Drag Racing Online: The Magazine

Volume VIII, Issue 9, Page

 

9/21/06

QUID PRO QUO?

Thank God Ron Krisher will be OK after the Indy accident. Good EMS there, even a doctor on scene, can’t get much better than that. As reported in DRO “…how the rules of the NHRA in this class are such that they are built with surviving just for this kind of racing “incident,” and the merits of the NHRA Safety Safari...” was just a portion of the reason he is alive now.

I can only assume that the makers of the HANS device, “a thoroughly tested head and neck restraint mandated in almost all types of professional racing and even required at the club racing level by some car clubs, but amazingly not yet by the NHRA”, have not paid the NHRA management enough money yet to have their device deemed mandatory. 

There is such an obvious need for a head restraint that the HANS device should be mandatory. It seems only the sanctioning body believes that one can safely compete in a drag race with their head up their a$$. That does restrain the head sufficiently… But wait, seeing the management style of the sanctioning body, there probably needs to be a lot more “grease” applied so that true life saving devices can be a required purchase by the racers before they can compete.

Tom Pattison
Massachusetts

ADVANCED

Maybe for advanced e.t. classes should be the level and quicker to be used. I just wonder how quick the SFI sticker will expire on these. Maybe we need tail hooks on all cars with chutes, or remote kill switches like monster trucks? (A little tongue in cheek there.) Just don't let insurance companies control our rules. What good has the rev limiters done in the fuel ranks? Blown up a bunch of parts that's what.

Meredith Jones
Plano, TX

REMEMBER ZENON KOTELKO’S CONTRIBUTION

Regarding your article “Way Outside The Engine Box” in the current issue of DRO. I think it is fair to point out the engine combination used by the Voges was in fact the brainchild of the late Zenon Kotelko (better known to most as “ZK”). ZK was a well-respected Super Stock competitor who had a burning desire to step up to Competition Eliminator. He had

purchased an open wheel car (an altered) with the plan to power it with what was essentially half of a Pro Stock engine.  As the program progressed, Kotelko came up witha scheme to cut a Donovan big block apart, then had the block machined and “plated” to create the four cylinder. He had the crank built by Crower (no small task), located the connecting rods and other pertinent bits and delivered them to Darrin and Brad Morgan at Reher-Morrison. Kotelko even came up with a scheme to electronically fuel inject the engine, using technology from Pro Mod racer Harold Martin. It’s interesting to note that ZK knew Darrin and Brad since they were half-pints running around their step-dad’s shop in Augusta, Kansas. Their stepfather was none other than Kip Martin. Kotelko was, evidently, a partner with Martin in a Superflow dyno facility inside Kip’s shop.

The idea was to build the engine as both ZK’s finances and the Morgan brothers’ time allowed. ZK had gone as far as the cylinder head part of the equation, then quit. Kotelko bailed out of the program, quickly citing finances as the issue (this wasn’t uncommon for ZK, but it was sudden, and I, along with many others knew his one and only passion was simply to race this car in Comp Eliminator). The truth be known, ZK had cancer. The prognosis wasn’t good. He never told a soul.  

ZK passed away in May of 2005. I think it is appropriate that he should be credited with coming up with this engine combination. He was an intellectual, a devoted drag racer and a good friend. And I miss him dearly.

Sincerely,
Wayne Scraba

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