KB RACING
other in the K&N Horsepower Challenge final
round on Saturday at the Las Vegas race. Low
elapsed time and top speed of each event have
also been held by the KB drivers for the entirety
of the season thus far.
The most prominent aspect of NHRA’s rule
changes to the Pro Stock class was the switch
from carburetors to EFI. A 10,500 RPM rev limiter was introduced to help control costs. Teams
were also forced to remove the hood scoop and
shorten the wheelie bar, but it was the powerplant
changes that really affected most teams. Speaking from KB Racing’s race shop in Mooresville,
North Carolina, Greg Anderson revealed why his
Ken Black-owned team is dominating Pro Stock.
“A lot of hard work,” Anderson said simply. “It’s
been a battle over the winter. I don’t want to
sound like a whiner. I guess I’ve been called that
because we’ve complained about it but the bottom line was we knew nothing about this [EFI].
And I still feel like we know so little about it. You
pull your hair out every day trying to figure out
why it’s doing this or why it’s doing that. It’s a
huge challenge and somehow, someway through
all of the hard work we solved a whole lot more
of the problems than most have I
guess. The bottom line is the rest
of them will figure it out and catch
on. I’m not saying we have it figured
out because we don’t have it all and
there’s a long ways to go with it yet,
but apparently we got a little bit of
a jump on them.
“The best way I can sum it up is a
lot of cubic hours of work and a lot
of thought process and a lot of trial
and error. Finally getting the right
attitude and diving in after dragging
our feet and complaining about it,
putting every hour every day into
it to figure it out. We made a lot
of gains since we started. It was real ugly when
we first started. The motors didn’t want to do
anything right. They didn’t want to make power.
They didn’t want to run right. They couldn’t make
a smooth dyno pull. We had a lot to learn and a
lot to figure out. There’s still a lot to be gained.”
Anderson credited the employees at KB Racing
for their role in the success of the three drivers
this season. Known within the Pro Stock ranks for
having one of the most rigorous R&D programs,
Anderson, Line and their guys went at it even
harder over the offseason in order to get a leg
up on the competition.
“I gotta’ thank all the guys that work around
me here. I’m surrounded by guys who love to
work. They love a challenge. They don’t mind
at all digging in and learning new things and
looking like fools at times. That’s what it takes.
You have to put your ego aside and realize you
really know nothing about it and open your ears
and open your minds and try to learn every step
of the way,” Anderson added.
As much as it seems as though Anderson and
his teammates have a firm handle on the new EFI
setup, he’s the first to admit that they’re not even
close to where they want to be. The four-time
Pro Stock world champion also knows it won’t
be long before the other competitors find what
they’ve been missing.
“It’s been a learning curve every day. We still
feel that we’re 10 or 15 percent into the learning
process of learning what this is all about and
learning how to make power with it. Every week
when we get home from the race, no matter how
our cars performed, we’re back on the dynos trying to find a gain before we get to the next race.
That’s what we’ve been doing
this week, we’ve been working hard on the dyno trying to
find something that will make
them faster yet because history
has certainly told us we’re not
going to hold on to this edge
forever. People are going to
figure it out. They’re going
to figure out how to make
their cars faster and the cars
are going to bunch up again.
If you sit still and you don’t
find gains during the weeks
between races you’re going to
get caught in a hurry.”
Anderson also cleared up
any misconceptions about his
general thoughts on the rule
change. He and Line were vocal critics of the rule changes
when they were announced
during the middle of the 2015
season. The change-over has
appeared to work out in KB
Racing’s favor, but Anderson
still has his reservations.
“I guess deep down I don’t
know that our thoughts have
changed that much. People
come to us every day and they say, ‘you guys must
be thrilled with these new rule changes because
you’re able to win these races.’ You know, that’s
cool and that’s just the reward for the hard work.
Deep down we’re old school and we felt there really wasn’t anything wrong with Pro Stock. But
the fans and NHRA thought there was so we
were willing to give it a try. I think it’s still too
early to tell if it’s something the fans like better or
not. We’re trying to forget about the fact that it’s
played into our hand and we’ve been able
to win the first four races. You can’t look at
it that way. You have to look at what’s best
for the entire class and what’s the best for
the future. We’re in this for the long haul.
We do this for a living. It’s not a hobby.to
us. We need this class to keep going and
become more popular as years go by,” Anderson stressed.
At the end of the day, the five-time K&N
Horsepower Challenge winner says he will
leave the decision up to the fans. Anderson
might not be thrilled with the sweeping
changes and their consequences, but he’ll
live with the changes if it truly benefits the
class where he has made a living for over
two decades
“Deep down I think we feel that if we could’ve
stayed on the previous rules package and made
a couple minor tweaks, not such major changes,
and brought in the new TV package we could be
every bit as well off as we are now. It’s hard to say.
It’s too early to know for sure. The bottom line is,
what do the fans like? Do they like the new way
better or the old way? I’ve always felt that majority rules no matter what your personal opinion is.
If the majority feels that this is the better package,
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then I’m going to start believing that.”
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24 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
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Issue 109
PHOTOS: NHRA / NATIONAL DRAGSTER
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