the problem is that these cars are going faster than ever and many of these older tracks probably aren't equipped to deal with giving these cars enough room to slow down. i don't know that they ever planned on having to deal with cars going in excess of 300 mph. and adding extra room at the end isn't always going to be the answer either... their property boundaries may play into that.

the track owners have to adapt to the demands of the sport and update the tracks appropriately, or their tracks need to be dropped from the schedule.

the only other answer in my mind is to limit the speed of the cars. on tracks that have been deemed inadequate to support higher speeds, the cars should be detuned in order to race at those tracks.

i'd rather see either one of those than to see them shorten the track footage. the teams are just going to figure out how to go faster quicker.

 

25 years ago if somone died racing it was a sad loss but hell lets get back to the racing. Now its like a national fucking tragity and action needs to be taken! Did the nhra ever consider that if there was a rule in place for a proper fire wall / blast shield to protect the F/C drivers it might not have knocked him the fuck out? or make F/C rear engine hell they made dragsters rear engine and it saved lives not to mention they hooked better.

 

I don't really like the idea of detuning the cars. That goes against the name of the game which is beat the other guy to the end of the track and do it as quickly as possible. They used to do that crap in NASCRAP. I don't know if they still do it though or not. They used to put restrictor plates under the carbs. This limited the hp and kept the speeds down to a livable rate. BS in my opinion. Too many ppl are SKURD of things like racing. They're afraid they'll get KILLED if they race. It should be that way. BE AFRAID! that way, only the ones with the intestinal fortitude to handle it would be doing it. The way it's set up now, you could almost get an 11 y/o kid to do it and still live. The drivers aren't afraid of it, but the public is? Come on.....Let the drivers do what they do. They know the risks and they accept them....as gory as they may be, they accept them.

Thats my $.02....Which as in real life, is not worth much.

 

Has anyone ever seen the turn out for a T/F event? If you host a T/F event, you are making some BANK! I think the tracks that host a T/F race can afford to do what is necessary to make sure there isn't a brick wall of death, 1/2 mile in front of the car going 330MPH.

However, it may take 6 months (?) to implement track improvements, and they can implement this rule immediately. Having said that, it is the right move today, so long as its temporary.

Brian
EFI-Unlimited

 

you do realize that most track were built 30-40 years ago when cars were going WAY slower and were built right to the edges of their property. Just past that dirt and tree line at english town is a ROAD. Not to mention Englishtown has been for sale for a lone time now. The last offer was only 500K short of their asking price. I fear E town will be condos with in 5 years. Not to mention the tracks are perfectly SAFE unless ... your engine blows up at 300 mph , knocked you out , burns the parachutes off , then you hit a pole and a boom truck...... Lets be real here how many times has John Force or Cruz Pendergon crashed and burned with no Ill effects?

 

Compare apples to apples with Force and Pedrigon. They've never crashed on a short shut down track like Englishtown (that I know of). If the track no longer meets the safety standards, it should be dropped from the schedule. To keep it on the schedule, not only puts the drivers in danger, but it also puts the drivers on the road at the end of the track in danger. Imagine driving along, and all of a sudden there's a huge explosion and crash next to you with little pieces of car flying all over. You would crash also. Building the track to the edge of the property and putting up just a retaining net was irresponsible in the first place in my opinion. I don't think they should shorten the tracks at all, but rather discontinue using the ones that can't make the (safety) grade.

 

dude #1 E town aint short compaired to alot of tracks #2 ive seen force , the beaner , shirley muldowney and many other crash at e town. the guy got knocked the fuck out at 300+ , he stayed in the pedle knocked the fuck out and his chutes burned off. Its not even close to reasonable to think in that situation ANYTHING would have saved his life short of an arresting wire or somthing INSANE at the end of the track.

Ive crashed at 130.. that sucked , I watched Racin Jason die .. that sucked , I watched a state trooper in another outlaw 10.5 car die bolth were knocked out by somthing also. You wanna see a short shut down... go to ISLAND dragway in NJ its a 1/4 mile with a shut down that atleast looks shorter then sunshines 1/8 mile shut down. you have to literally pop your chute before the stripe and stand on the brake in a S/G or S/C car to not go off the end. Our dragster went the fuck off the end there.

Its all realative to the situation. I wish I was a math wiz to figure out hot many G's you would hit with at 300mph. but I promise ya if your knocked out with a god knows what HP ride under your ass going 300+ the odds arent good my man.

Have you ever even been to english town let alone run there?

 

By the way .. when it was built in 1965 no one on EARTH thought anyone would ever go 300 in a 1/4 mile. From 300 unconcious with no chute your straight fucked