Jim O- Fix the Traps

[Kenny B.]

Being a recent visitor of the sand trap at Sonoma, I spent some time with several Top Alcohol team owners and conversed on the situation. One thing I noticed was the pea gravel and its inability to slow a dragster. When our TAD from wheels hit the pea gravel it literally drove itself right on top of the gravel and right into the nets.

Another thought that came into play is the use of belly pans. Though everyone completely understands the purpose, the belly pan acts more like a rear end sled in a situation of entering the beach. Perhaps a different form of a bucket that doesn't craddle the entire bottom frame rails and rear motor plate. If you view video of cars entering the trap from the '90s it appears that the motor plates and oil pans act as items that "dig in" to the sand and actually help slow the cars.

I have no opinion on the nets from my experience. Despite front end damage to our car the impact in the net was soft and I feel I wasn't going fast enough when I hit the nets. One thing that drivers are taught from the beginning is to take the nets head on. Despite Mark Niver's outcome he did everything correctly entering the trap. The video even appears to show him making an effort to straighten the car as much as possible. However, seeing the outcome of Niver I made a the split second decision to take the nets at an angle. I would say I hit the nets at about 2 o'clock from straight and saw great success in keeping the nets from folding the car straight back. The front end folded to the right and I walked away unharmed. Randy Eakin's experienced a similar situation in Pomona several years ago when chutes failed. He hit the nets head on as did Mark, the way we're taught. Randy escaped unharmed but did significant damage to his dragster. I used what I learned from these two situations and feel that because of the decision I made from the knowledge of these two events kept me alive.

Just some thought from experience and minds in the matter.

 

[90-percent]

Kenny - magnificent decision making on your part considering the circumstances! Seems like going into the nets at an angle is good driving for a dragster and going in head on is good driving for a Funny Car?

You have nerves of steel and great work on your part keeping a cool head under such life and death split second pressure.

-90% jimmy

 

[Paul]

. . . One thing I noticed was the pea gravel and its inability to slow a dragster. When our TAD from wheels hit the pea gravel it literally drove itself right on top of the gravel and right into the nets.

. . . However, seeing the outcome of Niver I made a the split second decision to take the nets at an angle. I would say I hit the nets at about 2 o'clock from straight and saw great success in keeping the nets from folding the car straight back. The front end folded to the right and I walked away unharmed. Randy Eakin's experienced a similar situation in Pomona several years ago when chutes failed. He hit the nets head on as did Mark, the way we're taught. Randy escaped unharmed but did significant damage to his dragster.

Kenny, thanks for taking the time to post your valuable first hand experiences on this issue.

Regarding sand and pea gravel, my feeling is perhaps they are better than nothing but unless the sand pits were way longer than they currently are I don't think you can count on them slowing down a car that enters at high speed. The cars are too light to dig in at high speeds and as you mentioned often have sculpted belly bans. As you experienced and also as in the Niver accident, when at high speed the cars tend to skim over the sand or gravel without losing much speed.

That's why I feel a smarter net design is required. You probably made a smart move by impacting the net at an angle. I think there are two likely advantages to this angled approach with the current "stiff" nets. Firstly it caused the car to rotate sideways, likely scrubbing speed from both the tires and bottom of the chassis sliding sideways against the sand and gravel.

Secondly the forces on the chassis aren't directed straight back in the strongest direction of the frame, which in the Niver case caused it to decelerate very quickly. Instead, the angled approach will put bending forces on the frame and front end, dissipating some energy in this bending rather than directing it all back to the driver.

But I don't think the pit and net design should rely on skills of the driver as in some cases the car could be out of control or the driver could be incapacitated.

I feel strongly that its possible to come up with a net design that would work pretty well even with the size limitations of current sand pits, and I think the Read net design would be a good starting point. I also think that its likely that a good net design could decelerate the cars without causing any damage to the chassis.

I also think its clearly a responsibility of the NHRA to actively fund and pursue this sand pit and net re-design, along with adding a full time safety director that takes driver safety as seriously as Carl Olson did when he was employed by the NHRA.