WHO IS LISTENING?
Well, I have said (and written!) it before, and will continue to do so - I couldn't agree with you more, Mr. Burk. By all means, let's do something before another one of our heroes gets killed. Just imagine, if you will, what would be the fate of drag racing's exposure to major media coverage had Ashley Force been killed instead of Eric Medlen. That may not be fair, but with all the hype that young lady has been given/subjected to, do you think the coverage would in any way have been positive about the sport? No way. The major media would have crucified NHRA and drag racing.
My question is, when you see Paul Romine and other racers and builders write in, and everyone has opinions on what happened in Force's crash, not to mention the other recent chassis and tire failures, does anyone at NHRA (or IHRA, I suppose) listen? Is it more important to have an image remain intact than to keep your stars (and in Force's case, like it or not, superstars) safe? I guess not. I can think of several ways to avoid the problem, since most of these crashes seem to happen in the last 200-300 feet.
1) Shorten the track to 1000 feet. How many strips have much seating in the actual finish line area (I don't know, only having been to a few and usually sitting near the start line) that would be affected? A shorter race track would be more easily visible. As for those who say drag racing is a 1/4 mile sport - does anyone really care? As long as the racing is close and fast, my guess is most fans would not even notice the difference.
2) Make the teams use stronger chassis, however that can be accomplished. I have absolutely no engineering background, but it seems to me that using thicker tubing might accomplish the goal. Again, if it slows the cars down a few mph, so what? While 330+ speeds are cool, can the average fan tell the difference between 330 and 300? No way! So make the chassis safer, even if that means less flex and more weight, and save driver's lives.
3) Specific to Fuel Coupes, make them use bodies that resemble actual cars people drive! Take away those awful-looking wings, or at least shave them way down (thereby lessening the down force), which I imagine would lessen the stress on the chassis. I know, the drivers say the cars would be undriveable without the wings, but how do they know? None of them has ever driven one of those cars without a wing. Back when Force and KB drove them with much smaller wings, they were less powerful and ran slower. Again, so what? They were still cool, they were still loud (maybe louder, when they could use whatever nitro percentage they wanted), and THEY LOOKED LIKE REAL CARS!
There are undoubtedly other solutions to the problem, and I would like to see NHRA be open to some different suggestions. Maybe some combination of the above suggestions would work. I don't know, but I sure as hell don't want to watch another driver get killed because the sanctioning body sat around and did... nothing.
John Murnan II
Cottage Grove, Minnesota
GOOD QUESTION
Jeff: when are 'they' going to start listening to your voice of reason??!!! 100% correct!
Ed Burns
Bakersfield, California
TO THE POINT
Right on. I agree and we need to do something NOW.
Art Gravatt
Bainbridge, Georgia
ECHO...
And, someone finally speaks the truth! Anyone listening?
Lew Butler
Pataskala, Ohio
CLASSY, REAL CLASSY, GARY
I would like to be notified about bad crashes and other videos and or pictures
