NHRA cuts race distance to 1300 feet

[tenderloin]

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...8/newsletter12

[blueovaldave]

That would be 1000 Ft and what a waste it will be.

I hope the figure something out.

[Liquid_02_ZX3]

Wow how about shell out some money and extend the tracks. Don't **** up the sport, because of a freak accident and cheap ass owners. How about put 2 useable sized tires up front and put some useable breaks on them.


No matter how hard you try there will still be accidents.

Whats going to happen when someone hits the wall and dies the same way. Lets shorten it to 660'then again to 330" pretty soon it will just be a ****ing burnout competition.




What about the people who are sitting at where the finishline used to be. "Wow, dad that was a good stop huh?" That was the best stop of the day by far.









Every day that goes by America loses something that made America the greatest country on the planet. There are people conserving, hairless dogs, polar ice caps, oil supply, jimmy hoffa's body, where are the people preserving our code and honor of racing. Our youth is simply going to have nothing.

[blueovaldave]

It makes no sense to me either.

Plan and simple you tell the tracks here is how big your facility has to be. Get up to code or you are off the schedule.

You might have to shorten the schedule or run at a track 2 or 3 times during the year but make the races safer or leave the sport.

It is not like you can put some Foamy gel on the track and have the cars run into it.

[Funktacular]

This...is rediculous. Accidents happen and I understand wanting to take measures to prevent repeat accidents, but how about make them fix the track instead of screwing up one of the base components of the sport?....another epic failure to chock up to the "safer, gentler" crap thats been going on the last decade or so.

[Z63R]

From the link...

Drag-racing legend Kenny Bernstein, president of the Professional Racers Owners Organization, said the group supports the change.

"It is not lost on any of us that this constitutes a change in our history of running a quarter-mile, but it's the most immediate adjustment we can make in the interest of safety which is foremost on everyone's mind," Bernstein said in a statement. "This may be a temporary change and we recognize it is not the total answer."

This IS news...




R.I.P. Scott Kalitta

[Hocky]

Originally Posted by blueovaldave

It makes no sense to me either.

Plan and simple you tell the tracks here is how big your facility has to be. Get up to code or you are off the schedule.

You might have to shorten the schedule or run at a track 2 or 3 times during the year but make the races safer or leave the sport.

It is not like you can put some Foamy gel on the track and have the cars run into it.

It would be impossible for many of the tracks to lengthen the shutdown financially or geographically. IRP, for example, has a railroad track that runs shortly after the end of the track. Most tracks cannot afford any more overhead, either. They barely stay alive and more cost would kill them.

edit: But for the record, I am against 1000'. You're not really increasing safety by any real amount.

[Liquid_02_ZX3]

Originally Posted by Hocky

It would be impossible for many of the tracks to lengthen the shutdown financially or geographically. IRP, for example, has a railroad track that runs shortly after the end of the track. Most tracks cannot afford any more overhead, either. They barely stay alive and more cost would kill them.

edit: But for the record, I am against 1000'. You're not really increasing safety by any real amount.

BTW Indy Truck Bash and the Mac Nationals kick ass.

[Duder]

Originally Posted by Liquid_02_ZX3

Wow how about shell out some money and extend the tracks. Don't **** up the sport, because of a freak accident and cheap ass owners.

This is the first thing I thought of. I do not pay much attention to NHRA, but cutting the famed quater-mile is just stupid. There's other steps that can be taken to make the sport safer.

I think I would rather see them place limitations on the cars somewhat, obvioulsy they may be getting to fast for standard drag strip as it's built now. Although they should just renovate the tracks. Unfortunately E-town most likely doesn't have the means to do so on thier tight lot. Maybe they should not have held the event? NHRA has been there before have they not?

I believe Englishtown already put the kabash on any future NHRA Drag's. So the freak accident that occured there last month will most likley never happen again. No more driver's will complain about the short run-off area. No more reason to shorten the race distance. No more reason to change everything because of freak accidents-

[UltegraSTI]

hey be grateful they dont kill off the racing period, or try to. like fifty yrs ago.

need i remind you all what happened @ lemans in 1955 that triggered it all then?

R

[Omega Anomaly]

Why not have remote engine kills and parachutes or even a comm on board so that when the car reaches the line, it is automatically shutdown and chutes deployed?

[Liquid_02_ZX3]

How about a rip cord system thats used to land jets on an aircraft carrier!!!!

You already have wheeliebars to mount the big nasty hook on.

If it works for the Air Force, it will work for John Force!!!!

[OGFocus99]

Move the whole series overseas like to Bahrain, Singapore and Shanghai. They would build 1st class facilities for the races just like Formula One. On second thought, maybe not. We can't even manage to keep Formula One in the U.S.

[Tobyboom]

Did anyone notice what one of the people posted?

"Drag racing fans are being fed a lie by the NHRA. This lie is that the length of the race is being shortened from a quarter mile to 1000 feet because of safety issues. The fact of the matter is that the race is being shortened for monetary reasons. Nitro methane, the fuel used by the Top fuel and Funny Car classes is in short supply and very hard to get of late. The Schumacher team thought ahead and purchased great quantities of this fuel which they have been selling to other teams over the course of the season. This fuel is very expensive and is produced sparingly by oil companies. By shortening the races to 1000 feet the top fuel and Funny car teams are saving a great amount of money. This is a fan rip off. I am very disappointed in NHRA and if they continue this I think many die hard fans like me will abandon the NHRA for their rival the IHRA"


I tried to dig into this, but couldnt find any facts to support it. Anyone else care to look?

[Hocky]

I haven't done any research lately, but I've been hearing about nitro prices shooting up over the last couple of years.

[CaysE]

First of all, a 1000' finish line would have done nothing to prevent Kalitta's death... his car blew before the finish line, causing chute failure. Sheer overall length of the track was the problem.

Second of all, Englishtown, where he died, cannot be extended any further without extending backwards, which would require tearing down a lot of structure and rebuilding.

I'm more inclined to believe that nitro-methane costs are the catalyst here. If they want to improve safety, they'd be changing out sandpits for real technology.

[tparker]

I like the new set up. The cars aren't blowing up on every run and it has made for more exciting side be side finishes. You can hardly notice the difference.

[HTPerformance]

Originally Posted by Tobyboom

Did anyone notice what one of the people posted?

"Drag racing fans are being fed a lie by the NHRA. This lie is that the length of the race is being shortened from a quarter mile to 1000 feet because of safety issues. The fact of the matter is that the race is being shortened for monetary reasons. Nitro methane, the fuel used by the Top fuel and Funny Car classes is in short supply and very hard to get of late. The Schumacher team thought ahead and purchased great quantities of this fuel which they have been selling to other teams over the course of the season. This fuel is very expensive and is produced sparingly by oil companies. By shortening the races to 1000 feet the top fuel and Funny car teams are saving a great amount of money. This is a fan rip off. I am very disappointed in NHRA and if they continue this I think many die hard fans like me will abandon the NHRA for their rival the IHRA"


I tried to dig into this, but couldnt find any facts to support it. Anyone else care to look?

The nitromethane fuel is or can be made synthetically, while it may be more expensive than traditional refining processing, it will always be available if someone is willing to purchase it. So for the racing teams it is just a matter of if they got the cash to play the game.

Nitromethane engines measure the fuel necessary per second in gallons per second (g/s). source: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question642.htm

If they can do the 1/4 mile in ~ 4.5 seconds, by changing from 1320 to 1000ft, they shave off 24% of the length. It is approximately $900/55gal of nitromethane. Fuel cost is approximately (4.5sec * 1gal/sec * $900/55gal = $74/pass).

This is a very minimal estimate, so it is most likely more expensive. But consider our cars get 20mpg or better, it costs $4/gal * 1 gallon/20 miles * 1/4 mile = 5 cents per pass.