In 2006, the Summit SuperSeries is taking on a new format… one that is sure to catch the attention of all IHRA member track competitors. This season, each participating track’s Performance Rating (P.R.) champion will race P.R. champions from other tracks to determine the “Elite 8” field of Box and No Box finalists for the World Championship race.

The groundbreaking program will continue to use the 30 round P.R. ranking system, but instead of having to have one of the top 6 scores in the nation, as was the case in 2005, a racer will simply have to be the P.R. champion at their home track in order to race for the championship this year.

Each track P.R. champion will square off at the Summit Team Finals in their respective division. The champion of the race will earn their way into the eight-car field of finalists that will again race for the Summit World Championship during the IHRA World Finals in Rockingham, North Carolina on October 20-22, 2006. The World Championship race will be held during Sunday’s final eliminations during the professional session. The race will also be filmed by Speed Channel and seen when the IHRA World Finals airs on Speed in the fall.

There have also been provisions made for divisions that run the Summit Team Finals after the World Finals is over, and for tracks that are geographically unable to attend a team final to ensure that no one is excluded from the program.

The program highlights are as follows:

Program will begin February 1st, 2006

Each track will determine a P.R. winner by September 11th based on the 30 round format as currently in place. Any points discrepancies should be handled with your home track first. All points and positions will be declared official and final on September 14th regardless of any unresolved discrepancies so as not to affect the ability to hold the Team Finals run-off.

P.R. Champions from each track in Division 2,3,4,5 will run each other at their respective Summit Team Finals. This will take the place of the Race of Champions event. Each winner will advance to the Elite 8 in their class and race for the Summit World Championship at the IHRA World Finals.

P.R. Champions in Division 1 will run off at the Torco Race Fuels President’s cup Nationals at Maryland International Raceway on September 30th, 2006. The winner in each class will advance to the Elite 8 and race for the Summit World Championship at the IHRA World Finals.

An “At-Large” position in the Rockingham World Finals Run-Off will be filled by selecting the racer with the highest P.R. score from the participating tracks that at are geographically unable to attend a Team Finals (Aruba, Alaska, Edmonton, etc.). If the person with the highest P.R. from among these at-large tracks can not attend the World Finals, the 2nd highest score will be offered the spot. We will go down the list until a participant that can attend the Rockingham World Finals is found. This will make sure the at-large spot is represented with a participant from one of these tracks.

The 7th and 8th spots in the Summit SuperSeries Elite 8 at the IHRA World Finals will be filled via a “Wild Card” drawing for all participants with a P.R. of .501 or better. All tracks, regardless of division or At-Large status are eligible for the Wild Cad drawing. If someone is pulled for the wild card position that is already one of the 6 entered in the run-off, another name will be pulled.

Each winner of the respective P.R. Track Champion run-off, the at-large winner and the two wild card selections will go to the Rockingham World Finals to compete for the World Championship on October 20-22, 2006. Each participant will receive $1,000 in tow money from Summit Racing Equipment when they tech in at Rockingham!

“Racers really liked competing against each other in Rockingham, during the pro rounds and on TV. It was a once in a lifetime shot for them,” IHRA president Aaron Polburn said. “We spent this past season working on a way to give all racers much better odds of making the Elite 8 in Rockingham. There was concern that the level of competition at all tracks was not the same. Some racers didn’t think they had a shot because no one could have a 29-2 record at their track. Basically you had an 8 in 3,000 chance at being the Summit world champion in 2005. With the program now being raced for at the track level, a racer simply cares about the competition at his home track and being crowned the P.R. champion at his track. Now the odds are extremely favorable to all IHRA racers regardless of track.

“The Summit World Championship is in the competitor’s control from the first round at his home track through the final round at Rockingham,” Polburn continued. “This does not reward the racer who has a great day at the Summit Team Finals. One or two good races do not make a champion. A world champion should have consistently good performance on a weekly basis and that is what we have been able to accomplish. This program was revolutionary when it first debuted in 2002. It has undergone some changes to improve the process along the way. No one has ever had a program like this before, so we needed to fine-tune it. With the help of our track operators that run the program and Summit Racing Equipment, we have been able to come up with the best version to date.”

The 2006 Summit Super Series begins February 1st. Competitors must sign up for their IHRA home track points and renew their IHRA membership and competition number before Summit SuperSeries points will be counted. For more information contact the IHRA participating track near you or Donna Harper at IHRA headquarters at dharper@ihra.com to renew your IHRA membership and number.