Where's the outrage?

[lono]

Kalitta's not the biggest drag racer ever.

That's Prudhomme, Garlits, Force or Bernstein.

But I daresay most people never heard of Scott Kalitta until Saturday.

Whoops. Meant to say biggest star almost killed - meaning Force.

 

[93Devil]

So what is the solution?

That car was flying when it hit that wall. I don't think another 400 yards would have made much of a difference.

I would think 100 yards of soft sand or some type of soft, gradual restraint might do it.

Is there a remote way to kill an engine?

 

[Nathan Scott Phillips]

So what is the solution?

Don't drive so fast.

It's tough to have any outrage when people are doing it on purpose and only hurting themselves.

 

[PeteyPirate]

I think there's no outrage because thousands of regular people die in car wrecks every year, and they're just driving to work or the grocery store or grandma's house. People can relate to driving and accept that sometimes there are accidents where people will die. We can relate to willingly getting into a car and accepting that risk. Most of us can't relate to willingly getting into a cage with a bloodthirsty fighter.

 

[playthrough]

Scott Kalitta makes the second driver in two years to die in NHRA. Include John Force's crash that almost killed him last year and that's three pretty brutal crashes.
In any other sport, NASCAR and boxing included, two deaths in two years would bring calls for banning the sport. Too dangerous. Too barbaric. Who wants to see people die while competing?
I haven't seen the same kind of outrage after two drag racers are killed. Is it because it's kind of expected in drag racing that something terribly wrong could happen in any race? Or is it that people really don't care about drag racers?

I grew up a fanatic drag racing fan. Loved it since I was 4 or 5 years old.

But clearly, this ought to be a wake-up call. Not just two dead, but the sport's biggest star ever nearly killed to boot.

What I don't understand is why they don't simply slow the cars down. Not one fan in 100 could tell the difference between 330 mph and 275 or maybe even 250 mph.

I interviewed Force a couple of weeks ago and he said he was never going to retire. He had this very fatalistic, drive-it-'till-it-kills-me attitude. Frankly, it was creepy.

Slowing dragsters down would be altering the fabric of the sport too much. No one's up in arms over how NASCAR has slowed speeds over the years with restrictor plates and, now, a new car (well, drivers and fans complain, but not about not missing 240 mph racing around Talladega). The allure there is racin' and rooting for your guy to beat everyone else. The allure of NHRA racing is speed, sound, ground shaking, the pure sensory overload at the track watching a nitro car pushing the limits. Dialing it down would do more harm to the sport than a driver dying. That sounds completely ridiculous, but it's true. Would be akin to legislating less hitting in football because everyone's too big and strong today. Fans would never go for that, they like the sport just as it is even if that means a guy every few years is lost to paralysis.

 

[Batman]

Is there a remote way to kill an engine?

There are, but it wouldn't help much when the engine blows up and is scattered over a 100-yard radius.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

So what is the solution?

That car was flying when it hit that wall. I don't think another 400 yards would have made much of a difference.

I would think 100 yards of soft sand or some type of soft, gradual restraint might do it.

Pea gravel. Sand gets packed down from rain. Pea gravel doesn't get packed down and swallows race cars — ask any F1, Indycar, sports car or NASCAR stock car driver who's gone off-course into a gravel pit if he'd rather get stuck in the gravel pit or go into the retaining wall behind the gravel pit.

 

[Ace]

There definitely would be outrage if horses were driving the cars and getting killed.

 

[markvid]

So what is the solution?

That car was flying when it hit that wall. I don't think another 400 yards would have made much of a difference.

I would think 100 yards of soft sand or some type of soft, gradual restraint might do it.

Is there a remote way to kill an engine?

The engine already was killed because it had blown up. Momentum carried him into the wall

 

[Inky_Wretch]

There definitely would be outrage if horses were driving the cars and getting killed.

If as many people were watching that particular NHRA race as the Kentucky Derby, Kalitta's death might have inspired as much outrage as Eight Belles.

 

[markvid]

There definitely would be outrage if horses were driving the cars and getting killed.

If as many people were watching that particular NHRA race as the Kentucky Derby, Kalitta's death might have inspired as much outrage as Eight Belles.

Not really. Remember this - a horse doesn't have a choice to race, a human does.

 

[fishwrapper]

There definitely would be outrage if horses were driving the cars and getting killed.

If as many people were watching that particular NHRA race as the Kentucky Derby, Kalitta's death might have inspired as much outrage as Eight Belles.

Not really. Remember this - a horse doesn't have a choice to race, a human does.

I agree with this. But, to counterpoint, if the horses weren't racing, there wouldn't be much need for thoroughbreds -- at the numbers they're bred -- in today's society. Well, except for foreign cuisine.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

There definitely would be outrage if horses were driving the cars and getting killed.

If as many people were watching that particular NHRA race as the Kentucky Derby, Kalitta's death might have inspired as much outrage as Eight Belles.

Not really. Remember this - a horse doesn't have a choice to race, a human does.

I would think there isn't much outrage because no one is forcing race car drivers, boxers, MMA fighters or pro wrestlers to do what they do for a living.

Of course, they always could try a newspaper career. ::)

 

[SportsDude]

The other motor sports started to slow the cars down, that was the main factor in safety. In drag racing, it would be sacrilegious. The point of the sport is to find a way to go faster than the next guy. It would never happen.

 

[93Devil]

So what is the solution?

That car was flying when it hit that wall. I don't think another 400 yards would have made much of a difference.

I would think 100 yards of soft sand or some type of soft, gradual restraint might do it.

Is there a remote way to kill an engine?

The engine already was killed because it had blown up. Momentum carried him into the wall

Then how do you slow the car down?

 

[imjustagirl]

Generally the chutes, which either burned or malfunctioned somehow.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

So what is the solution?

That car was flying when it hit that wall. I don't think another 400 yards would have made much of a difference.

I would think 100 yards of soft sand or some type of soft, gradual restraint might do it.

Is there a remote way to kill an engine?

The engine already was killed because it had blown up. Momentum carried him into the wall

Then how do you slow the car down?

Generally the chutes, which either burned or malfunctioned somehow.

One deployed, but not fully.

And Devil ... yes, they have brakes. No, they aren't strong enough to stop the car. They're used more for steering purposes than anything else.

 

[93Devil]

But the nature of the sport just plays into these types of deaths.

What I was thinking is that there is no outrage because there really is nothing you can do when your car blows up at 200 or 300 MPH.

Kind of like sky diving. People die when the parachute does not open. Not a damn thing you can do about that.

 

[hondo]

There definitely would be outrage if horses were driving the cars and getting killed.

Well played, sir...

Question for the nervous nellies: Anyone forcing drag-race drivers into their cars at gunpoint?

Didn't think so.

 

[Hustle]

That's the top end of the dragstrip — those white objects at top right of the track are three-story-tall buildings with media, sponsor, track and sanctioning body facilities. The buildings form an archway which the cars roll under into the staging area. I suspect you're right to assume that property to the northeast belongs to somebody else. Given that the cars roll into the staging area under those buildings, nothing less than a total reconstruction project would be needed to re-do that end of the track.

If you look down at the other end in Google Maps (drag the map down to see the bottom end of the track), there's a long asphalt runoff area (necessary) but a short gravel pit with a grassy stretch behind it; after that there's a concrete barricade/fence combo and some trees at its end. There's a public road called Pension Road behind the pit. The asphalt runoff area is longer than the 1/4-mile track itself, probably close to half a mile, but that's not enough room for an out-of-control 300mph vehicle to slow down. The gravel pit is way too short, from what I'm looking at.

As someone who pays minimal attention (but attention nonetheless) to NHRA, is there any reason the wall curves to the left beyond the gravel pit? Would a straight wall be any better of an option, or does the curve (in theory) prevent wayward cars from going into the trees beyond?

I don't ever remember seeing that before, but that may simply because I haven't paid close enough attention.

(On a far more light-hearted note, I chuckled at the "X" at the end of the track on the satellite view of 2MCM's link. The X prevents any confusion with runway 6 off to the right there - Attn pilots: Do NOT land here, this is a dragstrip, not the runway you are looking for.)