4 Lane 'drag Strip' (1 Viewer)

[TOOLMAN]

By the way, Burton Smith Is Not 'Hump'.

Even A 'quick' lane clean up takes 10-15 minutes and there are no 'commercials' at the track...

d'kid

What I am getting at is maybe it's time to try it. I remember racing at Texas in 86, it was like driving down freeway in my Lincoln. I believe it's still that way today.They are so far advanced in asphalt and concrete surfaces that it time to see if they can make a surface that has no significant changes throughout the race. I believed they have the technology and ability to do this. Lets see how Denver works out, concrete surface and ability to control the starting line temperature. Hell, give him a little credit for trying, it might just work.

 

[Dave]

Maybe they should make 16 lanes so they could get it over with faster.

Dave

 

[yoda]

Maybe they should make 16 lanes so they could get it over with faster.

Dave

Great... Then it would look like a track meet...

Edit: whoa... SPONSOR potential!! Somebody get Addidas on the phone!!

 

[hellfirejim]

Perhaps they will have them in pairs. "A" pair and "B" pair. When one lane of A pair is oiled down then the race is moved to B pair. For qualifying you get two runs in each pair. One run in each lane.

Radical? Possibly but whatever I am willing to take a chance and wait to see what happens be for I start running around yelling the sky is falling and saying it won't work. If anyone has the ability to make it work I would bet on Bruton.

Just give it a chance.... Then if it doesn't work then so be it.
jim

 

[racerb]

If it won't work, Maybe they can move 2 lanes to Fontana?

 

[whitelightning]

im not against new things but just from the safty part of being in the car if theres no wall between cars the far side wont see the person in the far lane from them and if a run goes bad and he crosses lanes he may take out more then just one car and cant help it also the lights i dont know if it would be worth the money to have a light box in the middle of the lanes the cones with reflectors already are a pain much less hitting a box with wires and stuck to the ground that for sure would be a tire looking to explode so there would have to be a new light system unless im missing something here

but if it could be done and done safe im all about strapin in and get after a track like that

 

[none]

Perhaps a little thinking outside the box. If you were to show a race live,(I know, very far fetched)rather than go to filler when you have an oil down, switch to the next available lane. Once you are through with the televised portion(you know what classes they are) you clean all affected lanes.

P.S. Karl.........they do have commercials at the racesit is what they run on the big screen while the powerade guys shoot t-shirts and "they clean the track"

 

[mach9]

I personally don't see this being anything but bad, bad, bad from a spectator standpoint, along with all of the other issues you guys have brought up. I hope they think long and hard before they do this. MJ

 

[Toejam]

Perhaps a little thinking outside the box. If you were to show a race live,(I know, very far fetched)rather than go to filler when you have an oil down, switch to the next available lane. Once you are through with the televised portion(you know what classes they are) you clean all affected lanes.

P.S. Karl.........they do have commercials at the racesit is what they run on the big screen while the powerade guys shoot t-shirts and "they clean the track"

Okay.....then when should the lane that gets oiled get cleaned, after the session? That would foul up the entire show, lane choice wouldn't mean squat!

 

[TOOLMAN]

im not against new things but just from the safty part of being in the car if theres no wall between cars the far side wont see the person in the far lane from them and if a run goes bad and he crosses lanes he may take out more then just one car and cant help it also the lights i dont know if it would be worth the money to have a light box in the middle of the lanes the cones with reflectors already are a pain much less hitting a box with wires and stuck to the ground that for sure would be a tire looking to explode so there would have to be a new light system unless im missing something here
but if it could be done and done safe im all about strapin in and get after a track like that

Most systems now are remote and don't have wiring. The laser we deal with are 100% accurate to a 100' so I would see no reason for them to moved from center the center line. besides we only talking about time trials and qualifying. In Competition lanes would still be used the same as always. The other lanes would only be used in case of oil down, etc to finish the round.

 

[none]

Okay.....then when should the lane that gets oiled get cleaned, after the session? That would foul up the entire show, lane choice wouldn't mean squat!

Quite the opposite I would think. The differential could potentially be huge between the good lane and a "green but clean" lane. Also, if you think like Bruton, you could have more equipment available and clean multiple lanes in the same amount of time that it currently takes to clean one. After you finish your live for TV session, everyone knows it is intermission time (clean the track)and goes to the beer stand.

 

[DrRocket]

Everyone's ignoring the question I asked. Who wants to be standing near the finish line on one side sweeping up quick-dry while this is going on in the next set of lanes?

How often would that have to happen before people think that just maybe this isn't such a hot idea after all?

 

[TOOLMAN]

Everyone's ignoring the question I asked. Who wants to be standing near the finish line on one side sweeping up quick-dry while this is going on in the next set of lanes?

How often would that have to happen before people think that just maybe this isn't such a hot idea after all?

Oil downs don't happen that often and now sportsman will have blankets as well.
The problem your talking about won't happen unless there are oil downs in both lanes on same side, then the race will be held up.
Brutons thinking is promoting a live race on prime time TV and I think he can pull it off.

 

[Dave]

Everyone's ignoring the question I asked. Who wants to be standing near the finish line on one side sweeping up quick-dry while this is going on in the next set of lanes?

How often would that have to happen before people think that just maybe this isn't such a hot idea after all?

Great thought. First off, hope nobody gets hit!!! Then the Safety Safari would have all the clean-up stuff out there and then have to snap into rescue mode; not good.

I realize that many believe that Bruton has some great ideas and thats fine. True, he does some awesome things and has done well with his Nascar stuff. However, Drag Racing ain't Nascar!!! I hate to say it but oil downs are just part of the deal when it comes to Drag Racing. Bruton wants to keep the show rolling no matter what, so this is what he came up with? Let's change one detail about this plan. What if instead of an oil down there is a serious accident and time is critical. Is Bruton gonna tell the next pair to just move over a lane and keep racing (while the injured driver is being work on) because the show must go on? They're gonna tell him to stick it. You have to be practical when creating new ideas. As far as the Live TV deal, yeah right! Who's gonna air it, ESPN? You think ESPN is gonna show Live Drag Racing instead of their big buck Nascar event? HA!!! How many commercials on ESPN do you see currently promoting the NHRA broadcasts? Why would they hype it just because it's Live? Do people think just because it's Live more will watch it? I doubt it. I'm all for new ideas in Drag Racing, but I just can't see how this could be done safely.

Dave

 

[NitroRichFire]

Sorry but I do not see this happening, TOO MUCH LIABILITY!!! Lets look at safety, the only thing that matters. At my job, when we have a 1050 P.I. (personal injury) rescue, on the interstate with entrapment, it can be a nightmare. When you have crews from a engine company, heavy rescue squad, truck company and paramedic unit working to cut a person out of a vehicle, it's bad enough with cars and trucks going by at 65+ MPH, so we shut the road down. It's enough stress to get that person out the entrapment, into the helicopter and off to Shock Trauma, you don't need vehicles going by at 65+MPH. Now, yes the safety guys at the NHRA may have that concrete wall between them, but on the other side are two race cars going alot faster than 65MPH.
Then, like Joe Sherwood said, what are the crew chiefs going to do when they may have to run in a lane that's unknown. It's all about SAFETY, everyone goes home healthy and safe at the end of the day!!!

 

[TOOLMAN]

What if instead of an oil down there is a serious accident and time is critical. Is Bruton gonna tell the next pair to just move over a lane and keep racing (while the injured driver is being work on) because the show must go on? As far as the Live TV deal, yeah right! Who's gonna air it, ESPN? You think ESPN is gonna show Live Drag Racing instead of their big buck Nascar event? HA!!! How many commercials on ESPN do you see currently promoting the NHRA broadcasts? Why would they hype it just because it's Live? Do people think just because it's Live more will watch it? I doubt it. I'm all for new ideas in Drag Racing, but I just can't see how this could be done safely.
Dave[/QUOTE]
OK, you want to be realistic. Just this year ESPN showed several hours of INDY live and it was great. I know people in TV and if they could offer a live broadcast of Drag Racing the commercials would come. As far as how many people would watch time would only tell but I think you would be surprise when the count came in.
I don't see safety being a issue, the race would be run the same as it is know and NHRA safety record can't be beat.
Now if for some unfortunate racer would wreck and get seriously hurt they would stop the race just like they would in NASCAR. With NHRA record there's a 99% chance that's not likely to happen. I say if you were to take a vote from the racers the majority would say go for it.

 

[Sully]

It's more likely that the strategy would be to switch to the second pair of lanes if there was an oildown - and possibly to alternate pairs if there's no oildown in order to keep them as close to the same as possible.

It's still a crew chief's nightmare - instead of trying to keep up with two lanes, they would have to try to "book" four lanes and make last-minute changes depending on which pair they end up running. But it would let them complete a round and start the turnaround clock before starting a cleanup, a definite plus if you are looking for live TV coverage.

 

[Nitrohaulic]

Would you have one or two winners per round?

Nobody's anwering this one. I think it'd be wild to watch four modern pro cars of any class go down the track at the same time. There's your countdown! 16 cars run each other 4 at a time. One winner from each session. One final round of four cars, one winner takes all. Two sessions to run 16 cars! At LEAST it wouldn't cost so much to win a drag race in terms of runs. I bet specators would feel like they got less for their money, though. They'd spend less time watching cars run.

LOL, that, or 16 lanes, one first/final round, winner take all. Hey, I can imagine!

I think you'd have to clean an oiled down lane just like you do now. Like Ian asked. You can't have one guy having to beat only two other cars if everyone else has to beat three.

Would the lanes really be equal if two backup lanes just sat there without cars running them for hours?

As far as four lanes being equal to each other. Hey, you can't get two lanes equal to each other now so, what would be the difference?

As far as being able to test each lane with qualifying runs now. I'm sure the lanes you run in on Friday and Saturday aren't always the same when you come back to run on them again on Sunday.

 

[d'kid]

Torco Racing Fuel's Competition Plus.com - Drag Racing's Internet Magazine - NO FOUR-LANE CHARLOTTE

hope this puts it to bed...

d'kid

 

[G'ginna]

Everyone's ignoring the question I asked. Who wants to be standing near the finish line on one side sweeping up quick-dry while this is going on in the next set of lanes?

How often would that have to happen before people think that just maybe this isn't such a hot idea after all?

I think you all have missed an opportunity here... think drag-zamboni...