The sport of drag racing is an acceleration contest between two cars racing from a standing start over a straight, quarter-mile course.
An NHRA POWERade Series race is made up of a series of individual two-car races called eliminations, with competing machines divided into four categories. Class eligibility is governed by criteria that limit engine size, type of fuel, vehicle weight, allowable modifications and aerodynamics.
The main object is to get to the finish line first, which may not necessarily be the quickest time or fastest speed. Sound confusing? It really isn't.
A set of lights, commonly called a Christmas Tree, is used at the starting line. There is a 0.4-second difference between the flash of all the amber lights and the flash of the green light in the pro start system. Any time a driver leaves the line before the green, the red light illuminates to signal a foul. The offending driver is disqualified.
Sometimes a driver can win despite a slower elapsed time and speed than their opponent. That's because the winning driver had a quicker reaction time to the green light at the starting line, and that advantage was greater than their opponent's performance advantage on the track. Remember, the elapsed-time clock in each lane doesn't start until the car moves.
Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle comprise the four professional categories of NHRA POWERade Series competition.
7,000-horsepower, nitromethane-burning Top Fuel dragsters are the quickest-accelerating machines on earth. They are powered by supercharged, custom-built, 500 cubic-inch engines mounted behind the driver and are capable of covering a quarter-mile from a standing start in less than five seconds at 330-plus mph. Two parachutes, which are activated by a hand control inside the cockpit of a Top Fuel dragster, are the car's primary braking system.
Funny Cars are short-wheel based cars with a fiberglass replica of a production car body. The engines are identical to those that power Top Fuel machines, with one noticeable difference - they are located in front of the driver. Body styles allowed in competition are 2000 or newer model year two-door sports cars, two-door coupes or two-door sedan bodies of a type originally mass-produced by an automobile manufacturer - foreign or domestic.
Pro Stock cars, while retaining a close resemblance to their showroom counterparts, feature extensive engine modifications, sophisticated chassis and suspension development and a maximum 500 cubic-inch engine displacement. Pro Stock cars must be 2003 or newer two-door coupes or sedans. All cars use carburetors and burn gasoline as fuel.
The Pro Stock Motorcycle category is reserved for 1998 or newer stock-appearing, carbureted, gasoline-burning machines.
Credit: NHRA