http://www.nhra.com/content/news/30355.htm
7/2/2008
Very drastic move.

 

 

 

Good grief! They could shorten the race to 500 feet and the guy still would have gotten killed. He was an uncontrolled fireball once he hit the finish line. Typical safety "freakoutedness" of our culture.

 

+1...y not keep it a t 1/4 mile but lengthen the area after the finish line another 1000 feet?

 

the real issue was the runout room distance and configuration at englishtown.....I'm not sure reducing the actual timed section 320 feet is the answer. this is a money decision pure and simple - keeps historic facilities like englishtown (that really isn't up to standards for modern drag cars) from having to spend more money buying land/and or extending runout or repositioning safety walls.

basically lame. make the facilities step up, regardless of cost

 

well, im not top fuel, or a funny car, so I guess I'm still ok.

 

If they shorten the length they can forget about breaking speed/time records as they would have to start from scratch.

 

I heard most of the NHRA racers are all for this because it will lessen the number of mechanical failure due to the fact that most failures occur after the 1000 feet mark. I agree with most of you on this board though. Sounds like your typical "knee jerk reaction".

 

The 1000 foot will only be temporary until they can make changes in the off season to slow these cars down. The changes will be mandated in the off season and next year the 1320 will be back but the cars will be slower.

At 300 MPH there is not much you can do to save yourself. It's game over!

It happens so infrequently that a driver dies. It's amazing it doesn't happen more often.

Don't forget if drivers die then parents won;t be taking their kids to the races. This is a spectator sport where spectators pay the bill. No spectators no show. You can't have drivers dying in horrific crashes with a crowd of spectators watching.

 

I thought that made for good entertainment? Maybe not the death part, but the crashes. It's kinda like the show cops. You know they are gonna wreck, but we still watch it (when nothing better is on)

 

When your there and realize what you just saw it's really sad especially when you realize you just saw him in the pits signing autographs.

 

good point, im sure something like that is different when you are there versus in the comfort of your own home.

 

I don't like the idea of shortening it down to 1,000', but on the other hand if it was only a 1,000' then I wouldn't of blown my motor. My motor went right at the 1,000' mark ....

 

They should instead force tracks to have longer, more effective safety areas. That alone would cause many tracks to renovate, or be built, that would be nice.

 

I remember seeing the vid of Kalittas car blowing up, but can't remember if the cause of death was from him crashing it or from the fire...anybody

 

I heard the explosion knocked him out and the 250+ mph impact at the end of the track killed him. I agree with the idea of longer shut down areas but who is ultimately going to pay for it? NHRA, track owners, promoters or race teams?

 

NHRA would enforce it, and the tracks can decide to comply or not. At 300mph, no amount of sand or run-off is going to save a fireball unless said run-off is equipped with emergency water as well. That is not impossible, but certainly isn't practical.

 

ok guys...

first off, kallitta was killed because his parachute did not blossom and e-towns shutdown area was not long enough. this is only a temporary precaution until the offseason, when the tracks have the downtime to lengthen the shutdown. in the meantime, more r&d will go into parachute development and overall safety. nobody wants to slow these cars down, but we may see lower rev limiters, and other caps on speed. capping the speed will not have much effect on the et, as the et is made in the first 600'.

here in vegas, as well as bandimere, the shutdown area is sloped up-hill. i think most track will go to a design like this, because it is incredibly effective. we hardly ever have a car fail to stop here, and it is not as big of a problem when the chutes dont deploy.

btw: e-town had a retaining wall perpendicular to the race track at the end of the trap. kallitta hit that wall, and that impact killed him. if the wall had not been there, more than likely he would not have been killed.
the wall was torn down that night.

 

My local NHRA track has rail road tracks running perpendicular just a few feet from the end of the shutdown.... if they plan on lengthening it they will have reroute the train tracks.... or go backwards...and that wouldn't really work either....

I bet they will end up just slowing the cars down.... much cheaper than doing expensive renovations all over the US.....