Hillary Will Blog: Reactions? (1 Viewer)

[Pink]

In her 4/3 driver blog, Hillary describes her 3rd round Houston qualifying fireball this way:
"the car launched and everything felt pretty good. Then, as expected, I got to the bump in the track and my KB Dragster became a handful. I was determined to keep the thing in the groove. The motor wasn’t going to let me. It didn’t feel right, and just as I was about to take my foot off the throttle pedal….KA BOOM"
Now Hillary had entered Q3 with a 4.599 from Friday which was good for the #8 slot. On the Saturday run it appears that by 600 feet she had a hole out on the right side. By around 1000 feet she had lost a cylinder on the left side. She appears not to have lifted until the KA BOOM.
I can see staying with it if she was in the bottom of the field and conditions had improved since Friday. As it was nobody ran better than a 4.6 all day Saturday.
Shouldn't an experienced driver, aware of the qualifying situation, have lifted sooner? Shouldn't she have known that stomping on a 7-cylinder machine was a waste of parts when not much was at stake?

interested in other reactions...

 

[Buddy]

I often see things like this and wonder the same thing... Then I have to sit back and think about it... They only run for a bit over four seconds and I'm sure a lot is going through your head during the run... I also have no idea if they were told to run it out the back... And most importantly; I am not driving one (yet ) so I'm not in a great position to judge... Whats that saying about if it were easy?

The times that I really wonder what they were thinking is when they smoke the tires during qualifying and get back in it (under normal circumstances)... But with the new qualifying format I'm sure thats going to be more common with the unqualified cars on Sunday...

CJ Curtsinger

 

[Just Paul]

Keep in mind the last half of the track only takes about a second and a half to complete. So.. in that time frame, they have to realize there is a problem, think about what the problem is, and then decide if it's bad enough to lift. Not as easy as it sounds.

 

[Mr. Fix It]

There is always hindsight in every situation. I'm sure sitting down and telling the story is waaaaaaaay easier than sitting in front of such massive amounts of horsepower and trying to judge an anomoly in just a few seconds as you are accelerating to over 300 MPH.

Many times a driver like Force or Pedrgon or Capps in an interview after, who will tell you everything was fine right up until the car blew up. It is just not a single matter of experience.

I think you're being a little hard on her.

 

[FC Girl]

It's always the driver's fault -- ask my crew

she's doing a fine job in the car this year so far.

sometimes we only have 1 or 2 thou to make a decision. Every Driver that is aware of what the car is doing during the run, well, it's 3/4ths of the driver's job to know this Along with track awareness. You'd be amazed at how many people (I don't call them drivers) couldn't tell you anything of what the car did or what they did during their 4 to 7 or 8 seconds on the track. That makes a crew chiefs job really difficult. So her acknowledging everything she that was going on, kudos!!

 

[SAS]

I was sitting in Sec A. at Gainsville, among people who seem to have the same seats evey year, the group behind me was 6 women and 4 men. They had comments about every driver. Among them was that Ashley had learned to drive well enough but had not mastered the tree. Melanie should have stayed with Top Fuel, as she had found a bit of success with it. Hillary was the worst of the current group of lady drivers, both in keeping the car stright and sleeping at the lights, and that the Kalitta camp namely Jim O was giving her a car with a great set up, more than enough to win its share of races. They talked about the wrong lane pass against Vandergriff. Maybe a lot of what they said is true, but I doubt any of them had driven in competition. I did hear others saying if a crew chief gives you a car running really well, than the driver must do their part. So who will win first Ashley, Melanie, or Hillary.

 

[team23rulz]

The bump in the right lane was giving people a lot of problems. I know that the bump is the reason Antron and all blew a motor friday night. The car hit the bump and the motor over-revved and hurt the motor. I'm sure this is the same thing that happened to Hillary. Give her a break.

 

[Pink]

It's always the driver's fault -- ask my crew

Needless to say, Nancy, you have forgotten more about getting from A to B in a hurry than I will ever know. That's why I posted my comments in the form of a question.
I assume that a hired-hand driver is expected to understand the situation--e.g. is this a qualifying run for a car that is pretty safely in the show or a win-or-go-home deal that calls for legging it out.

I might be being unfair--I don't know. I will admit to watching Hillary more carefully ever since she passed Vandergriff at the lights on the wrong side of HIS lane in Columbus a couple of years ago.

Again, this was a QUESTION: Can a top fuel pilot be expected to sense a cylinder out early on a safe qualifying run?

 

[FC Girl]

Needless to say, Nancy, you have forgotten more about getting from A to B in a hurry than I will ever know.

Huh? I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're saying here.

I agree, in the past, she's has made some bad judgement calls and over drove in many situations. But this is her 3rd year now, and she's made leaps and bounds of improvements in driving the car.

And to ANSWER your question: Yes, a driver can tell when a cylinder goes out. However, A cylinder going out (although it can bang a motor occasionally) makes any car not happy, so does that mean a driver is supposed to lift each time if the team is after valuable data? If the noise she heard was caused from the bump in the track (which you could see on the computer) and zinged the motor, she wouldn't have had time to react, which was my point on the first post. No one would have.

Dennis: I find your post very interesting. Thanks for sharing some of your experience.

 

[Toejam]

I'd say Nancy's capable of assessing Hillary's situation, she's gone 250 MPH. None of us have!

 

[FC Girl]

Thanks Joe!!!

I rewrote my original post a little since I had to change something that didn't make mechanical sense when I read it back. LOL

 

[Von Halen]

Shouldn't an experienced driver, aware of the qualifying situation, have lifted sooner? Shouldn't she have known that stomping on a 7-cylinder machine was a waste of parts when not much was at stake?

No........

 

[Rick Rzepka]

come on now hillarys round wins speak for them self...three more s years with mr blacks $$$ im sure she will win....???

 

[BaldyLochs]

Reaction? OK.... How about Mac Savage, Chris Glass, Troy, Jim O and the rest of the guys INCLUDING the driver did one hell of a job getting that race car cleaned up, repaired, back together and back on the track after that boomer. Who cares how much money it cost? I think the experience was good for the crew more than anything else. I'm not going to get into an argument about what Hillary did or did not do or what she should have done..... there's enough of that on Fox News & CNN right now .......

 

[The Counterfeiter]

Antron was eloquent on Wind Tunnel tonight. Talked about how he is learning how things happen in "microseconds" in a Top Fueler and sorting out things going wrong from the sheer "violence" of a run.
I think this is a circumstance where no one who has not driven a TF is not qualified to comment (yes, you are entitled to your opinion).
I'd have a real problem driving a TF - the HANS device would prevent me from getting my shoulders up around my ears - waiting for the blowup and flames in my face -

 

[Dave]

I wasn't going to comment on this but when somebody craps all over one of my friends, I feel I must.

When you are flying down the Dragstrip you don't have much time to think about what you are going to do. I have never driven a Top Fueler but I have had a catastrophic engine explosion in a 9 second door car. It blew up at around 800 feet and took out the entire left side of the block, broke the crank in 3 pieces, blew all but 2 rods out, broke the front off of the transmission, and 3 pistons ceased to exist. One of the peices hit a brake line and ripped it off so I had NO BRAKES and the car didn't have a parachute. The car jumped the sandtrap but I got it stopped and didn't hit a thing. My point is that I had the same situation as Hillary. The engine didn't feel right and I was just about to lift and it exploded. It doesn't matter what you are driving, things happen quickly out there and this type of thing happens from time to time. Hillary hasn't had all that many boomers in her career so knowing when the engine is going to nose over might not come as natural to her as say John Force.

The thing I just can't figure out is why some people seem to get so much pleasure out of throwing Hillary under the bus. I really have to wonder just how many of these people have ever been down a Dragstrip? There is nothing wrong with having an opinion but when the opinions turn into personal attacks, thats when there is a problem. Hillary knows how to drive a Top Fueler and she does a good job. As far as reaction times and keeping it straight, lay off. True, she has struggled with her lights but I have seen a lot of improvement lately. How quickly the car leaves the line isn't always all on the driver. Sometimes the car just doesn't react, it can be any number of things. As far as the deal at Columbus in '06, it's just one of those things that happens sometimes. I was in the tower watching that pass and it sure scared me. I ran back to the pits and Hillary & the crew had just arrived back at the trailer. She and I talked right after the run about what had happened. I can assure you she didn't do it on purpose. Let me tell you, Hillary wouldn't have a Top Fuel license if she couldn't drive the car.

Dave

 

[Buddy]

Dave,

I don't think he was attacking Hillary... I think the thread was intended to discuss the best options in a situation, and not necessarily to critique her skills... At least that's how I took it...

I have to disagree with your last sentance though... A license allows someone to compete, but does not mean they can drive... I'm not talking about Hillary, but I have seen Sportsman drivers who should consider if their place in racing is outside the seat...

CJ Curtsinger

 

[SAS]

This is a simple question, not a judgement, would either teamates Dave Grubnic or Doug Kalitta lifted ? I think they would have, but perhaps its because they have more time in the seat. And when your at Gainsville for the first time, among people who seemed to almost own that section, you don't turn around and question the comments they are making. But even in the stands at Vegas and at Indy, people seem think another driver would be winning races in that car, look at the e.t. and mph. Lack of Walleys is not the problem of the crew chief or efforts of crew. And strangley most of the tossing under the bus comes from women.

 

[SAS]

And as to that bump in the track and at other tracks that have had photos posted showing them , with the high cost of parts and the high speeds why is this not a problem being solved. A car thats airborn at 300 mph is a tradgety waiting to happen. Bumps can be fixed. John Medlin can't fix tracks and cars.

 

[Pink]

The thing I just can't figure out is why some people seem to get so much pleasure out of throwing Hillary under the bus.

Dave, I didn't think that I was crapping on anyone. I candidly admitted that
I -do- watch Hillary with a more critical eye. Just the semi-informed opinion of a mere fan, I know, but Columbus raised a lot of eyebrows at the time.

That being said, I was asking a QUESTION and looking for the opinions of folks with the time in the seat/pits to be in a better position to judge than me.

The responses I was looking for were like this: "Hillary hasn't had all that many boomers in her career so knowing when the engine is going to nose over might not come as natural to her as say John Force."

Is it crapping on Hillary to say this? Or it is throwing Hillary under the bus to even pose the question?