Just read this on DRO

[Charlie Yannetti]

Great post Jason......... and I will totally agree with your 2nd point that NHRA needs to improve on safety features at all sanctioned tracks........ I have seen accidents where cars got tangled up in guard rails in the shut down areas whch caused devastating injuries and in one case a fatality......... the tracks made statements claiming that the barriers would be changed, but as far as I know, have not........ but NHRA continues to hold races at these tracks without demanding improvement....... I have stopped attending races where there are guard rails instead of concrete barriers for the past couple of years....... if more racers boycotted unsafe tracks, or at least made their feelings known to their Division Directors of NHRA, maybe we could race under safer conditions......

Unfortunately, there will always be excessive braking and a a result, some crashes........ this is unacceptable, but if it happens there should be safe crash barriers designed to prevent serious injuries or death........

Like stated earlier, racing to 1000 ft is only a bandaid..... it will change things temporarily..... but not really change anything........ NASCAR did not shorten the length of their races because of crashes near the end of the race........ they changed the tracks and made them safer.......

[Mark Schmidt]

If you ever want to hear a nightmare story about NHRA and liability issues, ask Don Davis what happened when one of his cars crashed many years ago. Not a pretty story.

[63corvette]

Talk about track safety. I attended a NHRA National open this summer at a midwest track where there was NO Guardrail Past The Finish Line on the left hand side. It was stacked off the side of the track in loose piles about 50 ft from the racing surface. It was armor plate and piled loosly with exposed ends sticking up in the air. I went there and pushed the piles with those sticking up in the air toward the track down to where they did not point down track where cars would be coming at them but the loosely stacked piles were still there.
I was not comfortable with the track but decided to run and run the right lane as much as possible as we had traveled so far. There was a small car count and no crashes but it could have been a disaster. Needless to say my last trip there.
By the way the division NHRA crew was there and watched it happen.

[wsmracing]

A couple of weeks ago they interviewed graham light on nhra 2day asked him about the s.a.f.e.r wall barriers .........he said he didn't feel they were needed in drag racing , if i understood his interview,, i e-mailed n.h.r.a & suggested he explain that to some of the familes of the racers who lost their love ones this year........................could it have helped.????? ...............................a wall is a wall..............does nascar use different concrete than n.h.r.a..?..........when it could be a part failure that causes the accident or some meathead locking up the brakes....if the s.a.f.e.r wall could absorb the impact & save lives.....i think it could work in drag racing..........................thats my opinion.....& you know what they say about opinions...!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Top end braking has always been an issue.....when they check the master log time sheet, they can tell who lifted & dropped a couple of mph's or who locked up the brakes & scrubbed 15 mph off..........the time slips don't lie.........

[Jason Oldfield]

Originally Posted by wsmracing

A couple of weeks ago they interviewed graham light on nhra 2day asked him about the s.a.f.e.r wall barriers .........he said he didn't feel they were needed in drag racing

I wouldn't say they're not needed, but my understanding is that they will not work the way they are currently designed as they're not meant for straight-line racing. Supposedly, the current design would worsen the problem, as they would snatch cars and pull them into the wall, not let them bounce off the way the walls do now. Again, this is supposedly why they don't have the soft wall all the way around the circle tracks, and only in the corners (in other words, not on the straightaways).

I don't know this to be fact, just my understanding. That said, I certainly don't believe that a safer system couldn't be designed. It would take away from the visual aspect of the sport, but why not have extremely tall catch fences on the walls? Every time I've seen somebody get badly hurt where it wasn't at the end of the track has been when somebody has got on top of the wall, and either come down on the top edge, or went off into some area of the property that they weren't supposed to. This would have the added benefit of protecting people outside of the racing surface as well from flying debris (including race cars).

IMHO, its only a matter of time until a spectator (or two or three) is killed by flying debris like a wheel coming off of a fuel car. If NHRA thinks their insurance is high because of drivers getting killed, wait until a spectator or two is killed...

[Jason Kenny]

Originally Posted by wsmracing

Top end braking has always been an issue.....when they check the master log time sheet, they can tell who lifted & dropped a couple of mph's or who locked up the brakes & scrubbed 15 mph off..........the time slips don't lie.........

One thing the time slips won't show is whether you dropped 15 mph in the last 100 feet or 15 mph in the last 200 feet. I think the tire smoke argument is better than the amount of speed dropped. I could kill 3 mph in the last 5 feet of the track and wreck, or I could kill 15 mph in the last 200 feet and be perfectly safe.

Sometimes you have to kill 15 mph when people have .086 lights against you, right gator?

[CBS]

From what I hear.....we are still going 1/4 mile....

[CBS]

I never hit the brakes too hard....just sometimes too early

[SG1809]

Originally Posted by Charlie Yannetti

Great post Jason......... and I will totally agree with your 2nd point that NHRA needs to improve on safety features at all sanctioned tracks........ I have seen accidents where cars got tangled up in guard rails in the shut down areas whch caused devastating injuries and in one case a fatality......... the tracks made statements claiming that the barriers would be changed, but as far as I know, have not........ but NHRA continues to hold races at these tracks without demanding improvement....... I have stopped attending races where there are guard rails instead of concrete barriers for the past couple of years....... if more racers boycotted unsafe tracks, or at least made their feelings known to their Division Directors of NHRA, maybe we could race under safer conditions......

Unfortunately, there will always be excessive braking and a a result, some crashes........ this is unacceptable, but if it happens there should be safe crash barriers designed to prevent serious injuries or death........

Like stated earlier, racing to 1000 ft is only a bandaid..... it will change things temporarily..... but not really change anything........ NASCAR did not shorten the length of their races because of crashes near the end of the race........ they changed the tracks and made them safer.......

Charlie,

I agree with you also, especially when it comes to guard rails instead of concrete barriers. I too refuse to run on any track that does not have the concrete barriers. I think we all need to make decisions for ourselves on when and where we run our cars. Go with your gut feeling. I remember once where several of the Super Gas cars refused to run after the Jet Cars There has to be some kind of technology that can improve the safety of these tracks especially Top End. Hopefully something will change.

Pat I
SG1809

[chuck rothermel]

ask walter olt if he stabbed the brakes at atco in round 1 of sc, then bob lang allows him to run sg and no action against him. i like walter and his dad but if d1 allows this type of driving without disqualfiction then i vote to go eight mile, a lot less time to sandbag and stab the brakes. i run 167 mph at 9.90 and will not risk breaking my neck,back and ribs just to win a round or a event that pays almost spit. i think nhra should care more about track prep and a real teck instead of sticking to a schedule so they can go home early on sunday. sorry to go on like jason. chuck rothermel sg1583