When I was a kid, a regional quarter-mile drag strip ended up becoming an eighth-mile strip because the cars were getting too fast to safely shut down on what was left past the traps. A few years later they had some big-name funny cars out there and almost all of them said that the situation was becoming marginal again. A jet dragster without a hell of a lot of pavement and more nice open space beyond would be a scary ride.
Racing itself constantly pushes the envelope. Putting a semi-guided missile on the straight away of a racing oval is a more than questionable move.
In the wake of Scott Kalitta’s fatal crash, the NHRA has decided to shorten the length of the race in the Funny Car and Top Fuel classes from 1320 feet down to 1000 feet. This comes as part of an effort to reduce speeds; plus, with the shortened racing distance, the drivers are left with more track after the finish line, allowing them more time to slow down after the race. The measure is said to be temporary, but the NHRA is looking into several other ways to increase safety and decrease the risk of another tragedy.
Historically, the early jet dragsters were powered by huge military-surplus engines. The NHRA, fearful of a Challenger-style technical glitch, banned jet cars in November 1961 on the grounds that they were just too dangerous. That was a lie.
They were concerned that their top draw, the dragsters were being over shadowed by the jets. By the summer of 1961, Walt Arfons’s jet-powered Green Monster was routinely pacing in the mid-seven-second range. By comparison, Don Garlits barely managed a 7.99 that August with a conventional wheel-driven dragster. The sport was competing the two without trying and the jets were winning.
Twenty-five years later, there are about 35 jet cars in circulation and perhaps 50 licensed drivers. But NHRA sanctioning has come with strings attached, says Dennis Roslansky, president of ProJet, a drivers’ association that deals with the NHRA. Jet-powered cars are considered exhibition vehicles only. No race category. No prize money. And most onerous of all for the drivers, the NHRA imposes a speed limit currently 320.99 mph (the number has crept up from 260 mph to keep them “in their place.”
Tack that on to the strip changes, the increase in speed of the rails and funnies, and the NHRA is continuing to run a far more controlled program not based upon safety or competition, but the money.
rwood