World coming to an end following fuel cars......
7/20/2008 12:50 AM
This is my 1st post to this LS. I apologize for making it such a long one. I just need to vent.
I agree--the NHRA and its drivers have every right to do whatever it is they want to do. So do I. I live in Orlando and every year I get together with a high school buddy who lives in Seattle and buy three seats to the Gators at Gainesville; this weekend's Nationals at Seattle; Mid-South at Memphis; and, the Winter Nationals at Pomona. My friend from Seattle is at the races, I'm in Orlando. I ate the tickets and saved the airfare. I'll be doing the same for Memphis and Pomona. We sit Nitro at Memphis and TEC at Pomona so eating tickets is expensive. Truth is, the fair thing would be for Pacific, Memphis, and NHRA (Pomona) to refund ticket cost sfor annual fans like me, or any fans who bought before the change. Not gonna happen.
I just got off the phone with my Seattle buddy; he said to forget it. Says that if anything happens down track during TF or FC, anything, they shut the whole operation down. Meanwhile, they've removed the penalty for oil downs--why's that? He says that the burn outs still rock, drivers are taking more chances at the line, but if you blink, you miss the race.
Fuel cars should not be slowed down--the whole point of the sport has been to go as quickly as you could in a straight 1320 foot line. We're not talking turns, we're not talking about other cars on your butt or in front of you--we're talking side by side, two machines and drivers. The Pedregons have both blown up and been on fire this year; both oppose 1000 feet--both do advocte less down draft and automated saftey systems in case of catastrophic engine, fuel system, chasis, chute or driver failure (loss of consiousness).
Longer tracks are absolutetly necessary, so are more sophistcated traps. If venues want to host these events, they have to spend the money to keep these drivers safe. It's my understanding that the guy who owns Texas Speedway is already lengthening that rack. When I started following the drags more than 35 years ago, cars went slower and there weren't even guardrails at many tracks; I think there were 10 or 12 national events. All the current tracks evolved to differing extents or were built to differing standards; they need to be standardized, and need to rebuilt to safely accomodate cars that drive even faster than 335. Saftey should have always been and should always remain the most important feature of the sport. In my opinion the NHRA has been getting by with technical executives who are either unqualified, or who've bowed to pressure from the multi-car corporate fuel teams who used to want to go faster, but didn't want to invest in the hardware necessary to run safely with the power plants they were willing to invest in.
I'm still not sure what happened in the Eric Medlen tragedy; but the fuel cars are running new Eagles, and I'm pretty sure that's related to Eric. Force nearly gets killed running old structural technology; Murph McKinney fixes the problem in two weeks. Scott's tragedy requires the venues to reinvest in infrastructure, and teams to innovate. Not so, instead the NHRA says the fans have to bite the bullet with either shorter races or slower cars. Yeah--right.
To me it looked like the catostrophic engine and/or fuel system falure in Scott's car resulted in such a massive explosion that it knocked him out. It didn't look like he reacted at all. It also looked like the trap torn the front off the car and catapulted the cockpit into the crane. This is definitely a tragedy. But I see where four people were killed in a Houston crane accident yesterday--I'll bet they have another crane there next week.
When it come to entertainment, every year is election year. I'm voting with my feet. I'll bet ESPN2 is having a fit.