Maybe it's time to consider putting some HEAVY DUTY rear fenders on ALL dragsters. Then weight could be added to the front of the car and that would compensate for the extra weight on the back. Attach the fenders to the rails rather than anyplace else and this in turn would slow the cars down.

I realize this is very simplistic but then so am I. Or could Goodyear build a better tire?

Jim Kelly

You're right on the button with your commentary about the nitro cars going too fast on tires that can't handle the speed.

I was impressed with seeing a fuel car go 330mph in a 1/4 mile for the first time a few years back, but I also could see the danger on the horizon. Decreasing the size of the injector and fuel pumps could be a possible solution in getting the cars to slow down some without taking away too much from the overall sensation of nitro racing. The risk, though, is turning the fuel categories into a Pro Stock-type scenerio. Sometimes close racing can be boring when all the cars are going about the same speed and e.t.- you know what I mean.

I'm done being impressed with records, I wanna see a more competitive alternative that is fairly safe. (Having just been to the Pomona Goodguys event, breaking records isn't the end all. I had just as much fun at that event than I do at the NHRA.)

Just some brief comments and a possible solution.

Mark Beauchamp

Fullerton, CA

It is rare in recent times for me to agree with Jeff Burk's editorials. What he has written about Mr. Russell's death and the safety crisis in nitro racing is very true.

There were plenty of warnings, plenty of injured drivers. Yes, the tires cause these accidents but there are other problems. The current wing construction is a bad joke. These wings collapse, all the downforce is removed in an instant and the car is out of control. The mono strut wing on Garlits car is one possible answer. It surely would be an improvement.

While less blower overdrive is an effective way to slow down alcohol cars, the best way to slow down fuelers is limiting fuel volume. There would be enforcement problems.

Fuel drag racing and therefore all drag racing is a critical point. Leadership must now come from NHRA.

Norman Hechtoff

Thanks for the story on the tire problems. Great job of getting IT right.

J. Newman

Jeff: Great article and I am sure you will catch some serious flak for having written it. It is a shame that NHRA waits until someone is killed to implement appropriate safety rules. After Blaine Johnson ran into the cut-off to the return road, NHRA mandated that all cut-offs be closed until the end of the track. Connie Kalitta survived a horrendous accident in 1990 running into the cut-off in Houston. When he was interviewed at the hospital, he quipped, "The Doctors tell me I am alert, conscious and stable. Three things I have never been before at the same time in my life." Blaine was not so lucky.

NHRA had six years to do something about the open cut-off problem and took no action. But when oil down's and the 90 minute between rounds rule threatened the TV schedule, the oil down penalty and the 75 minute rule were put into place very quickly. When Hines's dominance in Pro Stock Bike threatened the competition of the two-strokes, the weight rule for Harley's was changed in weeks.

Darrell was too good a guy to deserve this preventable fate.

Joe Holzer