i have to say, its a pretty awesome feeling. the car has come a long way. the car has been 10.0x ing me to dead all summer. now that the fall air is here its been running 9.9x to 9.87(best to date). i had 4 more passes to make today. i was able to get all 4 runs in within 2 hrs today. everything went great. im really excited to get the comp lic. one less thing i have to worry about.

 

Congratulations ! Sweet lookin' early third gen

 

 

It was strange that I never really had to do that. Our home track ran under IHRA rules for the last few years of it's existence but wasn't sanctioned. I've run in the 9's for quite a few years and never had a comp license mainly because they couldn't enforce me to have it since they weren't sanctioned. As long as I didn't travel, I didn't need to get it.

I applied for my IHRA license anyway to run in the 9's and got it without having to make any qualifying runs. Sent in the paperwork and they mailed my the license. I got the license mainly to go and run in Edmonton which is IHRA. Even though I'm only allowed to run in the 9's, if I do start making repeated 8 second passes, all I have to do is let the race director know I want to upgrade my license and he'll contact the IHRA to confirm that I now run in the 8's.

NHRA however is a different story. They have a few different requirements to get a comp license including getting a physical, be an NHRA member, pay extra to have ND mailed across the border etc. I won't pay their extortion fees for the privilege to run quicker than 10.0 at a track that I would hardly attend. IHRA still treats the racers fairly and doesn't start enforcing tougher rules until you run quicker than 8.50. By then, you're in a different breed of racing anyway.

We currently only have 2 regional tracks. Edmonton is IHRA and the other is NHRA so it's no big deal. Next closest tracks after that are also a mix but NHRA tracks in western Canada are quickly disappearing to become IHRA anyway. A new regional track was getting concrete pours a couple of weeks ago so the 2013 season may offer another surface to race on. The talks of a new local track say it will be ready for the 2014 season but nobody is betting any money one it. Personally I doubt we'll have another local track for at least 5 years. It really sucks to travel 2-1/2 to 3 hours to race then drive back home after a long day of racing.

It feels good though to have that comp license to say you know what you're doing and are able to run that fast. It keeps tech happy to see the license and a chassis cert.

 

i hear ya. i dont have a choice. all the tracks around here are nhra rules. i have been to all of them for t&ts and ran 9s with out anything ever being said. but i would rather start competing and to do that i would need the lic. i couldnt agree with you more on having to pay fees just because you run faster than 10.0, but i also wont let that get in my way of having fun. its like gas. i would rather not pay almost $4 a gallon but i dont really have any say in the matter lol. im just happy its done and its a good way to finish out the season.

 

I have no problem if all I had to pay NHRA was the fee for the license. It's all the other fees I don't like. The annual membership costs more than IHRA. They charge an extra $50/year to mail ND across the border and there's no opt out option for it. NHRA doesn't mail out rulebooks any more. You get web access to the rules. That's nice but I'd rather have the rules in my back pocket. If you want a rulebook, it costs extra. IHRA posts their rulebook online for everyone, not just members to view plus mail out the rulebooks to members.

If you're surrounded by NHRA tracks then that's what you got to do. The only nice thing about having an NHRA license is that it's accepted at all the IHRA tracks however NHRA won't accept the IHRA license. If you do happen to travel to an IHRA track, you'll never have a problem.

 

there was an option to not get ND if i didn't want it when i had my membership last year.