Antrons acident

[overdriv]

With all do respect to Antron, his crew, the lady that lost her life, her family and all involved, it was a terrible tragedy.

It should be evident and I'm sure it is, to NHRA that TFD and TFF are both very dangerous classes. It does not matter if you are running 660', 1000' or 1320', things can, do and will continue to go wrong and disasters will happen. These drivers have to know the danger involved and they do. I hope the fans understand the risk they are taking even setting back from the action. If they didn't they ought to know now.

I understand they have put remote shutoffs in the fuel classes now. I think that is an excellent idea. So, can we get back to 1/4 mile drag racing now? Everyone I've talked to understands the problem and the reason behind the 1000' racing, but really does not like the 1000' racing at all. It is just a big exhibition show they try to call competition. NHRA, you're losing fans by the droves.

I know this will probably not be a popular post on this forum as I know most of you are dyed-in-the-wool NHRA, and I know this dead horse has been beaten badly. I love drag racing, watch it on TV every chance I get. I go to at least one race a year. It is not the same. In my opinion.

[draglist]

I know this will probably not be a popular post on this forum as I know most of you are dyed-in-the-wool NHRA...

Have you actually read any of the posts on this board?

I for one would love a return to 1320 foot racing, as my initial and probably still top love of this sport is the numbers it generates and keeping track of who goes how fast. The excitement of a new record ET or speed has completely been eliminated. I was thinking about this the other day... if we go back to 1320 feet, will anybody even care that someone has just run a 4.39 in Top Fuel? Not after so many have gone threes... I love to track how the racers compare from era to era and that's been completely lost.

However, all that being said, if we've saved one life or dismemberment, it's been worth it. bp

[draglist]

Something I forgot to add in my response is that differing opinions (thoughtfully presented, as Overdriv did) are always welcome here. Not everybody is going to agree, but all opinions are valued. bp

[Billy Mac]

To overdrive....Yes, The fuel classes ARE dangerous....but so too are ALL classes all the way down to the slowest Stock eliminator competitors. Virtually EVERY time a drag racing participant stages his or her vehicle on the starting line "could" be the last time. It could be the result of driver error...mechanical failure...competitor's error or any one of dozens of other reasons for a mishap. I don't remember exactly where in the rule book it says that...Drag Racing is dangerous and there are no guarantees that a catastrophic incident may occur. (or something to that effect)...There are numerous steps taken to try to avoid such things, but there is no way to guarantee absolute safety either on or off the racing surface...

I applaud John Medlin's efforts to contain a wayward wheel and I hope for great success in the endeavor....

[overdriv]

BP, yes I have read some of the post on this board, but not all. I'm sure you folks have discussed this a lot. Sorry if this is getting tiresome. I don't get here often.

Billy Mac, My point exactly. It's a dangerous game no matter what you run for how many feet. Accidents will continue. Forge ahead in making the cars safer. But maybe they need to make a lot of the tracks safer also. In my opinion, if a track cannot be safely raced to 1320' by the fuel cars, then don't race there till the track owner either fixes the problems or NHRA helps them fix the problem. I would hate to see some of the old legendary tracks be bypassed, but ruining the competition by running 1000' in my opinion is or should be a temporary fix only. But it looks to me that NHRA is set to make it permanent. Maybe they're not, I haven't seen anything in print about for a long time. Cheers!