D.I. COLUMNIST
Tuned Up
with Will Hanna
WHY TOP ALCOHOL?
T
op Alcohol Dragster and
Top Alcohol Funny Car were
born in 1981 when NHRA
split up the Pro Comp category. At
first the dragster winner had to run
the Funny Car winner. Pro Comp
was a progression of the faster cat-
egories of the Comp class running
in a heads-up format. They are the
quickest and fastest classes that still
run quarter mile in the NHRA.
The two classes are very unique in
drag racing, and part of that unique-
ness works against them sometimes.
From a publicity standpoint, they
aren’t the headliners at national
events, so they don’t get a lot of
headlines there, and the divisional/
regional series ceased to be a show
and became a back gate-oriented
event geared to make money off of
entry fees rather than spectators
paying to see a show. Over the years
they became like your good buddy
in high school that you slowly lost
touch with.
Now that we are in the era of
social media, you can follow that
long-lost buddy as closely as he was
your next-door neighbor. With the
internet and now social media, fans
can follow more racers and series
than just what the PR department
and media outlets cover. I think
there’s a great opportunity to tell a
story that hasn’t been told publicly
in a while. It’s a damn good one too.
If you haven’t been following Top
Alcohol, allow me to introduce or
reintroduce you.
First off, Top Alcohol cars have
the best round money short of the
fuel cars. NHRA national events
pay $1,700 to qualify in a 16-car
field. Regionals pay $700-$750.
No, you’re not going to make any
money at that level. There’s not a
huge purse at the top. Nationals pay
$5,000, regionals $2,500. You’re
not going to find that kind of round
money in most other heads-up rac-
ing series.
Top Alcohol cars race on the big-
gest stage in drag racing – NHRA.
You’re racing for Wallys. Not only
are national events streamed, but
Top Alcohol has its own one-hour
show on FS1 and FS2. We love to
knock NHRA, but there is no more
of a prestigious venue than what
they give us.
I don’t want to knock the NHRA
E3 Pro Mod series, but Top Alco-
hol offers a much easier path to
competing at the NHRA national
event level. If you compete at just
one regional event a year, you can
enter any national event. There are
no quotas, no buy-ins or invitations.
You can not only qualify but com-
pete and even win races with “good”
parts. You’re going to have a hard
time qualifying for a NHRA Pro
Mod race without state-of-the-art
parts that are well-tested.
NITRO. There are a handful of
classes in the world that let you run
nitro, and the injected nitro A/Fuel
dragsters are one of them. They are
a great stepping stone to Top Fuel
and nitro Funny Car as the driving
procedure is nearly identical. They
run low 5s at over 280 mph. They
pop, cackle and make your eyes
burn. Watch them at night and see
wing-high header flames.
Top Alcohol Funny Cars are one
of the most difficult, but also one
of the most fun cars to drive. While
dragsters and doorslammers require
finesse to make it down the track, in
a TAFC, steering is not only encour-
aged, but required. Drivers are very
much a big part of the performance
and winning and losing. There is
no auto-shift. Clutch drivers are not
allowed to use a two-step.
Top Alcohol cars race in front
of bigger crowds than most series.
Sure, fans leave when the nitro cars
are done. A lot stay in their seat.
There aren’t many, if any, heads-
up series that can put the number
of fans that stay in the stand that
NHRA national events do.
I don’t want to sugarcoat the
cost. It’s a heads-up class. It is an
expensive class to run, even at a
“budget” level. Obviously in heads-
up racing, you can spend whatever
you are capable of pretty quick, but
the costs are comparable to what
many spend in regional/outlaw Pro
Mod and radial series. A dragster or
Funny Car chassis is typically lower
than a doorslammer, so couple that
with used parts availability, the cost
of entry could potentially be lower.
Chassis designs haven’t changed
a ton over the years, so older cars
have a good shelf life and can be
competitive. There are no shocks or
struts to become obsolete. There is
no suspension to require a guru to
help you set up.
Finally, I want to dispel the no-
tion that Top Alcohol means blow-
ing parts up constantly. Yes, it hap-
pens if you push the edge. For every
team staying up all night working,
there’s about 10-20 teams that have
cracked a beer and are hanging out
with some of the best people around.
It’s a very tight-knit and welcoming
community.
Look for the Top Alcohol cars to
be a class on the rise in the com-
ing years. NHRA is committed to
building them up. InsideTopAlcohol.
com’s social media numbers contin-
ue to climb each race. I am working
with NHRA on several projects that
should spotlight the Top Alcohol
cars even more. Come on in, the
water is fine!
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
Will Hanna is a tuner/consultant-
for-hire offering services from run
evaluation to trackside consulting.
He can be reached via email at
[email protected].
TRACKSIDE CONSULTING • REMOTE TUNING • RUN EVALUATION / “Monday Morning Crew Chief Service” Available
[email protected] • 979.415.4959
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