![\"What's](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/header2-min.jpg\")
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NHRA\u2019s Funny Car racers knew something wasn\u2019t right when they went to tech their cars in testing before the first races of the 2018 season. They were measured one way; other certain cars were measured in a different manner.<\/p>\n
Some background: at the close of 2017\u2019s 24-race season, NHRA said it would only allow a 40-degree setback for headers on either side of the Funny Car body.<\/p>\n
The rule initially stated: \u201cDouble pipe insulated exhaust headers mandatory. Minimum Funny Car header angle 40 degrees. Maximum header pipe O.D. (outside diameter) 2.75 inches. O.D. and I.D. must remain constant beginning 8 inches below the header flange to the exit of the header. Maximum width of headers: 83 inches.\u201d<\/p>\n
All teams were measured at the centerline of the car – except a certain few. Initially this issue was billed as a John Force Racing vs Don Schumacher Racing issue on header measurement. JFR\u2019s cars couldn\u2019t comply to the measuring fixture, so NHRA didn\u2019t measure JFR\u2019s headers exactly the same as it measured everyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The discrepancy fueled anger in the pits. The racers, who normally don\u2019t band together to fight inter-team quarrels, all felt strongly enough about this to take note of it. It was apparent to their eyes that JFR was using a more radical incline for its headers; NHRA wasn\u2019t forcing them to comply. Rather, it adjusted its strictures.<\/p>\n
On July 8th NHRA clarified their Funny Car header rule: \u201cDouble-pipe insulated exhaust headers mandatory. Minimum Funny Car header angle 40 degrees, measured in reference to ground and parallel to the center line of the car (X axis). Maximum width of headers: 83 inches. Maximum header height 11.5 inches, measured from the ground to the highest point at the exit of the exhaust. Maximum header pipe O.D. 2.75 inches, O.D. and I.D. must remain constant beginning 8 inches below the header flange to the exit of the header. Centerlines of all four exhaust pipes must be parallel to each other and each pipe must contact adjacent tube.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why this rule couldn\u2019t have been written correctly so many months ago – the change to a 40-degree layback was known since the middle of 2017 – is anyone\u2019s guess. The fact that NHRA wrote a porous rule is something they\u2019ll just have to overcome in the future by doing a better job.<\/p>\n
The clarification came after the race at Epping, NH. It came after one of the least combative tuners in the paddock, DSR\u2019s Dickie Venables, crew chief for Matt Hagan\u2019s Mopar Dodge Charger R\/T team, brought the issue to a head by speaking to NHRA after the Norwalk round. \u201cAll we really wanted was for them to measure headers the same way; I ended up being the bad guy for saying something,\u201d Venables said.<\/p>\n
At Denver and Sonoma, I spoke to some racers about this issue, most of whom didn\u2019t want to be quoted on the record. I did not speak with anyone from John Force Racing because I pretty much knew the responses would be a shoulder shrug – John Force took the win at Denver and Robert Hight won in Sonoma – because they were able to use their power better than the rest, even after NHRA clarified their rules on header measurements.<\/p>\n
Every other tuner in the class gives credit to the team at JFR for their ability to prep and tune their race cars, with or without the benefit of laidback headers.<\/p>\n
Still, how we got to this point and why this latest header controversy even happened at all is part of the underbelly of racing. Tuners and crew chiefs get paid well, very well, to push the limits of the rules in order to beat the other racer in the next lane. Doesn\u2019t matter who you are. The idea is to push those rules until they break.<\/p>\n
All that anyone wanted was consistency from NHRA. \u201cWhat we know today,\u201d said one racer, \u201cis there was a discrepancy in how the headers were measured from team to team. All teams will have to run under the new guidelines.\u201d His crew chief added, \u201cThere\u2019s a real fixture now, where the header goes into the fixture and if your headers don\u2019t fit under the fixture, you\u2019re not legal. They took the margin of error out so the template they have now is what we\u2019re using. There isn\u2019t the ability for the person checking it to have any way to stretch it; all four pipes have to be identical.\u201d<\/p>\n
The different means of checking headers created dilemmas for those who have had legal headers. Parts wear out during a 24-race season and need to be replaced. Parts must be ordered in plenty of time, as manufacturing isn\u2019t always done at a team\u2019s facility. While both John Force Racing and Don Schumacher Racing design and construct their own headers – among many, many other parts – most teams don\u2019t have that liberty and need to place orders well in advance to keep their shows on the road.<\/p>\n
When NHRA mandated 40-degree layback of the headers, they built a \u201cfixture that was supposed to be parallel to the car, to the centerline of the crankshaft, square to it,\u201d one crew chief said. \u201cYou were supposed to have your header layback so it would fit in the gauge.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the teams showed up at Phoenix testing in early February, prior to the start of the season, \u201cThey made a fixture, a gauge that slid onto the car from the ground. It would slide up to the headers and fit, but they couldn\u2019t get it to work for the three cars. They had to cut the fixture in half and then, instead of being parallel to the car, it was angled to the car; the angle worked to fit the fixture to those three cars.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"What's](\"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/header1-min.jpg\")
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That kind of discrepancy had people squealing right from the start and, when it was time for them to buy legal headers, they didn\u2019t know what to do. One crew chief said, \u201cWe went to Topeka, and in theory they said it could only be 11 inches high off the ground. Then we wanted to make the header more like what they [JFR] had and we were told we can\u2019t do that. It\u2019s been a fight back and forth between the teams and NHRA. It\u2019s been this way for years, how they check the headers, and now they changed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new fixture built by NHRA is helping bring everyone\u2019s blood pressure back to normal. It has to be parallel to the car and on the ground. The amount of air pressure in the front and rear tires is designated and this process must be completed before any car does its first qualifying run. The line at tech for Denver was very long – good thing both qualifying sessions took place later in the day.<\/p>\n
As one crew chief aptly put it after going through discussions with NHRA before the rule was finally quantified: \u201cYou don\u2019t want to do things twice, like build something and have them take it away later. We just want to be equal at the tech trailer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laidback headers are a performance gain because they lighten the front of the car dramatically the farther back the headers are angled. \u201cEverybody\u2019s used the headers to make power. It makes the front end lighter as you lay them back more – and it\u2019s not lighter by 100 pounds – we\u2019re talking 6-800 pounds lighter by how far you tipped them back,\u201d a crew chief told me. \u201cWhen we first went to 45-degree angles, we started running really well; it\u2019s like a free performance gain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim Head, who owns his Head Racing team and has Jonnie Lindberg driving his flopper, just kept shaking his head: \u201cHow did they get away with checking three cars differently?\u201d he mused. \u201cI know what they did, the question is how they allowed Force\u2019s team to cheat is beyond me. There\u2019s no other way to put it. I don\u2019t know whether they did it stupidly or intentionally, but what they did was wrong and I won\u2019t forget it. It\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n
That an issue has been ongoing since before the season began and the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season is approaching, this weekend, its 16th race at Seattle, is incredulous. Still, the crew chiefs with whom I spoke give credit to the brain trust at JFR for what they did. \u201cThey\u2019re still kicking our butts in qualifying. It\u2019s a feather in their cap to pick up where they left off. Bottom line is we\u2019re happy with the decision and I think other teams are happy with it. Hopefully it\u2019s over and we can go race our cars and not have to talk about headers anymore\u2026”<\/p>\n
This writer attempted to get information from NHRA on the subject. The response from Ned Walliser, the vice president of competition, was simplistic: \u201cWe clarified the rule based on the information we collected and the clarification took effect at the next event, at Denver.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor’s Note<\/strong>: The original version of this story named Dickie Venables as crew chief for Terry Chandler\u2019s Make-A-Wish. RacingJunk has corrected this and apologizes for the error.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NHRA\u2019s Funny Car racers knew something wasn\u2019t right when they went to tech their cars in testing before the first races of the 2018 season. They were measured one way; other certain cars were measured in a different manner.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":53986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,5029,3399],"tags":[5614,574,38,1164,423,41,7,1632,4970,4789],"class_list":["post-53984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","category-nhra","tag-anne-proffit","tag-don-schumacher-racing","tag-funny-car","tag-headers","tag-john-force-racing","tag-news","tag-nhra","tag-racing","tag-rules","tag-rules-changes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/header2-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-e2I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53984"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54075,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53984\/revisions\/54075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}