Is Nhra Racing 1320 Feet Again
During last weekend's NHRA New England Nationals qualifying broadcast, NHRA on FOX analysts Brian Lohnes and Tony Pedregon alluded to the potential of Tiptop Fuel and Funny Motorcar returning to the one/4-mile on a limited basis in the near futurity, setting off a firestorm of chatter on the worldwide web and inciting statements — many of them unfavorable — from drivers and race teams. Their comments were the first to be made publicly on the topic of 1/4-mile nitro racing by NHRA staff in more a decade, and that the topic was brought well-nigh on an NHRA-produced programme gives the rumors a degree of validity.
In the days that accept followed, various sources close to the organization take confirmed that the topic is on the tabular array at the NHRA'south Glendora, California offices. NHRA Senior Manager of Public Relations and Communications Jessica Hatcher confirmed to Dragzine Wednesday that discussions on the subject accept taken place, but declined farther comment.
Photos courtesy NHRA/National Dragster
The rumor mill has to this bespeak circulated on a movement to ane/4-mile competition only at select venues with the shutdown chapters to safely halt the cars. Phoenix and Gainesville are the ii longest tracks on the tour, and Virginia Motorsports Park and Houston Raceway Park are both among the longer tracks overall. Most of the venues bank check in with effectually two,400-2,600-anxiety of shutdown length, with some slightly longer and others (like Pomona) shorter.
One of the major hurdles the NHRA would have to overcome is containing the speeds that the cars are at present capable of attaining over the additional 320-feet. And, whether the tires could withstand such. The organization, through changes to the cars and rails prep mixtures, has successfully dialed back speeds in 2019 — Mike Salinas recorded the highest speed of the flavour at Pomona at 334.30 and John Force did likewise in Funny Car at 333.74, both well short of Robert Hight'south all-fourth dimension-fast 339.87 mph pass in the fall of 2017. Hight'south blast was faster than any speed always recorded in the 1/4-mile, surpassing the 337.58 mph speed set by Tony Schumacher in 2005. In September 2017, Dom Lagana clocked the fastest Top Fuel run in history — 338.35 mph — in a 1/4-mile exhibition in Michigan, doing and then in 4.485-seconds.
Of course, in that location'south also the question of cost: meaning changes to the team's programs to catechumen their combination betwixt 1,000-feet and 1/iv-mile could prove too much for both those of greater and bottom funding, at a time when sponsorship is increasingly hard to come up past.
Ultimately, the determination may come down to the drivers and team owners, of whom the NHRA has no on-rail product without. It should exist noted that it was in fact the members of the Professional Racers Owners Organization (PRO), not the NHRA, that drove the decision to shorten the race distance to ane,000-feet at Denver in 2008 in the wake of the tragic death of Scott Kalitta a month before.
"The board members of the Professional Racers Owners Organization PRO wholeheartedly and unanimously back up this decision," said then-president Kenny Bernstein when the announcement was made on July ii, 2008. "Nosotros want to thank NHRA for listening to our input and suggestions to incorporate these changes. Information technology is not lost on whatever of us that this constitutes a change in our history of running a quarter-mile, simply it's the most immediate aligning we can make in the interest of safety which is foremost on everyone's heed. This may be a temporary change and we recognize it is not the total answer. Nosotros will continue to work paw in hand with NHRA to evaluate other methods of making Acme Fuel and Funny Car competition safer so that we might return to our quarter-mile racing standard."
It all begs the question: 12 seasons after the controversial move to shorten the traditional race distance — a move that some withal decry and said would mark the stop of the NHRA — does information technology really matter anymore? The NHRA has, in contempo years, enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, selling out numerous venues that it had never sold-out previously. Telly viewership is as well on an upward trajectory, and competition is as skillful equally it's been in a long time.
No longer is this an experiment nor a stopgap rubber mensurate, but rather, it'southward become the defacto standard in nitro racing and fifty-fifty boat racing around the world. Top Fuel has been contested as an NHRA championship eliminator for 55 years, meaning 1,000-pes racing has now been a role of more than 20-pct of its history (nearly 25-percent for Funny Car). Despite what the detractors accept been shouting from the rooftops for the last 12 years, the motion has had seemingly no long-term ill-upshot on the NHRA, its nitro categories, or fan appeal. Ultimately, at what cost might this experiment have on the health of fuel racing, simply to appease a small subset of fans who may or may not buy a ticket anyway?
There is certainly a fourth dimension and a place for a render to 1/4-mile — namely, when and if sponsorship becomes more plentiful and the NHRA and PRO tin agree on cost-cutting measures that would non harm teams in changing their combination. But today isn't that twenty-four hour period, no affair how much nosotros'd all like to run into the candles lit for i,320-feet.
Source: https://www.dragzine.com/news/nhra-indeed-mulling-return-to-1-4-mile-nitro-racing/
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