Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

[cjforumadmin]

http://www.bangshift.com/blog/Chad-vs.-Brian-1320-or-1000-Feet.html

[tcbnj]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

I'm with Chad. if the track has the necessary "safety space" at the end, leave the "1/4" mile a quarter of a mile.

[Not A Duster]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

Gotta agree with Chad. It's time to stop mucking around with things that define what something is all about. 1/8 mile hobby tracks aside, drag racing is about the quarter mile.

Hell -if it's going to be 1000 feet, why not just convert it to metric and call it 300 meter racing?

If safety is really the issue here, then it's probabluy time to look at real ways to slow the cars down some - and increase the standard for shut down areas.

[TheSilverBuick]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

Kind of like Nascar now, you have your long tracks and short tracks. Could be interesting from a tuning stand point to make the crews adjust weekly or when ever to the varying track lengths. Of course I see that as adding costs rather than saving.....

[tiresmoke!]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

*just the random thoughts of a gearhead*

I believe it is gonna piss people off no matter how it's done.

It's kinda hard to take it on a track-by-track basis....the costs are still gonna be high, adjusting for different lengths....there'll be screams of an "unfair" advantage from either side.

I understand what the NHRA is trying to do with shortening the track for the Fuel cars......but keep in mind it's only a temporary fix.

Put a rule or restriction in front of us(as racers, gearheads, whatever shingle you wanna hang on your door), we'll find a way around it......guys are still gonna blow shit up in the never-ending quest of reaching the stripe first, regardless of how long the damn track is.

Fiery explosions, injury, and in unfortunate cases, death, are part and parcel of what anyone whom races is faced with every time they line up.

That's just a sad fact of the matter, and it's unrealistic to believe that all of the risk can be eliminated.


I don't know what the answer(s) is/are, but I know it's at the top of the list of priorities for the sanctioning bodies.



Long way of saying neither Chad or Brian are right, nor are they wrong

[Podium Finish]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

Oh god give me a break, drag racing has been measured in 300 feet, 660 feet, 1000 feet 1320 feet and at the old Riverside Raceway at 2640 feet for the 1/2 mile drags. Sorry but Pomona and E-town will probably never return to quarter mile, waaaaaaa, the nitro cars run too fast for strips from the 60's, you like rev limiters, slowing them down? The nitro classes have exceeded the limits of the facilities they run on with vehicles that were intended to be unlimited. Keep them unlimited within the existing rules.

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

Podium...I'm buying you a beer.

:D

Brian

[Shawn Anderson]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

I think I said it here before but I still wish that instead of rev limitors, gear rules, blower limitations, nitro limits, and shorter tracks they would just drop the displacment ( to like 350 ci. from 500 ci.). Then think of the inovation wild new combos maybe at 350 a nitro wedge motor could work, or run a screw blower or maybe less power could mean a trans like a alky funny car, or new areo stuff. Wish there were half as much inovation in fuel as comp.

[Huskinhano]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

I think I said it here before but I still wish that instead of rev limitors, gear rules, blower limitations, nitro limits, and shorter tracks they would just drop the displacment ( to like 350 ci. from 500 ci.). Then think of the inovation wild new combos maybe at 350 a nitro wedge motor could work, or run a screw blower or maybe less power could mean a trans like a alky funny car, or new areo stuff. Wish there were half as much inovation in fuel as comp.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Otherwise it's like NASCAR. Reduce the displacement for safety and allow the rest open for creativity otherwise it's boring with the cars from one team to another being the same. Isn't this how NASCAR and drag racing got started by good ole creativity?

[Not A Duster]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

Oh god give me a break,

OK - 300 meters it is....

And when even more people stop watching or attending events? Then what? Seems to me revenue is based on fan attendance and advertising revenue.

Mind you, since they've adopted the NASCAR style points chase, it's been dumbed down to the point of being uninteresting anyways, so maybe it won't make any difference.

[Shawn Anderson]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

[quote=Not A Duster ]

Oh god give me a break,

OK - 300 meters it is....

And when even more people stop watching or attending events? Then what? Seems to me revenue is based on fan attendance and advertising revenue.

Mind you, since they've adopted the NASCAR style points chase, it's been dumbed down to the point of being uninteresting anyways, so maybe it won't make any difference.


[/quote}



Maybe Brian can help on this but I think NHRA has a very different fan base than NASCAR, not sports fans as much as racers, past and present. I hate the count down but don't feel the points thing makes any difference or the 1000 ft. for atendence.

[Not A Duster]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

I dunno about that. I think the NASCAR fan base has stayed - even grown through all of the shallowness and stupidity because most of them are there for the "show" as much for the racing.

I think the average Drag - Racing fan is a little more sophisticated than that & is not going to buy into negative change, no matter how slickly it's marketed.

[Podium Finish]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

Oh god give me a break,

OK - 300 meters it is....

And when even more people stop watching or attending events? Then what? Seems to me revenue is based on fan attendance and advertising revenue.

Are there more or less people watching or attending events? Or are you Mr What If? None of us are going to make that determination. The people I was sitting with at 1000 feet at the Pomona Raceway weren't bitching about 1000 feet, they were just confuesed if a 3.85 was a good run in Top fuel or a 4.06 was good in F/C and it was pretty full up around me there.

A much bigger 800 pound goon in the shadows is the economy and prices to buy a ticket in today's world.
Keep it in mind that there are dozens of other ways to watch drag racing and the _HRA's are not the only game in town anymore. I love the smell of NITRO, but damn 10.5 and Pro Street has gotten my blood flowing on a $20 ticket.

[Brian Lohnes]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

There's no hard data to say what the "typical" fan's knowledge base, participation background, or history is. What I can say from personal experience is that the average drag racing fan is more technically knowledgeable than the guy who bought a Jimmy Johnson hat because he saw the car on TV. That being said there's lots of people who don't know crap outside of the fact the cars make their guts shake and shoot fire and that's A-OK with me.

There's a part of all of us that wishes we could go to the track and see "regular guys" running fuel dragster and wrenching on them between rounds at national events. I'm envious of the dudes that were able to do that years ago.

When I wrote the column in Hot Rod Kinnan forwarded me the hate mail...it was a very large quantity.

To me drag racing has always been about evolution, especially top fuel. If F1 cars are swiss army knives, Fuel dragsters are hand grenades...they have one use and one purpose only. If you told the guys who built E-town 40 years ago that cars would be going 330mph they would have laughed your ass out of Jersey.

SOMETHING has to give.

Teams and team owners are vitrually unwilling to change driveline stuff because it will cost them major bucks.
This was a decision that THE TEAMS COMPETING came to. They came to NHRA and said do it...not the other way around.

I know Chad said that he doesn't buy the fact that the teams are saving money...but I've actually had conversations with guys running these cars about what they saved and it's massive amounts of money. Enough to keep some smaller teams out on the trail next season even when the economy sucks ass.

Brian

[RyanWalker]

Re: Chad vs. Brian: 1,320 or 1,000 Feet?

As long as tracks can accommodate the speeds they shut down at or from time to time the speed they have to deal with, with improper shutdown, i.e Kalitta incident, then fine 1320. If they can't accommodate it, 1000. Pretty simple.