Rules? There are already rules?
You couldn't have stated this better, Jok. I'm an active member over at Nitromater, and I was really surprised at the amount of folks either in favor of these rules, but more importantly, not aware that the basic rules already existed.
I casually chimed in on a couple of different occasions on the thread with points similar to those of yours. Kick people out for violating these rules? Yeah, right. The smaller tracks, especially, that race week to week have a hard enough time getting car counts with the economy in the state it's in, so there's no way in hell are they going to rock the boat by kicking out someone's entire operation for something so stupid and risk the potential ripple of effect of that. Not to mention the other points you make about the sheer size of some of these facilities.
The NHRA would be much better off concentrating their efforts, on the PROPER UTILIZATION of these vehicles rather than the number of them.
Great perspective, Jok.
Sean DeWitt
Royal Center, Indiana
A safety warning
As a former track safety director, the weekend track safety issues MUST be addressed. Not just track layout, but safety team requirements as well. Did you know that any track can run any car, as long as there are two EMTs on site and one must have passed an eight-hour "drag racing orientation" there are NO minimum equipment requirements. NO additional training required, NO extrication tools required... the insurance co line says "as needed." Without an insurance company or NHRA mandate, a lot of tracks will opt to build a new beer well before they invest good $$$ in an up-to-date safety team! Be careful out there.
Mike Nervik
Vail, Arizona
Time for a change
The G-force at deceleration from a T/F or F/C car is at the point of blackout or severe medical problems. Since F/C don't look like their Detroit counterpoints now would be a good time to change F/C rules and reduce the down-force, size down the engine and go back to the Lenco two-speed. When NHRA reduced the nitro amount to 85% in order to slow down the cars, the crew chiefs just upped the overdrive. It's getting very boring seeing the same names and fields for both T/F and F/C.
NHRA can do nothing or put on throttle stops and index them.