AS WE SEE IT - LEAD, FOLLOW OR GET OUT OF THE WAY

In this world there are leaders and there are followers. As we see it, in the drag racing world, NHRA management has settled into a position that suits them well -- following.

Where do we start; with the championship format or maybe we should make a run at the still unpublished Funny Car specs?

Forgive us, isn't the SFI responsible for providing the specifications; at least that’s what the NHRA has said for years and is even now telling their critics. John Force Racing and Ford’s engineers are designing a new chassis and we are waiting for the results of their tests.

Since when is an entity outside of the SFI and a competing race team responsible for establishing chassis designs and specifications?

Is Drag racing at an ugly crossroads which those leading fear crossing ???

With the amount of responsibility being undertaken by parties outside of the neutral stance that SFI is supposedly based on, is it fair for us to assume SFI now signifies, “Something Force Invented?”

Might as well, after all, Force has done all the heavy lifting in this project. Here we stand, just weeks before the official launch of the season and the sanctioning body is looking to Force and Ford Engineering for the answers they've been unable, or unwilling, to come up with.

There are a few prominent entities who have already labeled the SFI “endorsement” a joke. There are allegations of double standards, an unfairly and rapidly changing of the specs and the unfortunate financial hardship lesser financed teams can hardly afford as the result of the aforementioned. The cost could be high enough to literally derail some teams, forcing them to sit at home or even close shop.

The questions outweigh the answers in this case.

With the amount of responsibility being undertaken by parties outside of the neutral stance that SFI is supposedly based on, is it fair for us to assume SFI now signifies, “Something Force Invented?”

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The most prevalent question remaining, why hasn't the NHRA adopted a new Funny Car chassis spec and distributed said spec so that teams can be prepared come Pomona, a scant three weeks away?

As early as a week ago, we were told by a chassis builder that he was given yet another change in the specifications, a week after the supposedly final spec was issued.

While improvements to the Funny Car chassis is welcomed by all in the sport, media included, it is good for all in the sport. Unsettling is the fact changes to the chassis are coming from the John Force Racing/ Ford safety initiative which causes us to ask, why is a race team doing the job of the sanctioning body? Should any team have that much power in the process?

We’re pretty much convinced at this point in the game, that the answer is probably yes. From all appearances the NHRA isn't going to do anything on its own. Now, we’re sure we'll get a correction and a rebuttal assuring us the NHRA is deeply involved in the safety process.

Oh really? We’re betting a majority of the drivers and teams didn't get that memo.

Bob Vandergriff certainly didn’t get that memo before he started developing a car of tomorrow for Top Fuel. Did Force get it?

The drivers and teams are continually asking, "Where is the NHRA in this?"

Those are the same teams who said the heck with waiting on the sanctioning body and paid out of their pockets for their own chassis safety testing.

To answer the question, 'where is the NHRA?', we offer this observation. The NHRA is sitting on the sidelines patting Force on the back and saying, 'Thank you for spending the money and investing your time so we don't have to. Thank you for absolving us of any legal responsibility.'

But, if the NHRA believes they’re absolved of any legal responsibility because the new specs will have, or may, come from an outside source such as JFR or Ford Motor Company, they are probably wrong, because those specs will ultimately be disseminated and supposedly (sic) enforced by NHRA. Those actions will ultimately make them responsible for any ramifications of the specifications laid out by SFI and accepted by NHRA top brass.

We've heard from racers who have spoken on the record to Torco's CompetitionPlus.com regarding the Funny Car chassis issue who received calls from the NHRA notifying them of the steps they are taking behind the scenes to make the situation safer.

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We have but one simple question. Why the need for secrecy? Why hasn’t the NHRA touted their supposed safety efforts publicly? They certainly haven't been shy about promoting their Countdown to the Championship.

Why hasn't a committee been created with members of the racing community to investigate the major crashes and the death of Eric Medlen? Why has it been the responsibility of the car owner and driver involved to investigate his own incidents, with the only public assistance in the investigation coming from Ford? Does the organization feel it wasn’t necessary to investigate the Medlen and Force crashes and then public report their findings?

Didn’t NASCAR, in the aftermath of the Earnhardt death, conduct a thorough investigation and then report what they’d discovered publicly? Yes, the largest and most respected sanctioning body in American motor sports held itself accountable to its fans.

Thus far the only report on the Medlen/Force incidents has come from Ford and JFR, and appeared to have been “endorsed” by the NHRA.

Didn't the NHRA have to go to court with Julie Russell, the widow of Top Fuel driver Darrell Russell, when one of her foremost requests was an explanation of how her husband died? Aren't we all still waiting for the answer to that was promised years ago? Was NHRA’s response to the Russell request sealed by the court, meaning that no one outside of the parties involved will know what happened and how a potential repetition might be avoided? We're likely to never know, because despite promises of an investigation no public disclosure ever occurred.

Why didn't NHRA create a Funny Car chassis safety committee immediately following Eric Medlen's crash? We don't know why, again because its not matter the NHRA will talk about publicly.

We've been told by one chassis builder the new Funny car configuration passed down two weeks ago is going to be so stiff that it will shake a driver so much during the course of the run that when the Safety Safari lifts the body at the finish line, there will only be a pillar of dust left in the seat where a driver once sat.

That might not be the case had the NHRA, since they are so ingrained to be followers, followed the lead of NASCAR on this one. After years of in-house development work on the Car of Tomorrow, NASCAR presented the three major manufacturers with guidelines and wanted them to build a chassis based on their interpretation of those guidelines. NASCAR made sure teams were capable of building the car exactly as defined. The keyword here is NASCAR – not the race teams.

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Why hasn’t the NHRA gotten more publicly involved?

Chances are, this reluctance could have a lot to do with the impending HD Partners sale of the NHRA Pro Assets and the desire to keep the waves at a minimum. Remember, a lot is at stake here, including the financial future of some top NHRA executives.

Now that Wally Parks has departed, are we beginning to see the long-feared transition coming to pass? Is the NHRA really about Dedicated to Safety, as it has claimed and represented in years past? Or is it dedicated to ticket sales? You decide.

NHRA top brass tout their dedication to growing the sport, i.e. adding more races. Why should the cost of that growth be placed solely on the backs of the car owners and drivers without offering them a much-needed cost of living increase. One entity within the sport told Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com that credibility is added to the sport with more races.

Ahhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnn …. Wrong answer.

We believe credibility and growth could be achieved with a $1 Million champion or even single race winner, something NASCAR found a way to accomplish two decades ago. Consider for a moment how huge it would have been for Tony Schumacher had each walked away from the U.S. Nationals with a $1,000,000 winner's check.

Credibility is gained by taking the lead on various issues, such as that pesky chassis issue and every other issue that scares the NHRA to death. The big three fears have always been tires, nitro and insurance. One of those issues, insurance, seems somewhat stable, but the other two are primed to explode at any day.

Somehow or other, money comes into forefront of the trio of fear. Remember, the NHRA has exclusive marketing agreements related to tires and fuel. So, do they act in consideration of their own bottom line, or in the best interests of the sport and its participants?

Speaking of the money issues associated with racing, it wouldn't surprise us if the impetus for the teams staying away from this Vegas test session is related to the costs associated with testing. But, even that whole situation was mishandled. You mean to tell us, that the conditions are the same as they have always been since 2002, and now all of a sudden tire safety is an issue?

This has all the makings of the nitro issue of 2003 when the cost of raising the price of a barrel was based on Homeland Security concerns. A call to the Department of Homeland Security disputed those claims and subsequently, the associated “extra” fees were dropped.

It was not the first time the NHRA used an outside entity, one they thought no one could penetrate, to push an agenda or idea. Just as they used Homeland Security as an “excuse” to approve a rise in fuel prices, they once tried to restrict photo access by “blaming” the restriction on the insurance provider. But when that provider went public by stating they’d suggested no such access limitations, the NHRA backed off their previous stance.

By the same token, if cold race tracks are such a big issue with tires, then why did we run in Richmond of 2006? By the same token, hasn’t it been decidedly cold (and raining during competition) during a few of the Maple Grove and even Chicago races? By releasing a letter through PRO and subsequently encouraging members not to participate in the Las Vegas test session because of concerns raised by Graham Light, does this mean PRO will actively remind the racers of these dangers when another cold weather event situation arises? Will there be a call to cancel or delay an income producing event simply because it's cold outside?

Somewhere, somehow, something just doesn't add up. One red flag that immediately popped up is that Graham Light gave examples of two drivers that crashed as the result of his concerns not to sanction, or whatever they call what they do, the test sessions. But since when has the NHRA “sanctioned” a test session? These aren’t “real” races to begin with, with the effort to “kill” the Las Vegas outing smacking more of something else, something that went unspoken by those opposed to the testing weekend. Both cited incidents, from what we were told by reliable sources, one being the team's crew chief, those accidents were caused by anything but the concerns raised by Light.

If cold and track prep are such major concerns, why wouldn't the NHRA send their track prep specialists to these test sessions to ensure the safety of their members. Why wouldn't they support their teams and drivers?

Las Vegas is a member track and we have news for the NHRA, you have more of an obligation than to express your concerns. You have an obligation to ensure your concerns don't become reality. You have an obligation to step up and create a safe chassis design that racers can depend on without allowing the inmates to run the asylum. You have an obligation to make sure the “high wire act” gets paid a fare wage to perform in the center ring of the circus.

You have an obligation to lead.

And, if you can't, you have an obligation to get out of the way and let someone else do it.

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AS WE SEE IT - LEAD, FOLLOW OR GET OUT OF THE WAY