400 Thunder has announced several rule changes for the 2019/20 season and beyond, including the merger of two major sportsman classes.
From the commencement of the 2019/20 season, for all 400 Thunder Sportsman Championship racing, the following rule changes will take effect:
Super Stock / Competition
Super Stock and Competition will be combined at all events and posted as Super Comp Eliminator. This class will run as a 16 car field at all events, except for the Winternationals which will run as a 32 car field.
Shortened Qualifying Schedule
For championship events where the qualifying is reduced to only 1 session, then Sportsman classes with a fixed upper E.T. qualifying cut-off will permit competitors who do not qualify within limits to proceed to racing. Competitors will still be required to dial-in within class limits as per existing rules.
At this point, this rule only applies to Top Sportsman and Supercharged Outlaw classes as the only current classes with fixed upper E.T. qualifying cutoffs, but would be applied as required to any future classes meeting this criteria.
Junior Dragster – Qualifying Class Limits
Qualifying class limits for B/JD and C/JD have been changed and are now reflected in the table below:
Junior Dragster – Qualifying Order
Junior Dragster qualifying order will now be determined by how close competitors qualify to their respective class qualifying E.T. limit, without running under that limit (ie. A/JD 8.00, B/JD 8.60, C/JD 12.00).
E.g. C/JD running an 12.01 second pass will qualify above an A/JD running 8.02 pass.
Junior Dragster – Lane Choice
Lane choice will now be determined by qualifying position in the 1st round, then in rounds after that by the competitor who ran closest to their dial-in during the previous round of racing, without breaking out. In the case where both competitors have broken out, lane choice will be awarded to the competitor who broke out by the smallest margin.
From the commencement of the 2020/21 season, for all 400 Thunder Sportsman Championship racing, the following rule changes will take effect:
Top Sportsman
The upper cut-off for Top Sportsman will be lowered from 8.99 to 8.49. The only exception to this will rounds held at Springmount Raceway, where the cut-off will be 8.69 to allow for higher altitude conditions and its effect on engine performance.
At appropriate times, IHRA Australia will modify existing rules, and release appropriate new rules, to cover these changes for competition implementation. IHRA Australia will release technical bulletins to confirm these as completed.
