Jon Kaase won the 2013 Amsoil Engine Masters Challenge and led Ford Mod motors to a 1-2-3 sweep of the event.

Next year’s Amsoil Engine Masters Challenge (EMC) will include a class just for the Ford Mod motor in addition to the return of the surprisingly popular Vintage class.

The most popular action at the 2015 competition was the Vintage class where Jon Kaase won with a heavily modified Y-Block, averaging 583 horsepower. Under the 2016 rules, Kaase will not be allowed to return with the engine in the same class.

The 2015 event was run under a new rules format that set up five different competitions on each day, a drastic change from previous years in which 30 or more engine builders competed in basically one class all week. In 2013, 4-valve Ford Mod motors swept the top three spots, then was banned for the 2014 competition. When the 2015 rules were released there was no place for the Mod motor again, unleashing a firestorm of criticism on social media.

Although not releasing specifics, David Freiburger–senior vice president at The Enthusiast Network, the company that oversees the EMC–says only the Vintage class will return with the same rules package and there will be a class devoted to the popular late-model Ford engine.

“Every class will be different except Vintage,” says Freiburger, who was interviewed at the SEMA Show. “We’re going to leave Vintage the way it is but we’re not going to allow teams to bring back the same engine.”

Not as many Hemis showed up as hoped, so it will interesting to see if there’s a place for the Elephant motors and their late-model brothers in next year’s show.

Freiburger would not elaborate on any other class change but did offer some background on the Ford controversy. Originally there was to be a class for 2015 pitting the Mod motor against the LS, but there were too many protests over matching the 5.0-liter 4-valve with a much bigger 6.2-liter pushrod engine. The class then ended up as a LS shootout with all competitors required to use identical LS3 short-blocks.

“That’s the way the engines come from the factory,” reminds Freiburger, adding that for the year the Mod motor won the teams stroked the Ford to reach to required 400ci minimum requirement. “But no one does that in the real world. They all use boost.”

The Ford class could possibly replace the Hemi Generation class, which did not draw an enthusiastic response.

“I was really disappointed in turnout for the Hemi class,” adds Freiburger. “I wanted to see early Hemi versus late Hemi versus second-gen Hemi.”

The Vintage class, however, exceeded expectations. It was won by Jon Kaase with a Ford Y-Block after fabricating a completely new cylinder head.

The LS Shootout will likely return in some form but with a “twist,” according to officials. Last year teams were required to use identical LS3 short-blocks.

“When we first put out the rules for this, people were criticizing us, saying nobody was going to build an engine for this class because the rules were too wide open,” says Freiburger. “You can do crazy things like what Kaase did, which was welding up a head for a Y-Block and then making his own port. To me, that’s hot rodding. It’s the stuff we can show, that kind of innovation, how to think like a hot rodder instead of just how to buy bolt on parts.”

The 2016 rules package will be released at the PRI Show next month in Indianapolis.