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Daniel Wilkerson makes a hard impact with wall (4 Viewers)

If you put a wall in the center between both lanes if one car went out of control it would bounce between the walls causing horrendous damage . With a wall in the middle there is no enough distance to dissipate momentom from the impact where as with the walls the way they are now the further distance gives it time to dissipate momentom . In lamens terms if you got a tennis ball and threw it againts a wall and it bounced off another wall notice how the ball bounces faster and harder against both walls the closer the walls are to each other because there is less time to lose the energy . Im not a racer but you dont need to be a racer to understand physics .
 
If you put a wall between the lanes, it will only result in more racers crashing than preventing a two car wreck. Think of all the saves racers make when the car gets sideways. With a wall there, those would all become accidents, and I'm not just talking about the pros. The only beneficiary to adding a wall in the middle would be the chassis builders. Also, with more accidents, fewer teams might exist due to added expenditures of repairing or replacing torn up race cars that otherwise wouldn't have been.
 
Let's take it one step further...

They could dig a slot in the middle of each lane, make it manditory that all race cars have a device that sticks down under the frame that slides into the slot in the track, remove the drivers from the cars, put them in the tower, give them a pistol grip controller and a large reclining chair to sit in and then race.

.... and maybe add a loop at the 1000' to slow the cars down a bit and go back 1320'.
 
OK now that I watched it yesterday, that crash was one of the oddest I have ever seen. But thankfully, Daniel's OK and that's the main thing.

Now, trying to make light of the situation....

COPYRIGHTED IMAGE REMOVED

Sorry, just had to.
 
Registered member said:
OK now that I watched it yesterday, that crash was one of the oddest I have ever seen. But thankfully, Daniel's OK and that's the main thing.

Now, trying to make light of the situation....

Sorry, just had to.
Click to expand...

Okay Samuel, so that's funny, I'll give you props for that. ;)
 
News From NHRA Communications

News From NHRA Communications

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NHRA PROVIDES PRELIMINARY INFORMATION AFTER FUNNY CAR INCIDENTS IN CHARLOTTE, MEMPHIS

GLENDORA, Calif. (Oct. 8, 2009) – Preliminary results of NHRA’s investigation into two separate incidents involving Funny Car at both the NHRA Nationals in Charlotte, N.C. and the O’Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals in Memphis, Tenn. suggests the problems are not related in anyway, according to NHRA Technical officials.

The first incident involved Bob Tasca and his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Shelby Mustang. The wheel was immediately examined by NHRA Technical Department personnel and after the event, was sent to the SFI Foundation, Inc. for further inspection. The wheel has also been examined by the original fabricator. Based on initial inspections, NHRA issued a technical bulletin advising teams of wheel inspection and maintenance issues. In the meantime, the wheel is continuing to be examined by SFI and has been sent to a metallurgist for further evaluation.

In Memphis, NHRA tech officials examined the wheel components in the incident involving Dan Wilkerson and his Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Mustang. After initial examinations and discussions with team owner, Tim Wilkerson, NHRA has determined that the wheel was not properly installed. “We believe that both wheels lug nuts were not properly torque due to misaligned wheel spacers,” said Wilkerson. “That contributed to the loss of the wheels during the run.”

This week, NHRA’s technical department issued a technical bulletin on proper installation of the wheels with and without spacers. Further metallurgical analysis is planned on the wheel studs from the Wilkerson vehicle to determine if any other factors were involved in the incident. As in all incidents, NHRA will also examine data recorded by the Ford Accident Recorders and the on-board data acquisition systems from both cars to further analyze these incidents.

“While we have some strong preliminary information from both incidents at this time, it is important to make sure that a thorough analysis is done,” said Glen Gray, NHRA Vice President of Technical Operations. “If any additional information is obtained from the investigations of either incident, it will be shared immediately with our Top Fuel and Funny Car teams.”
 
Well that's comforting. So Dan said he watched them being torqued..and now it's determined that THAT was the problem..hmm. Nice of NHRA to issue technical bulletins for the application.

If this happens again..and sh!t is being done proper..oh never mind.
 
Registered member said:
Well that's comforting. So Dan said he watched them being torqued..and now it's determined that THAT was the problem..hmm. Nice of NHRA to issue technical bulletins for the application.

If this happens again..and sh!t is being done proper..oh never mind.
Click to expand...

David, re-read it a little bit. There is more too it then just the wheels not being torqued right. They might have been tight according to the click of the wrench, but not in reality.
 
Registered member said:
Well that's comforting. So Dan said he watched them being torqued..and now it's determined that THAT was the problem..hmm. Nice of NHRA to issue technical bulletins for the application.

If this happens again..and sh!t is being done proper..oh never mind.
Click to expand...

If the spacer was incorrectly aligned, the click of the torque wrench would have been inaccurate. EVEN if you double torqued it.

I'd heard a story of a one piece spacer being drilled to lighten it up, so that when it was installed incorrectly (inside out, I think), the pressure caused the spacer to warp and buckle.
 
I understand all that. All I'm saying is the Wilk's have top notch crews..and I know sh!t happens..so do you think it was something they did in the pits wasn't proper? (by that I mean overlooked). I certainly don't want to speculate..and maybe they can determine that something just wasn't right. But wouldn't that crew person at THAT point know something wasn't kosher? First round..plenty of time to make sure things are the way they should be.

I'm just glad it's a conversation on mechanical..and not guessing on why Daniel was hurt. Good will come out of it.
 
Registered member said:
If the spacer was incorrectly aligned, the click of the torque wrench would have been inaccurate. EVEN if you double torqued it.

I'd heard a story of a one piece spacer being drilled to lighten it up, so that when it was installed incorrectly (inside out, I think), the pressure caused the spacer to warp and buckle.
Click to expand...


Drill the spacer for lightening? I hope not via the friction faces.:eek: think about that for a moment.
 
Can somebody enlighten me? I don't understand how a wheel spacer can be misaligned, or how it can warp and buckle.
I'm missing something here.
 
If the hub or wheel has a register & a receiver groove, and the spacer was on backwards (register to register and groove to groove), OR the register was in the groove, when something, anything moves, now you have slack.

**** absolutley happens. Everyone messes up. This could have been SO much worse, let's learn from it and move on.
 
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