Went down to Rockingham yesterday to specta(well you know that dirty word). Noticed a lot of cars with little or no roll bar padding,dumba$$ walking 70% the way to starting line,back towards line with cars backing up from burn out,guys driving way past water box while guy in front coming back from burn out and one guy staging hands up on roll bars and no gloves. Dang does anyone watch for safety violation? I know no rule on walking backwards towards car backing up,should easy enough to figure out. I mean damn the dude holds hands up in plain view,no gloves.

Maybe just me and spent to much time around pro class cars and seen to much stupd stuff happen.

Thought I saw the no gloves on the live feed last night.

I realized when I was in NC in August things are truly different than up here in NH.

Has nothing to do with NC. Show is run by SFG not folks from NC.

Did not mention the normal stupid thing of seat belts so loose driver leans forward with head out of cage.

quote:

Originally posted by wideopen231:
Has nothing to do with NC. Show is run by SFG not folks from NC.

SFG doesn't run tech. That's up to rockingham dragway which is an NHRA track.

Agreed Richard. Has nothing to do with SFG. I have seen the things Wide Open mentioned and more at other big money races. So can't blame Kyle or any of the other promoters that rent the track. Falls on the track.


But we are all responsible for our own safety.

quote:

Originally posted by bradsc1954:
Agreed Richard. Has nothing to do with SFG. I have seen the things Wide Open mentioned and more at other big money races. So can't blame Kyle or any of the other promoters that rent the track. Falls on the track.


But we are all responsible for our own safety.

This is the core of it.

And not to be a complete cynic, but do you really think they would turn away those big entry fees from folks because they don't care about their own safety?

And about why things are "different", Up North. It is all about competition between tracks. Who is New England Dragway in competition with for customers (racers)? I'm thinking pretty much nobody. Down here, there are dragstrips everywhere. If you want to be the one who enforces safety rules and/or turns away customers who don't comply, you are going out of business. Galot learned that valuable lesson the first year they were open with their test and tune nights, which were a total cash cow, when it was Dunn Benson. But the crowd is slowly coming back now. You can probably guess why.

Wide Open, have you seen things run any differently at Piedmont (which I am guessing is close to you). Take care. Tom Worthington

Can not say I have seen as many things,but have seen several. Guess I under estimate the stupidity of people in general. I also can not say I attend Piedmont a lot since my junks does not have a ride to track yet. I do not like going to sand box w/o toys.

I was not really blaming SFG.I just misfigured who would be helping the stupid protect them selves. You would think Rockingham being NHRA would care more about their sanction. Guess like they say golden rule.Those with gold make the rules or over look them as case maybe.

Money is more important then safety. You don't want to make anybody mad by teching them or DQing them. We have race tracks that are sanctioned that couldn't pass tech!

You can't see the violations at Piedmont because of the 2-300 people standing on the starting line. On that walking backwards while car is backing up after burn out, several years ago I hit someone doing exactly that and never even knew it till I got back from the run. Fortuneatly they were not hurt.

Was at Atco years ago when one of Johnny Crane's crew was putting him in the water and a dragster ran over him backing up from his burnout. Was pretty ugly.

Don't assume anything at the race track.

Tech in the south...

"Skinny tires up front and big tires out back, pay at the gate and race on the track!"

quote:

Originally posted by head gamez:
Tech in the south...

"Skinny tires up front and big tires out back, pay at the gate and race on the track!"

the words of the late great George Howard

ep

^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ain't it the truth

Safety should not be taking so lightly , but the track needs be do there part without starting a major mess.... Tower could just state request about gloves and sit belts being tighten with out pissing of the racers ..... This being said some will still do what they please I'm sure ...

quote:

Originally posted by J178RED:
Safety should not be taking so lightly , but the track needs be do there part without starting a major mess.... Tower could just state request about gloves and seat belts being tighten with out pissing off the racers ..... This being said some will still do what they please I'm sure ...

At the SuperBowl, they did announce that a well know racer was sporting a brand new pair of driving gloves. After he had a .050 and .017 light they announced it looked like he no longer had them on.

Wideopen,
After watching the video of Tommy Phillips and Cole Cummins at St. Louis. NHRA is the last group that should complain about safety.

quote:

Originally posted by bradsc1954:
Wideopen,
After watching the video of Tommy Phillips and Cole Cummins at St. Louis. NHRA is the last group that should complain about safety.

Why what happened there?

In my teens and early 20's I hung out at the dirt tracks in GA/NC/SC helping my uncle with his Late Model. I was only introduced to drag racing later.

Those guys tech NOTHING from a safety perspective. They have scales to see if you're legal, and they make sure your tire are legal, and they'll tear down your engine if someone protests, but safety is totally up to the participants. No chassis cert, no belt certs, helmets, nothing. And those guys wreck A LOT.

All that said, because they wreck a lot, I think they all take safety much more seriously, and it becomes self-policing.

Also of note, I did the math based on max engine rpm, gear ratio, and tire diameter, and on 95% of your typical 3/8 mile clay ovals, a typical late model car only hits maximum straightaway speeds in the high-90's to maybe 100mph. So the speeds where a drag car crashes are often much higher than a typical short oval track crash.

If a racer is trying to stage a car without his safety equipment on, that is for the person pulling them into the burn out box and the starters responsibly to watch for. Sure they won’t catch them all but if they DQ a couple of racers I’m sure everyone will start wearing the gear correctly.