Funny Car division, immediately drawing the ire of the rest of the class. While Weis and his team struggled with the combination initially, by mid-season he was out-qualifying the field by a couple of tenths, was running 5.70s in succession (quick by 1998 standards), set the national record, and even won a race. The IHRA was unamused, as were Weis’s competitors, and the combination was legislated into extinction at the end of the season and never heard from again. Until now.

As Top Alcohol tuner and driver Will Hanna noted in a social media op/ed, parity is currently achieved in Top Alcohol Dragster with 95-percent nitromethane mixture in the A/Fuel combination, while the supercharged cars may run 128-percent overdrive. Top Alcohol Funny Cars are limited to 92-percent overdrive, so the introduction of A/Fuel Funny Cars would certainly present a whole new ball of wax for the NHRA’s tech and competition departments to achieve similar level of parity. But we’re all about this idea!