I’ll bet a lot of wheels are turning since the John Force wreck

-
pittsburghracer

pittsburghracer

FABO Gold Member
FABO Gold Member
Joined
Apr 20, 2016
Messages
16,375
Reaction score
37,797
Location
Freeport, PA.
With so many smart people in this sport and so many safety changes over the years I wonder if one didn’t bite them in the butt. With automatic fuel shuts offs, parachute deployment, etc over the years I wonder if the rules requiring the bodies to be tethered to the chassis prevented proper parachute deployment. Imagine all the people working on this issue during what basically is a 3 day span till this weekends race at Norwalk. I hope they share what they come up with.
 
Well the news is not real good on John
He sustained a serious head injury and has
been transferred to Neuro ICU.

They say it will be a long Road back for
John.

I have been praying for him, and if you are people
of faith I hope you will join me in praying for his recovery.

He used to hang with us sometimes at the Street Races at
Dunkin Donuts in Yorba Linda (California)way back
before anyone knew his name.

He was always a man of truly great Focus and Determination.
He was the Quarterback on his high School Football team (Bell Gardens Ca.)
even though he had suffered with childhood Polio and hobbled
around with one leg about 2 inches shorter than the other.

As I approach the 80 year mark, I have realized that Desire and
Motivation are the greatest indicator of impending Success!

"Fortune favors the Bold"
 
pittsburghracer said:
With so many smart people in this sport and so many safety changes over the years I wonder if one didn’t bite them in the butt. With automatic fuel shuts offs, parachute deployment, etc over the years I wonder if the rules requiring the bodies to be tethered to the chassis prevented proper parachute deployment. Imagine all the people working on this issue during what basically is a 3 day span till this weekends race at Norwalk. I hope they share what they come up with.
Click to expand...

Matt Hagan said he is against tethering the bodies to the chassis . I'm sure there are others.
 
Back in Time said:
Matt Hagan said he is against tethering the bodies to the chassis . I'm sure there are others.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but the NHRA can’t take a chance of the bodies getting into the stands.

Several years ago, Robert Height had the body blow off in the far right lane at one of the 4 wide races. The body damn near lit in the stands.

Hagan may not like it, but he doesn’t get the choice.

If a driver dies at an NHRA it’s bad. Kill a spectator or several and see how long we get to keep racing.
 
I am wearing my John Force autographed hat in support of him. I first met him in 1986 at the SEMA show and received an autographed clock mounted to a rod and piston out of one if his racecars. 15 years ago, I gave that clock to a good friend of mine as a retirement gift. Regretted it ever since! Good thing I got to see him last year at the Northwest Nationals and was able to get him to sign my NHRA hat that I am wearing today.
 
I understand your concern for spectator safety and
the repercussions for deaths.

It was 10 years ago or a bit more while my son and I were
watching Top Fuel between rounds of Stock/SS on top end.
A rear wheel came off Anton Browns Dragster and flew into
the spectators around to fence watching. We hit the dirt but the
was a lady near us in a wheelchair that absorbed the full inpact
of being struck.
Her torso was virtually cut into two pieces and she died instantly =
Nothing we could do to help her!
Nevertheless, the track loaded her into the Flight helicopter and took
her to the Hospital. I asked one of the officials why it happened that
way as she was clearly dead?
He candidly told me "If there is a death at the Track we must stop the
event until there is a Coroner's investigation and we have a schedule to
keep on".
 
Last edited:
GTX JOHN said:
I understand your concern for spectator safety and
the repercussions for deaths.

It was 10 years ago or a bit more while my son and I were
watching Top Fuel between rounds of Stock/SS on top end.
A rear wheel came off Anton Browns Dragster and flew into
the spectators around to fence watching. We hit the dirt but the
was a lady near us in a wheelchair that absorbed the full inpact
of being struck.
Her torso was virtually cut into two pieces and she died instantly =
Nothing we could do to help her!
Nevertheless, the track loaded her into the Flight helicopter and took
her to the Hospital. I asked one of the officials why it happened that
wat as she was clearly dead?
Click to expand...


They do that because no one dies at a track.
 
Richard Petty was not racing in NASCAR due to rule
changes that made it impossible to compete with a Chrysler
product that year back in the 60's.

He built a Mid 60's Hemi Cuda exhibition drag car (43 JR.) to keep
his hand in racing. He lost control of it and it crashed through the flimsy
guard rail and hit the stands killing a young boy (Maybe others -I cannot recall anymore).
He took the Damn car and cut it into a bunch of pieces and buried it behind his
shop.

Somewhere around the same time frame, the "Pollution Packer" jet dragster (Tony someone
I no longer remember his last name) down South flew over the guard rail and hit the stands
and kill a number of fans down in the South part of the country.


I have more stories, but my son tells me Lunch is Over AND we need to build
some more trailers today and I have a Thermoquad I promised to inspect and
mail out today from the B Forum!

However, I do understand that the way Politics is changing our Country = Auto Racing
might soon be a thing of the past at least how we know it!
Come November: Vote Early and Often!!!

Deaths unfortunately happen in racing, although less due to improved safety rules.
Here are a few more that I have my own self personally witnessed:

Joe "The Jet" Jackson and Mike Sorokin (Surfers) both Top Fuel @Lions Strip in Long Beach Ca.

Les Ritchey (Perf. Associates) Funny Car @ Fontana (I think but might of be Irwindale) Ca.

Mike Bell (Dragster) @ Old Las Vegas Track before the new strip.

These are only those I have seen myself 1st hand that I recall at the moment.
I am sure that there are Dozens or probably Hundreds that I did not witness in my very limited experience
at the tracks compared to the number of events that have been run throughout the world!

My own worst accident some years back (Hitting the Tree) broke an number of Ribs and
required a 12 hour Surgery on a damaged Kidneyin which I died three times on the table during the operation
but yet was able to be resuscitated.
 
Last edited:
They will figure out the tether system for sure. You can see force steering away from the right side wall after the explosion. After that between the flames, fiberglass body, etc he probably couldn’t see. Possibly even the body limited his ability to steer the car. With those two hard hits to the wall we will never know. But the bottom line is with the safety system now the chutes should have deployed possibly assisting in not only curbing speed but straightening out the car some.
 
Tethering the body to the chassis is not a bad idea but it should be secondary to other saftey functions, like parachutes or fire suppression systems. Make sure those work first, and properly, then make sure the body doesn’t go awry.
 
Why not use a long tether so the body clears the car but can't get anywhere near the stands...
 
1WildRT said:
Why not use a long tether so the body clears the car but can't get anywhere near the stands...
Click to expand...

Like I said above they will figure it out but I’m sure it will taking testing. The parachute throws a whole can of worms into the subject.
 
1WildRT said:
Why not use a long tether so the body clears the car but can't get anywhere near the stands...
Click to expand...


I’m not sure but I was talking to a friend who is more connected than I am any more and he said an issue they have to deal with on the body tether is how to keep the body in as close to one piece as possible.

I don’t know if that’s true or not but my friend is not a bullshitter or rail bird.

It could be something like that or who knows.

Typing this it seems I remember one other issue was drivers vision. Thinking it through I think it was Hagen or Capps that said they’d rather have the body blow off so they can see. If the body stays on, it could affect their vision.

It’s a tough deal. Guys ought to know when you strap on a helmet and lash your *** to a nitromethane powered bomb that you could get hurt or killed in the blink of an eye.

It’s hard to make something like drag racing death proof.
 
I have watch guys get killed in Sportmans cars although
not near as many relative to the number of runs made down the track.

Before every single run at National and Divisional Races, our beloved
Pastors at "Racers for Christ" pray with us before we go down to track.

If you think our Sport of Drag Racing is not a dangerous sport you are
deluding yourself! All we can do is try to minimize it all the diligence
we can muster up.

When my grandson Logan went down the track early this year on his
licensing run he became the 4th generation in our family to be Drag Racers.
We have all been around racing our entire lives and we understand and accept the
risks, because of our great love for the sport.
 
Even so, all these race sports, pretty much across the board, are safer than they were some years back.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top