NHRA Tether Rule Update

[SSGT Mustang]

Originally Posted by Crew Chief

I hear this mandate came down from NHRA's legal department after an incident where someone was hit by a collector that came off in the water box. If that's the case, they would want legitimate companies making the tethers because liability would then fall back on the manufacturer in a lawsuit.

I heard that too. But don't know how they can try to sell that explanation with a straight face when they promote fuel cars that explode and send shrapnel everywhere, including whole funny car bodies, at least a few times every year. You see cars losing their hood or hood scoop, nitrous backfires, lost blower belts, broken rear ends. The list goes on and on. I've seen each of those examples more than once, but never a lost collector.

I like going into the fuel pits to see and hear the cars fire up before their run, but always stand about 20 feet back because I'm just waiting for one of those things to blow up with everyone around it. I can't believe that it hasn't happened yet.

Nevertheless, the collector rule, no matter how they try to spin it, just seems like a poorly thought out "solution" to an almost non-existent problem. It's a sign of an incompetent bureaucracy at its best or worst, I can't decide.

Hell, if they expect tech to look under every car for approved tethers, then surely they can require them to look underneath cars for a properly fabricated tether made by the average racer. It's not brain surgery to make a pair of these things.