At that time they allowed fuel funny car to run a higher rev limiter then top fuel. Too bad they lowered the funny cars rev limiter also after that season. I've always been excited to see the speed records fall, but we will not likely ever see a faster run then that.
John Force has held the overall speed record twice. First in 1998, he ran 323.89 MPH which was better than top fuel, and that record stood for about 6 months. And then again in 2004, he ran 333.58 MPH which again was the overall speed record. More recently Jack Beckman held the overall speed record. And now Robert Hight has held it for several years.
I believe the issue is "running out of real estate". In other words, the speeds were getting so great (before the NHRA changed the 1/4 mile to 1000') that there wasn't enough run-out on some tracks. Scott Kalitta's fatal accident kind of clinched a series of wrecks from not enough "shut down" area. Theoretically, if there was an unlimited shut down area at every race facility, it would be super interesting to see what the speeds would be now. I think they literally reached their limit with many current track facilities. Just a thought.
@@richie5228 Wheelbase helps on the very start a little bit, but funny cars are still far more aerodynamic because they have actual top to cover their construction smoothly. Not only that, top fuel's have gigantic wing to generate downforce for start/middle of the race, but generates tons of drag. I'm not sure about the weight, but it's probably very similar for both - long front for TF is really thin truss, whereas body of funny car is like a single piece of fiberglass. If the races were kept at 1/4 mile, we'd probably see 400 mph passes by now on funny. Biggest drag for TF comes from exposed wheels, exposed engine and the huge wing.
Long term this is the way the world will have to go BUT throwing orange powder at sports events, and disrupting traffic does there aims a lot more harm than good. Time the government instructed the police to stop them blocking roads.
