NHRA shortens race distance for Top Fuel and Funny

I love your passion, Scottman.

I for one think the 1000 foot race at Denver is appropriate.

Let me start by saying I understand and relate very much to your concern that NHRA is making an arbitray change after an incident. The organization I work for is much criticized (by me included) for reactionary changes.

here's some of my thoughts.

(1) the NHRA Funny Drivers group at the NATIONAL level is NOT a huge group. most meets see aboput 20 cars give or take competing for 16 spots. Yet out this very small slice of drivers we have had two deaths and a coupel of near misses (Pedregon and Force) in about a years time. Statistically thats pretty significant.

(2) I don't know this for a fact, but it is likely that the drivers themselves were asking for some type of action.

( paragraph below added later)

“The board members of the Professional Racers Owners Organization (PRO) wholeheartedly and unanimously support this decision,” said its president Kenny Bernstein. “We want to thank NHRA for listening to our input and suggestions to incorporate these changes. 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. This may be a temporary change and we recognize it is not the total answer. We will continue to work hand in hand with NHRA to evaluate other methods of making Top Fuel and Funny Car competition safer so that we might return to our quarter-mile racing standard. We also want to thank Connie Kalitta for his invaluable input. He has been a rock through these difficult times

(3) NHRA, or any sanctioning body in any sport, ahs many people to please and avoid running afoul of. Drivers are one group. The Public at large is another group. SPONSORS are ahuge group. If NHRA was say to become associated with unreasonable danger to drivers and or fans to the degree it would fall out of public favor, sponsors would be less and less willing to be associated with the sport.

So on many levels an action, perhaps temporary, is warranted. Top fuel dragsters used to be an unlimited type class. But progressing speeds have caused sanctioning bodies to put many limits on the cars to control speeds. The shortened track is a band aid perhaps, but the beauty of a band aid is that it stops the bleeding while you figure out what to do next.

Without actions cars would hit 340 then 350 then Tracks cannot arbitrarily add shut down area. It takes real estate money and time. How many tracks would be de commissioned due to shut down area, if speeds hit 375. These kind of speeds used to be the province of Bonneville. Nascar has taken many actions to limit speed. In Nascar shortening a race does NOT alter top speeds. In NHRA competition it DOES.
A long term solution that might be better than the shortened track might be Nitro Limits, cubic inch limits pushed downward again (like the history of the Indy 500). all of these have wider effects on tuning set ups etc. The short track is a "QUICK fix," while NHRA figures out what to do.
Another thing to consider. If NHRA failed to act in SOME way and injuries and deaths get out of hand, who is to say that CONGRESS would not at some point feel the need to become involved? Do you want THEM running Drag racing? It has happened before, when a private organization does not deal internally with a situation.......

Any way there is still 1/4 mile at many and most events...... and I assume the slower classes at least will not change for the long term .

Last thought. If YOU were the NHRA what would you? Thats for anyone to chime in on......
Personally i dont care if they 290 or 325, I want close racing. Just my ten cents here...

Let's see..
*NHRA has stopped testing on Monday's after races because Nitro is now so scarce and expensive.
*Nobody wants to watch Blown Alky cars as they are not loud enough or shake the ground enough.
*They could lower the cubic inches to 350 and all the teams would have to throw away millions of dollars worth of stuff and come up with new tune-ups and even harder yet..4-8 new 350 blower motors to blow up while they get the tune right.
*They could go to a smaller/narrower tire and take the chance that the excess wheel speed could turn their car into one like Eric Medlin's in Gainesville.
*They could add 300 or more pounds to the weight of the car but then again, all the log books would be obsolete and how much harder will it be to stop a heaver car once it's going 280MPH. (One interesting comment I heard was to make all the drivers be at least Doug Herbert's size and get rid of all the jockeys. Hot Rod's cool though.)
*They could lower blower speed again but that would eliminate the cool sounds we all expect of a fuel motor. Make it too sissy and might as well watch 600HP NASCAR cars.

All these suggestions have been made and would make the tuner throw away his hard earned logbook. More importantly, all those things would cost significant $$$ and take months of poor quality racing to get back to a good show. Goodyear's former head drag tire engineer stated that the current tires are not safe over about 305 mph. The shutdowns are too short at many tracks. The motors let go at 1100 feet and beyond. With what NHRA has to work with they actually made an intelligent decision for once. (For me, that was difficult to type. I'm still mad about the new Countdown instead of a real season long, World Championship.)

Some of you know I've watched a bunch of drag races since 1962. At tracks like Indy, Gainesville, Pomona, Bandimere, CO, St. Louis and smaller tracks like Springfield, Mo., Alton, Il, Orlando, FL, Assumption, IL, Spokane, WA, Wichita, KS, Bowling Green, KY, and many, many more. Some I can't even remember the name of. I've watched from every spot at the track including a bunch of towers.. and even tower suites lately. My favorite? Gainesville on a beautiful day, pits side at the 900' mark, half way up or higher. The people that sit there are true fans, they know what they are talking about and you never hear one of them telling you how their drive to work Camaro runs 9's at 150 on snow tires. Yeah, I'm gonna miss the last 300 feet of wailing, peddle down threw the lights bonzi runs. But I will willingly for a quick safety fix so no more of the old guys.. like Connie Killita and John Medlin, have to watch their son's die. It's either that or stop racing for at least a year till the teams can get geared up to some major new rules and Oh yeah..... find the money to buy all those parts with.

Hey Phil,
I used to watch the races at Assumption IL too. I actually heard rumors earlier this year that someone was thinking about starting the track up there again if there would be enough interest. I don't think much came of it though b/c the Coles County Dragstrip at Charleston is not that far away and it is already established. The track at Assumption was plowed under many years ago so it would pretty much have to start from the ground up again.

Troy and I got Grumpy Jenkins' autograph at Assumption back in the late 70's when he and Ronnie Sox stopped in for a little grudge match one weekend.