Frank, you make an interesting point about burn outs. I have heard different things about why they do it and how long it should be, etc. I am hoping a more knowledgeable Mater than me can explain this one. It would be interesting to see what would happen if no one did a burnout. Up in smoke/ Hooked up?
Cliff, I wish I could remember specific drivers at specific races but off the top of my head I cannot. I feel like I've seen it happen 6 or 7 times over the last 10 or so years. And of those 6 or 7 times, the car ran just fine 5 or 6 of the runs. After one of these runs, I remember either Mike Dunn or Tony Pedregon saying something on the TV broadcast like, "the tracks are so well prepped nowadays, doing a burnout is not as important as it used to be back in the day, and that's why he/she was able to still make a solid run." Maybe Alan Reinhart remembers some specifics and would be willing to chime in.
Years ago, Kenny Bernstein tried abbreviated burnouts (with his dragster) for a few races; it didn't affect his performance at all. But apparently the fans didn't like it so he went back to doing them conventionally.
Jim Dunn racing is the king of abbreviated burnouts. I don't know if any of Jim's drivers over the years have had their foot on the throttle for more than 1 full second when performing a burnout.
I'm sure it's part of Jim's strategy to keep expenses/wear and tear, in check. Plus, all of the teams will do abbreviated burnouts, and completely out of the groove, when racing in the middle of the summer when track temps are sky high, yet they still put down terrific runs regardless.
Not sure how you can mandate throttle whacks.
Nunzio, there are always NHRA officials on pit bikes zipping around the nitro pits, especially around warm up time. They're usually informing the teams about when they need to be ready, especially if there are rain delays or other factors that are forcing them to change the time the fuel cars run. At most of the tracks, the fuel teams are all pitted together. Maybe I'm over simplifying it, but in my mind if you have two or three NHRA officials on pit bikes roaming around the pits anyway, keep them around during warm time. Plus you'd have the other racers and fans aware of the rule. So if a team warmed up and didn't do it, you would have the teams pitted on either side of them calling them out, plus you would have fans calling them out as well. A throttle whack in a nitro car is not something you can easily fake, or say you did it, when you actually didn't. Again, maybe I'm over simplifying or being naive, but those are my quick thoughts.
**Oh and if a team chooses not to warm up, maybe because of big damage from the previous round and they just don't have enough time, then no throttle whack is required. It would only be required if the team chooses to warm up the car.
. Especially when you get a throttle wack !
