Well Bill, the Alum head rule has been talked about for years. When the new-nostalgia JrFuel class was 1'st conceived they wanted rules to keep the cost down, so no nitro, and cast iron heads and blocks. Alum heads were more costly then.
The problem we are faced with about changing the rules is we already have a car count problem, and to ask some if not all of the current teams to buy heads, pistons, valve train, and maybe injectors would no doubt chase some of the current teams away. BTW do you know when burning injected alky, iron heads make more power than alum, and iron heads can be fixed, I've done it myself. There are a couple of A/ND, B/ND Comp teams that have talked to NHRA about allowing alum heads. So far they turned it down, you see unlike SWJFA Heritage is a NHRA series, and any change in Heritage rules would also apply to Comp, and vice-verse. One of the teams that lobbied NHRA about alum heads said since RHS was no longer making 14° heads is why they should allow alum heads. When they asked me what I thought, I said "so the main reason you want alum heads is because RHS is no longer making your iron heads right ? so then if you open that can of worms , then I can use alum heads on my Hemi, right ? because Chrysler hasn't made those heads since 1954, and he said "OH NO ! Be careful what you ask for.
I'm just trying to keep JrFuel alive and exciting as a class, with out asking the current teams to re-invent their combo and spend a bunch of money. When I have asked some NE-1 [ 7.60 bracket] teams what do we need to change in order to have them race JrFuel, and they said JF takes too much time and money to race heads up, even with the Handi-caps and no break-out.
As other have said if you want more affordable FED racing, race brackets, NE-1, NE-2 etc of if you are near SHRA race their 1/8 mile brackets, where if your motor is kinda worn out, and not competitive, just add more nitro. You see in bracket racing there is only one rule other than safety rules, "Don't go faster than the bracket". So you can burn nitro, and or a blower, etc. It drives me kinda crazy when I see what looks like a Brad Andersen Blown Alky hemi running 7.60's. talk about working hard [ on trying to slow it down to 7.60's].
So the real question is if we changed the rules so they are less restrictive and allow alum heads, WHO would build and race with us. Under the current plan and rules we are increasing the car count, I think mostly because we are having fun and enjoy helping each team run better.
There is so much talk about heads/ motors, and not enough talk about really using the motor combo you have by looking at your combo from the back of the block to the rear-end and tires. Like change the converter to work better with your motor combo, and maybe change the 1'st gear in the trans, and change the rear gear, again so it allows your motor to work better, and change your tire size, you may be running slicks that are too big and not getting enough tire speed to keep the engine in the RPM range it's happy with.
Boy I guess I've gotten off the main topic.
So just think about what kind of racing you want and can afford to race.
BTW, I raced nitro JrFuel from 1963-68 in the MidWest, with all iron SBC, went 191 mph in 1964.
Jon
