Collector Tether Question

[Sean Marconette]

Originally Posted by 1855sc

I am amazed at how many people are making jokes about this rule. This really isn't about NHRA making a couple of bucks. It's about the people standing on/behind the starting line, getting injured and the SUING them. That's the bottom line. YES they were/are racers. For a couple of bucks we can attempt to fix the problem. I have witnessed several header "deployments" including one of our own. They were all "accidents", because everyone checks their, bolts, welds, etc. right? A couple of companies are paying you back with LODRS contingency, on a fairly cheap item all made by/for the racers.

Debbie Moses

Debbie,

The problem that most of us have with this rule is that we can fabricate the entire car, but must not be smart enough to assemble our own tether cable and clamps. We are being forced to have to pay for something that we can make ourselves. I don't have a problem with safety items, it's how they are forcing racers to rely upon others to have to purchase this item. All we need to do is breakout the engraver and place a logo on each piece of the tether and we are good to go. That's the only thing in my opinion that the vendors of this device has over the majority is a means of carving a logo on a piece of metal.

Sean

[Jim Caughlin]

The problem that I see is that this got dumped on every racer as opposed to the facilities. Some tracks have 'burn out boards' behind the burn out area to avoid anything flying off of slicks into whatever is behind them. How many of you have been hit by a rock? I've even seen them fly into hoodscoops and into engines. Greg Dreher has his side window blown out by a rock, they spent the next half hour picking up the crumbled glass out of the staging lanes before the race could procede. Someone left a wrench on dragster at Woodburn, it fell off during the burnout, shot out from under the tire and broke a girl's leg. Are we going to have tethers for wrenches that you forgot to remove from your car also? This isn't a header problem, this is a track issue. Forget the tethers, mandatory back boards at tracks is a no brainer and would fix the problem.

[C and W Racing]

I guess you assume that people are only losing them on the burnout? Way more lost going down the track than doing the burnout.
Chuck

Originally Posted by Jim Caughlin

The problem that I see is that this got dumped on every racer as opposed to the facilities. Some tracks have 'burn out boards' behind the burn out area to avoid anything flying off of slicks into whatever is behind them. How many of you have been hit by a rock? I've even seen them fly into hoodscoops and into engines. Greg Dreher has his side window blown out by a rock, they spent the next half hour picking up the crumbled glass out of the staging lanes before the race could procede. Someone left a wrench on dragster at Woodburn, it fell off during the burnout, shot out from under the tire and broke a girl's leg. Are we going to have tethers for wrenches that you forgot to remove from your car also? This isn't a header problem, this is a track issue. Forget the tethers, mandatory back boards at tracks is a no brainer and would fix the problem.

[Jim Caughlin]

Yes, but if you lose it going down the track, it doesn't get 'shot' out from under the tire because the tire surface speed and vehicle speed are more or less synchronized. In the burnout box, you have a static vehicle and a 150MPH tire surface, more or less a baseball pitching machine. More often than not, when you see a down track part fall off, it just slides to a stop. The bad down track incident that seems to cause the most damage is driveshaft failures. Regardless of the extent of driveshaft enclosures, I've seen some big chunks fly off and sometimes into the guy in the other lane.

[Dinsdale]

Driveshaft tether should be mandatory. Seen more of them come out from under cars than collectors.

[Doug Blackley]

Originally Posted by Jim Caughlin

Yes, but if you lose it going down the track, it doesn't get 'shot' out from under the tire because the tire surface speed and vehicle speed are more or less synchronized. In the burnout box, you have a static vehicle and a 150MPH tire surface, more or less a baseball pitching machine. More often than not, when you see a down track part fall off, it just slides to a stop. The bad down track incident that seems to cause the most damage is driveshaft failures. Regardless of the extent of driveshaft enclosures, I've seen some big chunks fly off and sometimes into the guy in the other lane.

Tony Fillipone had one go thru his windshield a few years back that came off the car in the other lane while going down track

[Rick Bailey]

By Spring , there will be so many guys making kits and show me a tech guy that's going to pop his not so handy dandy list and see which kit is accepted...... I think Not ! I believe if you have a good, sound looking system on your car ... your good to go sir !

That's right ..... I said it ...... lol

Rick

[chevy620]

Rick,
You might be right...but..if the tech guys do look and you don't have the NHRA-accepted tag or it's a fake; it could get ugly.
Why mess with it when prices are from $59.00 to $149.00 for an NHRA-accepted kit?

I would hate to travel to a race for 6 hours or more and have the tech guys be "on a mission" to make sure everyone with slip-on collectors has a NHRA accepted tether system on it. That would be expensive if you didn't have them.

Jok

[mtsp]

who has product liability insurance

[chevy620]

mtsp,

I would think every company has to have a means to protect themselves in case the "lawyers get loose" (maybe Lawyer Tethers next :-).

We have it on our NHRA-accepted tethers and other products.

I think everyone cringes when the words "liability, insurance, lawyers, etc are brought up". It's a risky sport and "stuff happens". The tethers are just trying to make it happen less often.

Be safe out there!''

Jok Nicholson