LET PRO STOCK BE PRO STOCK
Brand loyality? I thought everyone lost that long ago. I draft my NASCAR league team based on one criteria: the emblem on the grill. Not who's hot or who does a good interview, but solely on what they are driving. Most casual drag race fans cannot grasp what it takes to be competitive in Pro Stock, and they don't care. Don't get me wrong, I love Pro Stock, but most people see only a blob of sheetmetal quietly running down the track. 500 inch cars, mountain motor cars, pro 5.0 turbo cars, even a lot of the Pro Mods are pretty boring, and the average person just sees a 6-second doorslammer with no real identity.
If it were up to me Pro Stock would be, well pro stock. It would be based on current OEM offerings. You would have a 5.7 GTO racing a 5.7 Charger or mod motor Mustang. The exact cars that people can go buy with the exact motors that came in them. Heck, there are a hundred classes where you can take an old big block Chevy and stuff it into something and go racing.
Let’s see these guru's of horsepower working their magic on current production engine combinations (yes with EFI) and cars that look like the cars out in the parking lot. Now we have the basis for some meaningful competition. I still feel that the NHRA made a huge mistake when they wouldn't let ‘Bad Buddy (Ingersol) run his Buick in Pro Stock; that is the only car that I have seen run in the last 20 years that was a professional level stock-based drag car.
Scott Cornish
Lincoln, NE
MAKE IT DELAY BOX OR FOOT BRAKE
Why not this? To add a little to Jok’s story on delay devices, why not do like IHRA tracks in the Carolinas do?
It’s either delay box or foot brake. Takes all the fancy switches and so forth out of the equation.
Tom Hetzler
Moscow, IA
TAKING CARE OF THE REAL RACERS?
I was talking to a friend of mine from Oregon and he told me at races in the Northwest, they are lucky to have a medical unit at the Lucas races there. Why is it at a national event they
have carts, ambulances, first aid stations and even aircraft for people that get injured at the race, both on the track and in the whole area. Is the NHRA only seeing to it that the Pros are taken care of and not the spectators and Stock and other classes, shall we say under the Pros?
I would think that all races would be required to have what is called ALS at all the Lucas Races, as well as many others. How one ambulance is going to take care of two drivers on the track as well as those in the pits or stands is beyond me.
Jerry told me at the Woodburn Division race they had one guy in the rig and two others driving around and were told by the guys driving around that they would have to call the Fire Dept to get help. This sounds to me like the NHRA only cares about their Poster People rather than the core group that has made drag racing what it is.
Dan Stanily
Texas
ANOTHER SAFETY SUGGESTIONS
I really don't know anyone in the NHRA to send this to and I finally found you guys.
Regarding somewhat recent Pro Stock roll over accidents (Ron Kirsher’s at Indy and Bruce Allen’s at Dallas):
I believe that a mandated safety device would have significantly reduced the chances of a severe accident in these cases and would help in many others. The device would be an automatic parachute release based upon the speed and yaw rate of the car. One or several low cost accelerometers could be used to determine the yaw rate of the car and when it exceeds a specific threshold would deploy the parachute(s).
