an adjustment for a bulk of drivers in the class .
“ Can all these guys handle that ? It will be interesting to see ,” Elkes says . “ But now it ’ s the tuner and the driver , and the team . I think that rule [ with automatic shifting ] should have never been in effect .”
RICKIE SMITH
JUSTIN ELKES
the class , with wins and losses riding on a solid engine program , smart crew chiefs and great reaction times , but also on a driver ’ s ability to hit those shift points .
In that regard , Elkes believes it ’ s a good move for the class .
“ I can definitely see both sides ,” Elkes starts . “ Coming from Pro Stock , I ’ m not a big fan of [ automated shifters ]. I think drivers should have to drive the race car . Honestly , with the people I ’ ve talked to , I think everybody is fine with it . The drivers actually get to be a part of how fast the cars run .”
Of course , it will take some learning and will be
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RICKIE SMITH THREE-TIME NHRA PRO MOD CHAMP
■ Smith is the most successful driver in class history , with multiple championships and 16 career victories . But as a guy who built his career in a nitrous car , Smith wasn ’ t a fan of the move , believing it was only done to hurt the nitrous car .
“[ NHRA ] called me a month ago about this . I told them why you hurt a nitrous car more by doing this , and they still did it ,” Smith says . “ A nitrous car usually tries to shift somewhere around 1 second to 1.2 seconds , OK ? That ’ s a major difference between 2 seconds for where a blower car shifts . Major difference . When you miss that shift with a nitrous car , you ’ ve either killed it because you shifted too early or knocked the tires off . And I ’ m talking about a couple tenths of a second .”
Smith is fine with manual shifting – and did it throughout his successful Pro Stock career – but believed it put nitrous cars at a disadvantage .
“ A Pro Stock car ’ s power is wide open when you leave . A nitrous car , you ’ re turning 2 , 3 , 4 systems on within a second , so that motor is accelerating at different rates ,” Smith says . “ It ’ s a totally different ballgame from a Pro Stock car trying to accelerate versus a nitrous car trying to accelerate .”
He also disagreed with the notion of the move to manual shifting helping improve safety , and remains adamant that the move didn ’ t make sense for nitrous drivers and to create growth in the class .
“ You ’ re fighting these cars sometimes with both hands . They ’ re mean ,” Smith says . “ They don ’ t realize how fast these cars are and what they ’ re doing . I ’ d say 80 percent of the guys have never , ever shifted in a car .”
“ What it once was , we were running 6.20s and 6.30s . That ’ s a big difference to 5.70s and 5.60s . You can ’ t have the same car , the same transmission , the same shifters . All that stuff has changed dramatically .” DI
Multi-time NHRA Pro Mod world champ Rickie Smith is more than capable of thriving with manual shifting , but the legendary driver does believe it puts nitrous cars at a disadvantage .
February 2021 DragIllustrated . com | Drag Illustrated | 81