REMEMBERING ELMER TOO
Yes, the NHRA has never released the promised report on Darrell Russell's death. To be remembered is their failure to ever give any explanation for the strange fatal accident of Elmer Trett.
I witnessed that incident and there was no obvious reason for what happened. There were plenty of rumors and a report of the official cause of death would have helped clear up that mystery.
Norman Hechtkoff
RIGHT ON
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Jeff: Once again your piece on "NHRA and HD Partners face major problem going forward." Was as expected to the point and absolutely accurate.
Keep up the great service you provide to all Drag Racers past or present!
Mike Jones
Newport Beach, California
CHECK THE TUBING QUALITY
My name is John DeCort. We have a small chassis shop in Ohio called JD2 Chassis. We mostly build altered, funny car and dragster chassis.
We also do chassis repair and have seen chassis tubes that break at the welded joints and have even been them broken completely through the tubes.
We have also built thousands of chromoly motorcross motorcycle frames for a very well known motorcycle manufacturer. We have bent, notched and welded many thousands feet of 4130 condition N tubing.
In the past few years we have seen the availability of domestic 4130 condition N Chromoly tubing go away. I have refused shipments of tubing from three Ohio based suppliers because they sent Chinese tubing in the condition SR. I had requested the certification papers for this tubing and it showed the heat treat was to Condition SR, yet the tube was marked condition N. The odd thing about these reports is that all three were exactly the same for heat batch numbers and material specs.
Condition SR is NOT suitable for chassis construction. In my talks with Lincoln Electric's welding advisers, I learned that condition SR tube can not be welded with safe results. The welded joints will be brittle and fail. It will also not bend correctly. Condition SR tubing is for the oil well industry, not chassis construction!
I drive a race car constructed with our chassis and am always concerned about material choices. I will not build a chassis for anyone if I find the materials are suspect.
In the ensuing battle with these suppliers, I was told that Domestic 4130 condition N tubing was no longer available in the sizes that I use for chassis construction. I was further told that even domestic tube manufacturers were using Chinese tubing blanks for their tube. I don't know if this was BS from my suppliers or the facts. I am hoping you can find out what is available in the domestic tubing market.
I was able to find a supplier (listed on our website (jd2chassis.com) that could supply German-made 4130 condition N tube with the proper certification.
I fear that what is showing up in recent chassis related events may be a similar issue.
One other thing that racers must understand is that chromoly tube has a life cycle when used in chassis construction. The closer it is flexed to its limit, the sooner it will break. Racers are always surprised when their chassis is cracked and I ask how many runs does the chassis have on it. They did not realize that a chromoly chassis will not last forever. I repaired chassis from most of the big name builders. They all have a life cycle!
Thanks,
