NOSTALGIC AT NIGHT
I fully agree with (Jeff Utterback’s) latest DRO column. In my opinion every Nostalgia event should be a one-day event with eliminations starting at dark thirty. OK maybe not the March Meet or Reunion, but any race that crowd promotion is critical to the success.
Jim Maroney
ONLY A FLUKE ACCIDENT
Sheesh, enough with the calls for 1000' (or less) racing! If you keep it up you will go down in drag racing history as the guy that started the demise of our beloved sport. Did you read the full transcript of the John Force media interview on 4/10? Eric didn't die from 1) 330+ mph speed (Eric hit the wall at 120 mph) 2) track length (he was already injured by the eighth-mile mark according to John Force himself - so much for your call for safer eight-mile racing) 3) track barrier design. He was killed by a fluke-ish tire failure caused by debris on the track (they assume) and the resulting roll cage oscillations brought on by the rear end traveling 18 inches up and down at somewhere between 40,000 and 60,000 pounds of hammering force.
Any calls for speed or track length changes now in the face of the facts are just more politically correct calls to eliminate all danger in anything we do. Are there improvements to be made to fuel coupes? Yes, and there always should be. Do we throw the baby out with the bathwater? NO. Remember, fuel funny cars have one of the BEST safety records in motorsports. Thirty years has passed since the last fatality – how many passes have these cars made in 30 years?
Greg Bednar
Mankato, MN
NOT BAAAAD
It's good to see a dyed in the wool member of the drag racing community see things as how they are, and not as what NHRA would like you to believe what it is. Thank you, Jeff (Burk).
John Blasko
Cleveland, OH
A HISTORY LESSON
I've noticed that a lot of folks say don't go to 1/8 mile racing, as the 1/4 mile is traditional. I was thinking about where we got the 1/4 mile distance in the first place. The most logical answer I've ever heard was that it came from racing on the dry lakes in Southern California in the 1930's and ‘40s. The cars would accelerate for a mile or two then go thru a 1/4-mile long distance that was timed. The car was timed as it entered and exited the 1/4 mile, and
the time gave an average speed. For whatever reason, that 1/4-mile distance was carried over to drag racing.
A lot of the dry lakes were taken over by the military in WWII, and they were lost to racing. In a sense, drag racing became a sport to take the place of the dry lakes. The racers of that time lost a 3-mile course and ended up settling for a half-mile course (1/4 mile to accelerate and 1/4 mile to stop). So, if the 1/4-mile track was shortened today, it wouldn't be the first time that happened. We'd have to live with it like the dry lakes racers lived with it when they lost the dry lakes. I just wanted to point that out. I've been going to the drags since 1961, and if 1/8 mile was all I had, then so be it. At least I'd still have the drags.
Also, just for GP's, I do often wonder if drag racing has gotten to the point where the speed has gone past the ability of the tires and maybe the chassis and other parts as well. We all know that if you could run a T/F car unlimited, it would go 400 MPH in the 3's. But, would the tires be able to handle that speed? The chassis? The brakes? The driver? We need to think about those things and where we want to go as a sport.
Cliff Morgan
Phoenix, AZ
