NHRA....Sad day!

[Strip]

ESPN Headline

Woman killed by debris in Top Fuel accident....

To add insult to tragedy the major portion of class eliminations have been postponed until tomorrow or next weekend. After a class known as Top Dragster could not safely go down the track they switched to a slower class, Super Street. Top Dragster consists of mainly mid 6 second dragsters competing against each other in a fast bracket race. Trading one racers peril for another NHRA decided to run the slower class, which is full of heavy medium horsepower cars. After a well known racer crashed NHRA canceled all racing until the following morning. Super Street cars run on a 10.90 index at speeds of less than 150 mph in cars weighing more than 2,400 lbs.

As a drag racer I question the thought process that allows the proffesional categories to run on such a marginally prepared track. Although the fan (most of you) may consider the NHRA a great venue the sportsman racer (ie not what you see on TV) have long given up on the antics of argueably one of the worst run sporting events in the nation.

I have but one question to ask......Can it get any worse for NHRA?

After a Top Fuel crash involving the death of a spectator, a marginal track, poor racing discisons, and another wreck I would sincerely hope not......

My condolences to Antron Brown (a person whom I have met, very caring and a class act) and the woman killed during the aftermath of his wreck, which in his defense was not driver error.

Strip

[CAP1]

dam..i hadn't heard anythign about this.

hope nhra doesn't do somehting stupid in their typical "kneejerk" style.



 i;ve always thought it stupid to simply run slower classes when there was a problem on the track. while we're not as fast as the "big guyds" we're still haulin bellybutton running in the 10's.....

[Strip]

I agree CAP1, as a driver who cut is teeth in a low ten second ride I can attest they are anything but Sunday drives.

If everything goes perfect they can be quite easy, but that is the exception not the rule. Most of the ten second rides around here are older chassis, with nose heavy characteristics. Carrying a 3,400lb race car still takes quite a bit of horsepower to travel the 1/4. My dad gave let me race his 69 Chevelle when I was 15 and continued to do so for about two years. Both, and so far my only, "oh crap" moments occurred while driving this car on what I considered an okay racing surface.

When I was 16, we were racing in early December, colder weather and lots of dew being the normal. Being young and alone at the time I lined up to go race, between the time I buckled in and got to the head of staging the car misted up. So bad I had to ask the starter to wipe my window off, fast forward to present day and I would have loaded car up! I went through the finish line at 131 mph and ran a then best of 10.02 with the car just wiggling all the way down. When I let up that wiggle became a white knuckle waggle, so much so that I traveled 1/4 mile before I felt comfortable trying to slow down.

One time we were testing I had a fun but hairy ride, again cold conditions but manageable. I launch the car skates and spins so bad that you could hear the engine being loaded and unloaded. I remember turning the wheel both directions a 1/4 turn but stayed in it as the car was still straight. After 2nd gear came I had the car going fairly nicely but with a good 1/8th turn to the left. As I went through the 1/8 mile at 6.36/129 the car twitches and no longer needed any correction. After watching a film we saw that I had carried a slight power slide all the way out to half track. That was the one and only time my dad (man of few compliments) as ever said "good driving".....

Just this week we took the dragster to test, oh boy that was fun, we made two aborted runs and wild launch. My dad skated all the way down the first two passes, and let off one. As the dew rolled in I jumped in for my one and only run, yeehaw. I launched and the car goes right for the wall, I try to steer into it and I felt like a NASCAR driver. I turned and she kept plowing for the wall, totally unresponsive to steering input. Fast forward to yesterday, went 7.97 at 168 and went through the finish line without ever moving the steering wheel. Its amazing what a good track can do for you....

Most of this was with a lowly ten second bracket car on a okay track, cant imagine a poor track running sixes!

Strip

[rpm]

It's always sad when a competitor or spectator is killed or injured at a racing event. But everyone knows that injury is a distinct possibility just by being there. Let's hope NHRA doesn't pull a kneejerk response.

[Strip]

We can only hope rpm, but, after all it is the NHRA....

They have a long line of knee jerk inadequate reactions to these types of problems.

Strip

[CAP1]

We can only hope rpm, but, after all it is the NHRA....

They have a long line of knee jerk inadequate reactions to these types of problems.

Strip

speaking of kneejerk.....since you drive a much faster car than me, maybe you understand this.

 after doug kalitta got killed, they stopped running those guys the full 1/4 mile, an they ran 1,000 feet instead. why? what was the reasoning?

[Strip]

The answer to that is rather complicated and covers a few different areas, in general its just a token gesture.

A few years ago NHRA implemented a mandatory 3.00 ratio rear gear and 8300 rpm rev limiter. During most runs the engine would be on the rev limiter past the 1,000 foot mark. Being the high strung, over the edge engines they are, they did not like it. Most of the explosions you see after half track are considered to be a direct result. Shorting the track limited the time on the rev limiter, and the hurt engines down track. This is the only area that it might have actually had a genuine positive effect. The other reasons proclaimed by NHRA mainly relate to shutdown area and getting the cars stopped. In their mind the extra 300 feet and 10-15 mph less trap speed mean extra safety. I got news for ya, if 3,000 feet cant get it done, 3,320 sure as heck wont either. From the 1,000 to 1/4 mile they would have typically gained 15 mph, hardly a drop in the bucket if the worse comes. NHRA like many sports, has become retroactive, fixing problems only after they have dire consequences. I mean really, did a boom truck and concrete pillar at the end of a runoff seem at all a bit stupid? Kalitta's accident all boiled down to having non-technical people making life and death decisions about safety.

In the end it boils down to money, NHRA already has a class that goes deep into the 5's, Top Alcohol Dragster/Funny Car. If NHRA slows the big boy's down you will essentially have two competing classes. Not only that but changing engine parts cost money, lots of it, and testing it will cost even more. Going to a 1,000 feet was more of a stop gap, letting the big Top Fuel guys keep running 300+ while NHRA does practically nothing. There arent even any hints of change either........

Strip

[Getback]

First drag race I ever went to in Muncie Indiana an 18 yr. old kid was killed by axle that separated from the vehicle.

[Grayeagle]

Spent a lot of years Bracket Racing this an that.
Always cracked me up when someone brought up the old saw about 'don't take much skill' to drag race.

Anytime you get 600hp, 13" slicks on ten pounds of air, the lil skinnies up front skating the first few car lengths,
..you learn a bit about that whole 'driving' thing in a hurry, all kinds of little things can bite you hard.

Even a pound of air pressure off in one slick or the other will steer the car when she launches.
So many other bits you need to know to make a good run in a fast car.. even if it runs hard and straight.

I loved it ..most days were awesome, the last 4 years I ran they paid me to be there (always finished in the money)
..got so people would not line up against me, they'd wait and let the 'new guy' roll in first .. LOL.

I loved it when the LA Basin guys would come up to LACR and start talkin smack about how slow my car was and how fast they were gonna be .. not a frik-kin clue about how much difference sea level to 3300 ft of alt would make to their performance.

Amazin how many ended up in my bracket, and back on their trailers ..round after round

-GE (the term baby seal and vulching dweebs applied long before I discovered Air Warrior

[Strip]

Don't forget duck hunt!

 

[CAP1]

Don't forget duck hunt!

 

when we first started taking the camaro to atco, i was the duck. it seemed that they fought over trying to line up next to me, as it seemed no matter what i did, i managed to lose the first round.
 this was a couple months, and believe it or not, for the first month, we tried running that beast without a delay box, against everyone else using them, and some using air shifters.
 put a mega400 delay box in, it took a couple weekends to get used to it........and started making it to the 2nd round.

 there was an old time drags event one sunday.....and that's where it all came together for me. i made it 5 rounds, putting some notable locals on their trailers.

 after that day, i wasn't the duck anymore. 

[Strip]

Fun story, I was a few weeks from turning 16 and had maybe four or five races under my belt, a duck for the most part. I pull up, low and behold I had to race Troy Williams Jr., arguably one of the top 25 bracket racers in the country. Here I am, 15 shouldn't even be racing, green as the spring, happy I got past first round Ryan Norton. I was dialed a 6.30, he was dial in the 4.70s, a super nice dragster verses my dads 69 Chevelle. I launch with a .028 light, he follows with a .00X light and starts to run me down like a freaking bullet. When the stripe comes I look over and he is there but I think I am taking the stripe too much. I dump, he dumps (he had taken the stripe ahead) and the computer gives me the win light, you could see the car move as I celebrated at 100+  mph. Hold the phone, get back and realize the timers in Troy's lane messed up and gave him his 330 time as the 660 time, rerun required. I know I was breaking out by at least .02 so I try to dial down (ran a 6.303 on 6.30 hitting the brakes) to a 6.29, cant change dial in a rerun. Just my luck, I roll .01 out of the delay box, dial a 6.30 and know I have to hit the brakes. I launch, leaving early gonna go red.....no green, wow good light. I look back watch him leave and start to run me down again, hes not getting there with his .025 light, I dump at the speed cone. I go through running a 6.306 on a 6.30 with a .000 light, I got made fun when a few people at the far end seen me celebrating as I made the turn off. I lost in the next round (third) and went home feeling like I won the race!

 

Strip