INSIDE LOOK; A TOUGH TIME FOR ALL; NEW NHRA RULE CREATES CONTROVERSY.

Byline: Steve Ramirez Staff Writer

POMONA - Modern-day sports require certain organizations or institutions to make sacrifices for the sake of television.

It's why the National Football League trimmed halftime intermissions to 10 minutes a few years ago and why the University of Cincinnati men's basketball team agreed to a midnight tipoff earlier this season.

It's no different for the National Hot Rod Association, which beginning this year is trimming the interval between eliminations from 90 to 75 minutes, all for the sake of TV.

First-round winners in today's 40th Winternationals at Fairplex will be required to be ready for the following round within 75 minutes or risk being disqualified. The 75 minutes is timed - from the conclusion of the last two cars in a round to the first two cars of the next.

The rule is of one of three changes that teams are adapting to, the others being a limit in nitromethane fuel and penalties and fines for dropping oil on the track.

``It's going to separate the men from the boys,'' said Cory McClenathan, driver of the Joe Gibbs-owned MNBA Top Fuel dragster. ``Everybody's got be on their game and get things done right and certainly we're going to have people not make it (within the 75 minutes). It's going to be an issue.''

That includes how teams manage their time in the pits. In the past, elimination-round winners would replace everything from motors, clutches and camshafts. Now that procedure will change.

``The 75-minute rule is driven by television,'' said Ray Alley, former crew chief for Bob Vandergriff and recently named NHRA director of Top Fuel and Funny Car racing. ``I think the guys will be OK. It will be very easy for the guys (to make up the loss of 15 minutes) by simply changing their procedure.

``Last year with Bob Vandergriff's team we changed entire engines on race day. When we got back in the pits, we had entire engines waiting for us. They had clutches, bellhousings, ignitions . . . everything. When our race car reached the pit, in three minutes we had the old motor off. The new engine was installed within eight minutes and had it fired within 25.

``Fortunately, Bob Vandergriff had the money so that we could afford to have spare engines sitting there.''

But Whit Bazemore believes that's exactly what's wrong with the new rule.

``This new rule changes the whole way we approach our business'' said Bazemore, driver of the Chuck Etchells-owned Kendall Oil Funny Car. ``It's totally unfair to the smaller-funded teams. You can't physically service the motor in a safe manner in that amount of time. It's just (a loss of) 15 minutes, but that's a lot back in the pits.''

Team Kendall's plan, like so many of the other high-financed teams, is to follow Alley's advice.

``A lot of thought has gone into it,'' Bazemore said. ``We've added personnel and have added a lot of parts. That's where the smaller teams have a problem. They just don't have four motors to replace on race day and they don't have the budget to add more people.

``All the competitors know we need a good TV package. The oil-down rule is going to gain a lot of time during the day. I'm just strongly opposed to this 75-minute rule.''

So is Dan Olsen, crew chief for Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher. But Olsen's concern is with losing time getting from the drag strip to the pit area.

``I don't like the 75-minute rule right now because at a lot of the pit areas, we have trouble getting back to the pits,'' Olsen said. ''That might be a serious problem.''

But most agree it's a necessary switch for the better.

``In order to make our sport more popular and packaged better for television, we need to tightened it up,'' said Alan Johnson, crew chief for the Team Winston Top Fuel dragster driven by Gary Scelzi. ``The 75-minute rule is just something that we have to adapt to, like the other new rules. We're all professionals here and we need to get it done.''

And know one knows that better than Bazemore.

``We've had a lot of practice already,'' Bazemore said. ``Now we just have to win in the first round to put all that work to good use.''