Did you see the wheel come off Antron's Dragster last weekend? He lauched, had a hole out, went in to tire shake, then the left rear wheel came right off and flew towards the stands. I have been watching drag racing over half my life and have never seen a wheel come off a top fueler like that.
Of course, as you know, a crew member from a nostalgia dragster was killed by that tire, which apparently after hitting her was stopped when it ran into a trailer.
Now this begs the question, did somebody screw up? Did the tire really come up with enough force that it sheared ALL of the studs off? There just seems to be something wrong there. Either something wasn't on there right, or there was some serious problems with the metal in some of those parts.
As a big fan of drag racing I am dissapointed in the 1000 foot racing they are doing these days (shorten the racing as opposed to lengthing the shutdown lanes and putting heavier rules on the engines to control speed) So what effect will this have on the sport? With they slow them down? who knows
I have no issue with race car drivers putting themselves in harms way, it is a choice you make as a driver, but when we have fans get hurt there is something wrong. ( remember Carl Edwards crash rolling on the fence and it coming apart and going into the stands at Talladega?) Does NHRA need to be putting fences in all the tracks to keep parts like these from flying at people?
Hopefully someone smarter than me, who cares about what is right and not just covering someone's ass, is working on that right now.
DD
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