Little less than four years removed from the crash that killed Top Fuel champion-to-be Blaine Johnson, the National Hot Rod Association, in the light of the recent deaths of NASCAR drivers Kenny Erwin and Adam Petty, is being widely applauded for its safety record.

The praise is not undeserved. Despite Johnson's 1996 death during qualifying for the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, Ind., and in spite of dozens of other fatalities and near misses the last 25 years, drag racing does warrant special recognition for its focus on issues related to safety.

After all, that's the premise on which the organization was founded. Long before "We Have Ignition" became the High Sheriffs' slogan of preference, "Dedicated to Safety" was the NHRA's singular motto. In fact, one of the things Wally Parks was seeking when he founded the NHRA in 1951 was a safe competitive environment for those who shared his interest in post World War II "hot rods."

In the 49 years since the first NHRA-sanctioned events were contested on abandoned or little-used airport runways, the world's largest sanctioning organization has worked diligently to insure the well-being of its participants, officials and spectators.

It led the way in establishing manufacturing standards for the aftermarket products used by its race teams. It mandated clutch cans and transmission blankets and fire bottles and five-point harnesses and fire retardant driving uniforms and roll cages capable of withstanding impact at 300 miles per hour.

Three years ago, working in consort with the professional racers, NHRA ordered existing steel guardrails at its national event tracks replaced with concrete guardwalls. Blower restraints, burst panels, skid plates, primary and secondary braking systems, all became standard equipment under NHRA's guidance.

But despite all it has done to make the sport safe for guys like John Force and Gary Scelzi, Dale Creasy and Arley Langlo, and everyone in between, the focal point of NHRA's safety effort always has been the Safety Safari, the group responsible for track preparation and repair, track cleanup, drying the track after rains, late night track grooming (after all of the rest of us are safely tucked into our hotel rooms) and, most importantly, seeing to the well-being of drivers, fans and officials involved in incidents on the track and in the pits.

Techniques and technology developed by the Safety Safari now are in use in all forms of motor sport. The Jaws of Life, developed for driver extrications in drag racing, now is standard equipment on every safety truck in racing.

All of that notwithstanding, the Safety Safari today is not the same effective and cohesive unit it was just one millennium ago. And that's an issue with which the NHRA should concern itself immediately, if not sooner. Morale is down, stress is up.

The problem is not one of dedication. Those who work on the Safari are as dedicated as ever. However, the group's effectiveness has been negatively impacted by several factors.

First of all, the Safari today has fewer core professionals, those who attend multiple events. The Safari staff instead is augmented by more local volunteers who, while no less diligent, certainly are not as well trained nor as familiar with the individual situations which portend disaster.

Second, with 24 events now comprising the NHRA Winston Series, the group's resources, both human and mechanical, have been taxed to the max. More so even than racers, key Safari personnel and equipment must be on site no later than Wednesday morning before each national event.

Obviously, with so many events contested back-to-back, getting the Safety Safari caravan from one track to the next has become a nightmare for those in the trenches. Driving big rigs for 18 hours from Seattle to Sonoma on Sunday night is not the same as taking the United shuttle into San Francisco - which is why few of those in charge understand the scope of the problem.

Finally, when the NHRA decided to replace guardrails with guardwalls it also mandated, at the insistence of the PRO, that tracks limit the number of openings in those guardwalls to prevent race car contact with something other than a smooth, deflective surface.

The downside of that mandate was that in reducing the number of potentially fatal impact sites, the NHRA also limited Safety Safari access to the track and, as a result, the group's response time. Since they now must come from one END of the track or the other, with no mid-track access, Safari vehicles arrive seconds later than they would have in the past.

Seconds later. It doesn't sound like much, but in a sport in which championships can be determined by .001 of a second, a few seconds can be a lifetime - literally.

Bottom line is that current NHRA management, which has been in place less than five years, needs to listen to the concerns of Safety Safari veterans who've been riding tractors and operating jet dryers and pulling drivers out of danger for 10, 15, 20 years.

There are budget constraints, certainly. But when it comes to driver safety, where are we to draw the line? Dedicated to Safety may no longer be en vogue as a corporate motto, but, by the same token, we should never forget that it was the promise on which the sport was founded.

Dave Densmore, a paid columnist for DRO, also works for John Force.

Photo by Jeff Burk

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