I won’t dwell on this too long because to me it is so simple to understand. Currently NHRA/IHRA is allowing the use of a switch that you can release the button on and the trans-brake wire does not get the signal to release for up to FOUR-TENTHS of second. Does that sound like it is within the rules? I think not. Even the buttons with 3” up to 6” of travel are all switches designed to create a delay between the driver moving his hand or finger and the car launching. They are nothing but miniature “delay devices.” Now they are also making CO-2 controlled trans-brake solenoids with bleeder valves, solenoids operating solenoids and the list goes on -- all of this getting the stamp of approval by NHRA/IHRA. Evidently the NHRA/IHRA has decided that if it isn’t a little box with Digital Delay, K&R or Dedenbear printed on it then it must not be a “delay device.”
If I were racing in a No Delay Device Class or Bracket, I would plop down the protest fee and have the tech inspectors tell me WHY THEY ARE NOT DELAY DEVICES when their own rulebook says they are.
Want to solve the problem and eliminate the advantage some of the really smart and professional sportsman racers have? It is very simple: allow delay boxes.
With the NHRA tree and the blinder you can’t cross over and use the other guy’s top bulb, it puts the delay box right at your finger tips for about $275 and you can throw away the $300 switches, two or three sets of front tires and the slew of converters you are using to try to “find the launch” you need to stay green and be steady. I would guess 90% of the guys winning in Comp and S/Stock are using a “special switch” they like. This is probably more likely on 8- and 9-second cars as it is hard to stay green on the bottom bulb with these cars because they launch so fast.
With all the money involved in these classes, would it really make a difference to allow a delay box and even up the competition? The delay devices are there now, so why not make a certain type or model of a delay box the “SPEC DELAY DEVICE” that is acceptable? Seems simple to me and if I ran S/Stock and were getting beaten by guys with adjustable switches and just got “out-moneyed” on parts to slow down a car’s launch, I would head the charge to level the field.
It should go one of three ways to make sure cars are legal and if you lose, you lost fair and square. Either a spec trans-brake switch, spec trans-brake solenoid or spec delay box. This can’t possibly be asking too much when these are classes that may have to disassemble an engine just to see what pistons or internal modifications have been done.
Well boys, that’s it for me and the phony switches and the great Delay Device Debate. You guys have to sort out your own problems. All I would do is ask myself why are these $150 to $350 switches with delay okay but a $275 delay box isn’t? The answer and problem is yours. You can keep getting pounded by the guys who have the resources to figure them out while you try to “hesitate just a little bit” and struggle with reaction times. They will get the win lights and you will get the long tow home with no Wally…again.
TRACK LENGTH
This idea will drive some people nuts: Why in the world aren’t the pros racing eighth mile?
Let’s review this for a minute. The NHRA and IHRA stepped into the pro classes with some rules to slow down the cars and stabilize things. Nice try, DIDN’T WORK! The speeds are crazy fast and we are getting used to hearing them. The problem is there is very seldom a side-by-side race and if there is one guy either blows an engine or lifts a blower. If they have any ‘chute problem at all they are bound for the sand trap and thousands of dollars in repairs.
Why put our sport’s best people into a zone that is so inherently unsafe it is ridiculous? Is it tradition or is it greed?
Tradition says all “good drag races” are on the quarter-mile. Why? Because in the 1950s there were abandoned military runways that were one-mile long and the founding fathers of our sport determined they could use a quarter mile to line the cars up, a quarter of a mile to race them and then that gave the half mile to stop. They were geniuses. Back then and really up until the early ‘80s that worked. Now with speeds reaching 300 to 330 mph on a regular basis it is stupid to create that risk for nothing.
A good fuel show on the eighth mile would still see 300 mph before long but the speed would not be sustained for so long and that would create a lot less “energy” when there was a crash or a problem. Parts destruction would be far less, turn around time and the show itself would be reduced, and the finish line could ACTUALLY be part of the show the spectators could see.
NASCAR, IRL and Champ cars have all installed soft walls and spend millions making their sport safer. All I have seen in drag racing is taller concrete, a few driver requirements and some minor oil containment products for the cars. The main concern, in my opinion, is to make sure the 300-mph rockets don’t end up in the crowd. You always hear the same response to safety concerns; It’s a dangerous sport, the tires are OK it was a fluke, etc., etc. Bull. The real problem is the head in the sand approach. Right now the fuel classes, alcohol and nitro-injected cars and Pro Mods should all be eighth mile until they get soft walls installed and figure out this “no problem – tire problem.”
IHRA ran the San Antonio national event on the eighth mile and the fans didn’t get up and leave. They are there for the noise, the cars, and to watch the racing. You will have a lot more close races on the eighth mile and it might bring the separation between the Haves and the Have-nots in the fuel classes a lot closer when it comes to winning.
I applaud IHRA for having the fortitude to make that call. Sure they had track surface problems, but they dealt with it in a pro-active way. They changed the finish line, the racers raced and the fans watched. Probably a lot less “Safety Safari Tractor watching” at that event. How many fuel cars oil the track before the eighth mile? Think about it, not many. Quicker events, safer racing, better finish-line viewing and less parts attrition. FORGET that it isn’t traditional, NASCAR overlooked tradition with the Car Of Tomorrow to protect its biggest asset, the race teams and the drivers.
Like what you read? Think I am crazy? Like it or hate it, I speak from the heart for a sport I have loved to be a part of for 40 years.
Jok “not a Fun-Hater” Nicholson
nicholson@dragracingonline.com
