by Jerry Bonkowski
They call Chicago “the Windy City.” Given that Joliet, Ill. is a Chi-town suburb, 40 miles away from the big city’s downtown area, it’s not surprising that wind is also an atmospheric condition that can create havoc at times.
Like this past weekend’s NHRA race at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet. The track has been open since 1998 and has seen a lot of different – and sometimes even crazy – things, but nothing like what was witnessed during Friday’s first two qualifying runs of the weekend.
On Friday, the Joliet area was overwhelmed by crosswinds that gusted as high as 25 mph, significantly impacting drivers in all major classes in attendance at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 Route 66 NHRA Nationals.
The class that was most affected Friday was Pro Stock Motorcycle. Crosswinds were so bad that out of a degree of caution, NHRA decided to limit the bikes to just one qualifying round Friday, but made up for it with three shots Saturday. The Top Fuel Motorcycle division, which normally runs to 1,000 feet, was limited to eighth-mile competition. As if the 25-mph gusts weren’t enough Friday, the area was enveloped in a massive dust storm, which according to some reports hasn’t been seen in these parts since the 1930s.
Fortunately, Saturday’s conditions were much better. Wind at about 20 mph was still a concern, but unlike Friday’s crosswinds, Saturday’s gusts were a tailwind, being an advantage to pretty much every driver out there, lowering times and boosting speeds to several Route 66 track records.
The wind was “definitely in your head,” Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon told CompetitionPlus.com. “It’s not bad when it’s open the whole way and it’s just a constant wind.
“Where it gets difficult at certain tracks, and this being one of them, is where if it’s a solid crosswind and then you have grandstands that block it to where it opens up, because then it’s just from zero to a 30-mph gust like that.
“It’ll kind of feel like driving a motorhome down the freeway. It’s going to move you around a little bit. You feel it. But it’s more of just you react to it, and then in the shutdown area is where all your thoughts come in like, ‘Oh, man!’
“It’s definitely something that you consider, you think about. For me, I’m always in the water box and one of the last things I do before we fire up is I look at the flags just to double check and see the direction” of the wind.
With Funny Cars having unique aerodynamics, John Force Racing driver Jack Beckman said Friday’s crosswinds became a major concern because those vehicles are as susceptible to crosswinds as Pro Stock Motorcycle riders.
“If you’re at the starting line looking downtrack, the wind was blowing significantly from right to left,” Beckman said. “That flag’s 30 feet off the ground. It was standing straight up and then some.
“But we don’t run 30 feet off the ground so you don’t know if the wind’s going to be that intense down low, and there’s never a run I’ve made in nitro Funny Car where I’m like, ‘I’ll just hold the wheel with a couple fingers here, or I can look in the stands.’
“The rough one for me was Q2 Friday afternoon. There was so much dust on the track, we backed the tune-up way down. This thing was loud inside the car and it was moving around but it wasn’t ET-ing great. I think we ran a four flat on that run, but that’s about all the track had to give out there on that run. So, wind is something that we don’t have control over, but there’s a steering wheel in the car for a reason.”
Top Fuel driver Doug Kalitta pointed out how different the conditions were from Friday to Saturday.
“I think it was about as weird as you can get as far as the differences,” Kalitta said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place that actually had a sandstorm next to the track when the last two cars were going down it.”
Kalitta followed Funny Cars in Q2 on Friday and noted how Ron Capps, who ran just before him, struggled to hold on to his car because of the strong crosswinds.
“Well, Q1 people were asking me if the wind affected me and I said, ‘We didn’t get far enough for the wind to affect me.’ I was just like an idiot out there all over the lane. Capps was in the left lane and got up against the wall. I don’t know if it was because of the wind or what have you, but sitting in the car, I couldn’t tell.
“Funny Cars are definitely entertaining. They keep you on your toes as a driver, and they never do the same thing twice. Then you add in these wind gusts and just makes it that much more challenging. But it was definitely a ride.”
Kalitta rocketed to the top of the qualifying ladder Friday, so while the wind concerned him, it really didn’t affect his dragster.
“I told myself I’m not going to let this thing get left once we get past the grandstands and cost myself the run because of that,” Kalitta said. “So as it’s going, I start putting some wheel input to the right, maybe a little too much, because once I got over there I’m like, “Oh,” then I had to correct it back to the left and back to the right. But I held on.”
Sunday was a much different scenario as the winds, while still blowing, dropped to a manageable 10 miles per hour.
