Drag Racing Discussions > Front Engine Dragsters

The boys from Kansas are at it again

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Andy Carlson:
It has been a challenge in motorsports for decades to achieve parity in heads-up classes, witness what NHRA did with weight breaks for Pro Stock in the 1970s. A lot of the top teams spent a lot of time coming up with ways to mitigate some of the perceived severe penalties levied against their combinations (Remember the 4-door 'Tijuana Taxi' Maverick with its Cleveland 351?

Jr Fuel had a simple premise, early small blocks with cast iron heads/blocks. Unlike Ford, Chevy has no canted valve small blocks (which allow much larger valves than a true wedge). I am surprised that a competitive 351 Cleveland hasn't surfaced in Jr fuel. Might just run away from all competition, and back we would be faced with parity. Maybe a rule change to allow short stroke BBC 420" engines could help, but seeing a big block in a Jr Fuel car wouldn't seem quite right to me. Perhaps make Jr Fuel a spec class, SBC only, might work; certainly THAT would be a level playing field!

masracingtd1167:
I would think if you want to increase the car counts instead of making the rules so restrictive you might want to open them up a little.Is there a reason why you have to use a cast iron head ? both a+b both use an aftermarket head anyway so why not use an alluminum head that can be repaired for a lot less money . I think that the weight break is just fine at 3.5 . My thoughts would be to allow any head in a and make b a true wedge class with in line valves. Like I said just my thoughts . Bill

JrFuel Hayden:
Andy, Thanks for thinking of JrFuel,  the main rule book for JF is on the Heritage site and JrFuelDragsterAssociation.com, and also NHRA Comp A/ND & B/ND. and there you will see Ford, Hemi, BBC, besides SBC engines are allowed. Matter-a-fact 10 years ago Art Chrisman built and raced a 410 cl BBC, but found with the current combos back then it was not competitive with the new 14° SBC iron heads so they put the BBC on a shelve until 2014 , and ran 7.30's at the Calif Hot Rod Reunion, which I'm sure is the quickest BBC JF in the world, but not good enough to compete with the 7.0's the SBC were running. I told Art that he could go to 430 ci since NHRA increased the engine size limit from 410 to 430, which would really help the BBC, in two ways, it would make the 3.5 lbs / ci rule [ the lighten BBC weighs 100 lbs more than the SBC] and with the BBC big bore the only way to make the 410 ci is using a short stroke crank, like 3 1/4" and that makes it hard to build compression. Alky likes 16+ compression. I'd love to have my SBC ports as big as a Big Block. Anyway they took the easier way and put one of their 14° SBC in their dragster and raced "JFA". Also about 10 years ago a team built a Ford JF, but not with a Cleveland head which is what I think would work. A team in Ohio, Tom Frey, built such a combo including  relocated exhaust ports done by Bob McKray Performance and even Frank Parks said that car would keep up with them at the time and it's a "B" car., running against their "A" car. Tom just had allot of trans problems, got hurt and quit.
So you are right Andy a Ford combo is worth looking at and Art Chrisman's BBC is for sale, just get a longer crank and pistons to match, everything else is there. Art's deal is a real deal, because you couldn't buy just the parts for $15k. 

Jon  JFDA

Roger:
Andy, I remember it looked unusual to see a Pro Stock car with 4 doors removed in the pits. But it was one bad taxi ride!

Jr. Fuel today is not what it was 45 or 50 years ago. It’s got to the point where there are currently cars that are considered to fit into Jr. Fuel rules running Chevy 23* heads, 23* raised runner heads, 14* raised runner heads, OEM hemi heads and replacement hemi heads. Add to that OEM Cleveland heads, big block Chevy heads and anything else that comes close and there is be a big range of horse power potential based just on the air flow of the cylinder heads. Hard to make a level playing field with all the iron out there already. As far as a spec engine, there would be a lot of folks having to change a lot of parts, probably myself included, at a good deal of expense. Even changing to aluminum heads will result in needing different piston profiles and the rest of the expense that goes with it.

Trying to run a heads-up class with cars of differing horsepower potential takes rules. Some rules we like, some we don’t. But the objectives of the west coast Junior Fuel Dragster Association and Southwest Junior Fuel Association is to have a setting where we can race similar cars under rules we as members agree to and that keeps this thing called junior fuel running down the track a quarter of a mile at a time.

Frank and Scott Parks are the definition of hard core Comp Eliminator racers as recently witnessed by the performance of their new hemi at the March Meet. What can I say, WOW! And it only took them 12 years to get there. But this is kind of hard work and dedication that it takes to win in Comp Elimination at a NHRA national level.

So Jr. Fuel now has different meaning to those of us involved in running these injected alcohol burning front engine dragsters. If you want to get involved and run a car without spending a boat load of money then there are groups like the Southwest Heritage Racing Association that have indexes to run against. If you want heads-up competition there’s the SWJFA as well as the JFDA with their no breakout indexes. And if you want to go all out, then NHRA has a class to race your badass 10,600rpm FED at national events scattered across the country.

Where does it go from here? It goes wherever we allow it to go. Me, I’m just glad to have made a boat load of new friends that also enjoy injected FEDs and that I have options as to where and when I can race my hotrod, even if I live here in the middle of Kansas! Trying to get a bunch of racers to agree on one set of rules with all that’s out there already could be a mighty big mountain to climb. But I’m willing to listen.

f parks:
Its not just the motor it is all the little things that make a car go fast and most guys just wont do it all.  I am pretty sure if our hemi was in several of the other cars out there it wouldn't be as fast.  It is the whole package.  Converter, Gear, Tire, Driver, Car, Wheels, wings, and every part at its maximum potential.  We try to help everyone to be faster but most just want easy answers, there is no easy way you have to do it all not just the big things.

Frank

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