6 & 7pt Seat Harness will be mandatory in many cl***es effective Jan 1, 2026 2025 NHRA RULE AMENDMENTS SECTION 5B: ADVANCED E.T., DRIVER: 10, DRIVER RESTRAINT SYSTEM (Page 12) ,a minimum six-point or seven-point driver restraint system meeting SFI Spec 16.1, SFI Spec 16.5, SFI Spec 16.6, or SFI Spec 16.7 mandatory. a minimum six-point driver restraint system meeting SFI Spec 16.1 or seven-point driver restraint system meeting SFI Spec 16.5 mandatory. All belts used in open-bodied front engine supercharged methanol burning vehicles must be covered with a fire-resistant covering. Restraint system must be updated at two-year intervals from date of manufacture. See General Regulations 10:5.
Jeez! They need to beef up the seat mounting rules first. Seen more seats come out of cars than anything.
Rule change I believe is for the Negative G for chute Hard hitting / & on crsh impact , thinking 4:00 quicker 1/8 & 6:99 quicker, Not for sure, There One's Now thinking speeds are getting to Fast , But there are cl***es You can run slower, There Talking about Rule changes to slow Fast vehicles across board , Keeping under 300 mph On 6 sec & faster. & going back to 1320 in Fuel cl***'s Dropping speed back to 290-300 mph. Because Shut down most tracks do not have , even @ 1,000 ft @ 330-341 mph. I am hearing there some well know Pro Drivers are getting Nervous scared of the high speeds, Talking a****st themselves. Top Fuel & Funny's will go much faster If There where No Rule's , I have heard Close to 400 mph maybe 430ish Over weekend a Door slammer Broke Record 5:07 1/4 1320 ft @ MIR MD. Several door slammers under 6 sec on 315 drag Radial @ 250-261 mph . Witch is small compared to Pro mod & Pro stock tire's. There even a Cl*** , Bikes going 6:20-6:30 @ 235 -245 Out Law Extreme Street Bike ? Ch***is Like a Production Street Bike with Stretched rear swing arm on Tire way smaller then Pro stock Bike. MIR is I think longest shut down Dragstrip , Starting 2026 will be a NHRA Sanctioning Track . I feel thing's are going to change In NHRA For Whatever can Run over 250mph .
Couldn't find a good pic of how this is supposed to work. This one is not DRAG but shows 7 https://nasaspeed.news/toolshed-engineer/seven-points-are-better-than-five/
@RodStRace The extra strap's , making less movement in seat. Maybe they will start using airbags some Moto bike guys have airbags in their leather suits.
I'm all for safety and the speeds are getting higher. I get that they are in a hard place with higher speeds and the same or worse shut down. The obvious answer is longer shut downs, but that is tough and the track owners are a powerful lobby and ally. I also get that belts have a finite life, but the original reason for the 2 year date was exposure to UV and wear. With covers, the UV is moot. I wonder how many cycles are typical in 2 years? It seems it's getting to the point where it's like that speedway that had to cancel an open car race, because the cars exceeded human endurance.
Advanced ET is 7.49 and quicker, isn't it? this has nothing to do with 99% of cars that we mess with here... the only exception being Brian Kohlman?
There was an engineer in the 1950s that calculated cars would never reach 100mph in the 1/4 mile and yet here we are way past that. Kind of funny to think about.
Dale Armstrong had a solution for TF and Funny car years ago to keep the speeds in check that was so simple. A single spec fuel pump and a single magneto. A nitro fuel motor is only gonna make so much power if the fuel quan***y is limited. Much like Nostalgia fuel cl***es have now. I know my son, who drive our 1965 Karmann Ghia drag car (tuned to run either 10 flat at 1320ft, or 6.30 at the eighth) is not gonna be happy with the new seat belt rule. Mo' money. But, he does want to go faster. Faster than the old man did in the car. (9.70 @ 143).
I think TF/FC need to drop some cylinders and limit cubic inches first. There is only so much land available to increase shut down areas and the cost of it would be outrageously prohibitive.
Always been surprised drag racing stuck with 5 point harnesses where 6 point has been mandated by the FIA for circuit and rally for decades.
The 1000 foot rule helped slow TF. They went quicker for the decade after the rule change, but not in the five years after that. cheers, Harv
The clutch setups TF and FC use these days are worlds ahead of what they had even from 10 years ago. Thats the main reason for the 3.60’s @ 340 mph speeds.
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