No Blinders

[Jim Caughlin]

Originally Posted by Alan Roehrich

Permanently attached simply means it must require tools to remove or install. They can be moveable and adjustable. The ones in the orange Camaro are mounted to the roll bar, but they're moveable just exactly like a sun visor. They're actually about the size of an index card. They WERE perfectly legal according to the rule book, and went through tech dozens of times. You fold the one you need down, when you're in the water. And you fold it back up when you're on the return road.


Of course, what I'm talking about is simply a small device to allow you to block only the top two bulbs on your side of the tree.

What I have seen, and I agree, they're astoundingly unsafe, are all sorts of devices, attached to all sorts of objects. I've seen guys in the pits with what looks like a rural parcel mailbox taped on their helmet. It literally blocked his view of the entire passenger side of his car. He might as well have painted half of his windshield, all of the rear window, as well as all of his passenger side glass, black. Just the idea of needing or wanting something of that nature is bizarre to me, and it's obviously dangerous.





I'm sure NHRA is looking for the easiest way out. The easiest way out, requiring the least amount of effort on their part, is to ban everything, for everyone. They're not going to want to measure or inspect anything. And they're certainly not going to police blinders in the pits. Too much work.


So, as per usual, the screw ups ruin it for everyone, and the regular people are unfairly punished.

I think it is a totally reasonable idea to revise the rule to state that any blinder needs to be flipped up or removed on the return road prior to returning to the pits. In regard to blinder size, I don't need any kind of high tech measuring device in order to detect a blinder that is obviously way over the current 4 x 8 size rule. I am perfectly fine with reducing that maximum size rule way down also, that way bigger than they need to be.