Yes, but a lot of them are "bracket" racers, and they usually dont switch to AODE's, they usually go to a C4, although you "can" beef up the AODE to handle 600-700 HP.
Auto's are consistent so serious racers prefer them. If you can find a guy that bang gears the same exact time everytime well that would be the only guy out there with a stick. Those are very hard to find.
White-Chad’s car ( a friend of mine) was an auto/manual (C4) tranny and he went 9.21 143. I doubt anyone could shift fast enough manually at that level and be consistent .
yea dude.....my dad has a 10 second chevelle and when he got it when i was 3 weeks old in 1988 for 300 bucks.....it was originally an auto...he converted it to 4 speed for like 8 yrs, started racing more and more, and converted back to a built auto with a custon ATI converter.....once he built his pump gas race motor (502) about 3-4 yrs ago that makes about 650hp-670ft.lbs with a stick, he not only realized that he was killing clutches by the week, but it was wayyy more consistant......sry for the long post, just gettin my story out.....