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OUCH!
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Keep it up, Burk, you always seem to hit the nail on the head.
Bob Rieger
Mexifornia
KEEP IT SHORT
Good points.
Tom Griggs
Hurst, Texas
BRING BACK RAY
Great article, let’s see tire pressure, laps or condition, which is it? It would be good to see Alley back in the mix. I’m looking forward to something other than the status quo.
Duke McClain
Texas
SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
As a long time fan, racer, and manufacturer's agent, I do not believe that the current NHRA management cares for anything except their own pockets.
There are rules that are not enforced; I have seen this first hand. A lot of the team owners with VERY LARGE corporate sponsors can do just about anything they want. For 6 years, I was part of the Manufacturers Midway with 2 companies. I worked with Pro and Sportsman class teams. I saw first hand how the rules were imposed on the teams that NHRA management felt they could lean on without affecting their paycheck.
I was part of a meeting in INDY that looked at the problem with bellhousings in both Pro and Sportman classes. This was a TOTAL waste of time. Three of the six members were not willing to look at any changes that would cost them money to make changes to their current product. I will not say who these people are. The company I worked for had already invested the money to make our product SFI compliant. This is just one of several examples of how people that make money from NHRA DRAG RACING run the rules. "If it costs me and I cannot charge more, then to %#^% with the rules."
I think that NHRA management should be comprised of former racers that are only paid for their expenses. NO PAID SALARY. They should be working in the best interest of the sport and the racers involved. Team owners, drivers, and sponsors would only have a voice to suggest changes. The COUNCIL would have the final say in all matters related to safety. The Council would have the ability to impose fines on any rules infraction. Fines should not be money, but lost of right to compete at an event or several events.
The Council could ban a manufacturer that is believed to be engaged in actions not in the best interest of the racers or fans. This council should be at least nine members. Background in Pro & Sportsman classes, safety equipment, and chassis builders. No member could be part of a current team or company that supplies product to NHRA teams. The members would be appointed. Who would appoint the members? I am not sure. Maybe with the purchase by HDP the shareholders would elect them. But the only problem with that is the ownership at HDP looks a lot like current NHRA management! How about an outside firm (not involved in NHRA) looking for the members.
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I would love to work in this type of setting. The most important thing is "NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN SAFETY FOR THE TEAMS AND FANS." This should be the base belief for the council members. Hero worship should be left at the door. All teams are equal.
I hope the future of Drag Racing is bright with HDP. Let’s not let money decide where we are going.
Mark Jones
STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS
Jeff, good article. But NHRA has never spent its own money on anything but its PR Image, so unless SFI decides to sponsor research and testing, somebody else is going to have to, independent of NHRA, and then litigate the rules based upon Science.
You also state that NHRA tries to imitate NASCAR as far as promotion goes but not safety. My friend, need I remind you that NASCAR had few rules concerning even seat belts before Dale Earnhardt was killed? No helmet rules, other than you needed one. And the seat rules were a joke. No arm or leg restraints, and no HANS devices... Then Dale, Sr. ran into a wall, seemingly no worse than any other stock car crash, and it wasn’t... Except for one thing. It killed Dale Earnhardt, Sr.
They too had a big green curtain that nobody was supposed to look behind... Now NASCAR has the AD (After Dale) rulebook. And in a giant step backward, decided to build The Car Of Tomorrow so they could completely rule what was safe and what isn’t... Based upon the promotional Idea that crashing is good, just no one needs to get hurt doing it...
NHRA is looking at the same type of thing, although they’re faced with more than one problem. Tires, traction, unequal track surfaces, rough tracks, metals engineering and chassis design. Actually, speed has little to do with any of it, because, if you don’t crash at 400 mph you won’t get hurt... But then it does if all the engineering says we cannot build anything safe that goes over 300 mph.
But NHRA is probably going to do this... They will take Murf’s “Fix” and require retrofit on all cars in the fuel and alky coupe classes, and in the short future, probably this winter, come back with an abortion around the driver’s legs similar to the shell around the cage on T/F cars...
Instead of requiring ALL NHRA-sanctioned tracks that have nitro class shows or competition to install the safer barriers on the walls and smooth the top ends, and engineering a real “cocoon” around the driver that will separate from the engine, fuel and other flammable parts of the cars.
The “fix” or X member you showed in your picture tells me that the neat new X member won’t let the engine go away when it needs to, similar to the way a dragster is designed to break up. Y’know, fuel tank section breaks away, cage breaks away from the engine/drive train and it goes on its own way safely... Except for one thing... The huge steel braided fuel line and the other two #10s for return... It’s steel braided and if you watch carefully, in most cases, it HOLDS the car together, after the breakup. No wonder they have to have a coffin lid behind the driver!
While observation is no substitute for science, these are things I have observed.
John “Large” Largent
Pueblo, Colorado