The American Drag Racing League’s blockbuster announcement late last week that it would become the first series to introduce a heads-up eliminator for the popular late model factory muscle cars has been the talk of the town. Reviews of the ADRL’s decision have been mixed, depending on which side of the proverbial coin you’re on, but the class racing crowd, both those who own these modern machines and those simply invested in the growth of Stock and Super Stock racing, have given the concept praise.

The new eliminator is the brainchild of not only ADRL President Tim McAmis and his staff, but longtime announcer Bret Kepner and noted Bayou-bred class racer Jeff Teuton, who knows a thing or two about contesting heads-up events through his former involvement with the IHRA’s now defunct Top Stock category.

Without a set of rules released upon the announcement, interested competitors and fans have been speculating on which cars and combinations the ADRL plans to allow and how they’ll maintain parity to abstain from another Top Stock debacle where spending gets purely out of hand.

Image credit: RedlineDodge.com

According to Teuton, the preliminary plan is to utilize the Stock Eliminator version of the popular Drag Pak, Cobra Jet, and COPO Camaro vehicles, running on 9-inch tires under the NHRA’s current rules structure. Naturally-aspirated V8’s will run at 3,250 lbs., V10’s at 3,450, and supercharged V8’s at 3,650.

In Teuton’s own verbage, “All of these weights are subject to adjustment, but any adjustment will be with a fine carving knife, not a fire axe.”

In Stock Eliminator trim, the Drag Pak Challenger and Ford Mustang Cobra Jet have proven quite competitive with another over the eighth-mile, with elapsed times right in the 5.90’s and 6.0’s.