The loss of Scott Kalitta is very sad and he will be missed dearly. He was brought up in racing with his father and leaves a wife and children.
Several drivers in recent years have lost their lives in this sport and others have been seriously hurt. Darrell Gwynn is in a wheel chair, Eric Medelin died last year and John Force was busted up real bad, it is amazing that he still competes. There are others as well
The Fuel guys are just crazy as the engines in the Nitro category are time bombs. The power produced by these engines is so great that there are no dyno's that can measure brake horsepower of these motors but the experts put it at over 5000 hp !
In Top Fuel events 9 out of 10 times the engines are dropping cylinders before hitting the traps.It is a very fine line to get these engines to peform as expected. The fuel used is very volatile and with speeds of over 300 mph it may be time for NHRA to take a look at this.
Dragsters used to be front engine until Don Garlits lost half of his foot when a flywheel exploded. Garlits developed the rear engine dragster after that.The Funny cars still being front engine is antiquated and dangerous, the dragsters arent much better.
NHRA has tried to slow it down a bit with rules but records are still being broken. It may be time to get away from Nitro Methane or what ever they run, one of you can post about the fuel combo they are using as I am not sure.
They can run gasoline and adjust rules to fit the classes. A 320 mph blast is a recipie for tragedy.
This weekend at English Town is a tragedy and my best wishes for Scott Kalitta and his family.
Guido- the N.H.R.A. did cut down on the mixture of nitro at the beginning of the 2007 season. They cut it back by 5% or so. Now the teams are only allowed to run 90% nitro and the rest of the fuel is metanol. The reason was not so much because of the horsepower. But it was done because explosions were happening way to often. A lot of the teams were using anywhere from 95% to 99% nitro and putting the drivers at a greater risk.
What a lot of people dont realize about drag racing. Is that unlike Nascar where if you have a bad qualify attempt. You still have 200 or so laps to work on the car and hopefully find a good setup to get the win. In drag racing its a one time shot on Sunday. Its either put up or shut up. One bad run puts your car on the trailer as early as saturday. Thats one of the reasons that the N.H.R.A. put the fuel restrictions on how much nitro they could run in their hot rods. Some of the teams were trying to get that extra horsepower from the fuel instead of from a good race setup. The more nitro they used. The more chances they had of blowing up the car. Teams had to do what they had to do to make the show on sunday. Good post.
Last edited by frevr3fan on June 22nd at 11:20 AM.
I can remember when the Top fuel cars only ran about 250 MPH and we had tragedies back then too.
I have to agree on the funny cars. Shirley Muldowney had the same thoughts when she switched from funny cars to the rear engined rail dragsters.
Top fuel is Nitro Methane with a mixture of other voltile liquids.
I think the speeds have gone too far out of control. The main problem is the safety factors have not kept up with the drastics increase in speeds. NHRA used to be the leaders in safety technology but have ran amiss in the last decade.
If you have access to the videos shots you can see that the safety net and the sand trap was no match for the car going that fast. It just flew right through them. However the concrete barrier behind the sand trap should not have been there.I feel there in lies the tragedy.
Then you have people complaining about NASCAR wanting to slow down the cars on super speedways. The reasons are obvious I would think.
3fan, the N.H.R.A is out of hand in that one of their rules with these cars is.... If you oil the track because of an engine failure we will take points away. This is rediculous as any high powered engine can fail. Is this their way of slowing them down ?
Has it worked ? This is the sanctioning bodies responsibilty including run off areas or track facilities.
It is true that tragedy happens and can happen at even 50 mph. So many families have lost loved ones on the highways at lesser speeds. These losses are untold and uncounted.
The fact is that the N.H.R.A wants speed as this is engrained into their sport. Another fact is that people are geeting hurt and dying.
The circumstances of Scott Kalitta's death is due to a combination of rules and the persona that enthrall us, Conducting these high speed events is the repsonsibilty of the N.H.R.A. whether they accept it or not.
Surely all of the sanctioning bodies make the competitors sign disclaimers in order for them to compete as this protects the sanctioning body. At some point culpaibility will be estabished due to negligence.
Competitors know the risks and accept them as this acceptance brings competition. The rush of adrenalin is part of it as we accept it also.
Lest we have an excuse but rather do what is right.
Guido- You are so right. Its just to bad using Medlens wreck last year as an example. That the drivers had to srep up to try to make the sport safer. John Force stepped up and helped develop a safer cage that is know being used in all of the funny cars. When does the sanctioning body take it upon themselves to recognize that as the cars go faster. That there is also a need to not only make the cars safer. But the tracks as well. Its to bad that it takes accidents like this to get people to realize that there is a need to make it a priority to continue to make the sport safer.
I'll be the first to admit I've never seen a drag race other than TV and have little interest in the sport however, don't you think it is human nature, both as drivers and fans to want to go faster and faster and set records and so on?
You can cut down the fuel mixture and those same drivers and teams will immediately get busy trying to find another way to go faster and faster won't they?
About 30 years ago, NHRA allowed rocket powered and Jet powered cars to give exibition shows and races.After a large amount of fatalities in those cars, NHRA mandated a speed limit of 250 MPH on the jet cars for safety issues.
The Rocket cars were banned after a driver was decimated into small pieces when he hit a retaining wall going over 300 MPH half way down the track.
Since then NHRA officials seemed to put their head in the sand traps as far as having safety issues addressed before a tragedy happens.
No one knew this accident would be so tragic but it did happen simply because no one at NHRA said " hey do we have a strong enough net and large enough sand trap to stop a car going 300 MPH?"
I live north of Washington DC in Frederick Maryland. My job is as an Automotiive Service Advisor in the Washington DC area..
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