While you’re at it, let’s shorten the Indy and Daytona races to 100 miles because we all know how dangerous those races are. Hell, we would still have Dale Sr. if the Daytona race was say 400 or 450 or even 495 miles! Let’s shorten the NFL to 40- or 50-yard fields because all those huge lineman can't really run that far anyway and they could have a heart attack. We sure as heck don't need to have baseball fields that big either... who cares about the heritage of any sport, it’s what’s the safest for today’s heroes.
I don't like knee jerk reactions to fix a problem. A few comments from some very prominent crew chiefs compelled me to write about this subject. Both AJ and Austin said that their cars are done at 1000' because of the rev limiter, and some other crew chiefs’ comments have confirmed this, so it looks to me that one of the main culprits in most of the recent kabooms is that damn rev limiter. We all know that Eric's crash had nothing to do with the RL or the length of the track, and a lot of very smart people went to work to fix that problem right away.
A recent article by Double AA Dale has a fix to not only slowing the cars down, but also reducing the number of big kabooms, without shortening the length of a drag race to a 1000'. He said to lower the compression ratio in T/F and F/C to 6:1 or lower and take away the RL. There are some really smart people who are a part of my favorite form of auto racing for the last 45 yrs, and I think that it’s about time that the NHRA and IHRA suits start listening to them and not make knee jerk, band-aid fixes to the current problems. A drag race is a 1/4 mile... Just my opinion.
Bryce Alberts
Las Vegas, Nevada
Jeff, I am really mad and I will keep this civil. Go to your rival’s article and read the Dale Armstrong column. This could be put in to action now. At the end of the year all teams would save money. No changes to racing length would be needed. I am tired of people saying there is no immediate solution. Would the real tuners suddenly come to the surface? Is this the real problem, big money would not pay off any more? You tell me.
Mike Larsen
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
Great points! I run a low 8-second altered. Don't need 300+ for great races.
Carry on!
Bob Jackson
Canton, Ohio
Concerning the 1000-foot rule, given the circumstances at present, I think it's a wise move, one that will allow everyone time to really evaluate the situation and come up with some relevant ideas; we just can't afford anymore funerals.
Now, I have a question concerning slowing the fuel cars down; why not limit supercharger overdrive? It's easy to do, will affect everyone equally, and it would be very easy to police. It wouldn't cost any team more than another the playing field would remain even and less overdrive meaning less power would mean less parts damage, makes sense to me. The rev limiter was/is expensive because of engine explosions; slowing the blower down would do the opposite would it not? Why hasn't anyone suggested this before?
Glenn Westphalen
Issaquah, Washington
Dept. Of Unintended Consequences:
Did NHRA or any of the teams voting for "safer" 1000-foot racing at national events consider that scoreboards and poles are now in the shutdown area? With the big "booms" now happening at 800-to-1000 feet, fuel cars that fly or flip over guard walls could strike the types of structures that killed Jimmy Nix, Walter Henry and others. Thousand-foot operators would be wise to relocate their scoreboards to the new finish line before an avoidable tragedy occurs.
Dave Wallace Jr.
West Point, California
After 38 years of continuous involvement in a sport that first mesmerized me in my adolescent years at Irwindale Raceway in 1965.
I think that the tragic loss of Scott Kalitta has put into motion the beginning of the demise of “business as usual” for the NHRA event drag racing series. The politically driven giant has been powering through the past decades under full throttle with their crews chiefs positioning the “NHRA elite circus wagon” outside of the groove on just about every pass.
Driven by the motivations of corporate cash flows and unprecedented string of win lights in the “self serving policies lane” have lead them to an over confidence approach and a bull headedness that have caused them to relax their need to inspect their lane prior to sending their circus wagon down track.
After decades of runs, an overview of the tracks K-rails would show considerable fading, black marks, and scrapes of the racer’s and spectator’s graffiti that was painted on the K-rails between races in their plight to preserve what made drag racing successful, its history, and all of their voluntary efforts to help keep drag racing on course.
We should all celebrate the possibility that Drag racing has completely achieved its pinnacle! With today’s technology, speed, and budgets that are only rivaled by NASA’s space program, and the campaigning a race team being the same odds as getting selected as a space shuttle astronaut.
It’s time for a complete do-over, restoration for remodeling, under new management, or simply let’s just get back to the basics of real drag racing that fits that fits the parameters of what the sport was built on.
What a concept!
National event staging lanes filled with front and rear motored Top fuel cars, Funny Cars with recognizable bodies, Gassers, Fuel Altereds, Jr. Fuel waiting for qualifying. A rule program that would put limits on every component used on professional and top sportsman classes. No teams out-casted by insane budget because of new regulations limiting corporate advertising procedures that benefit the sanctioning body as well as the race teams. Bracket and index classes without a hint of electronics or driver aids!
We could melt down all of the throttle stops, trans brakes, and electronic gismos to use in casting the new national event Wallys.
Feed the fans what they have been hungry for years, and they will come... Oh my God, was that a dry hop that funny car just did? I haven’t seen one of them in years... Bitchin’!
Pete Baleno
Glendora, California