NHRA puts Johnny Gray and Warren Johnson at risk? (1 Viewer)

[Randy]

Yup, me in my arm chair. I've never been down the track in my life.



I have no past or present experience in these types of situations at all. I apologize.

Hey Bill, is that "Big" interviewing you?

 

[You!]

Yup, in the lanes prior to a lap at Pomona. I sponsored his racing and the museum in my previous life at SA, and we've stayed friends since.

 

[FABMAN]

First we have to be thankful that WJ or Johnny didn't wreck their cars or worst get hurt. I'll be the first criticize NHRA when they make bone headed moves but enough of that's been said. I just watched the run on tape and it obvious there's moister on the track, if you watch there are no tire tracks on surface from the transition on and if the track was dry you would have seen every move he made. Hopefully NHRA will learn from this and take time to inspect the track and maybe run the dryer just to be safe, I think peoples lives are worth taken the time.

 

[chop]

If anybody thinks Johnny Gray deserved a rerun needs to remember this from this years Pomona.

(W) Johnny Gray (Jonny Gray Racing Stratus) 0.017 7.219 191.97
(L) Kurt Johnson (AC Delco Cobalt) 0.042 16.422 56.08

Both cars shake and spin at the green. WJ's car just sits and spins and there are a long line of tire chatter marks in Gray's.

Gray recovered and was making a clean pass until near the top end, where the car got way light and really fish tailed through the lights. Even more than Gaines wiggle in the first pair!

5:10 p.m. NHRA is doing a close look at the right lane down track and has sent the Asphalt Zamboni down to drag and spray.

KJ didn't get a rerun and neither did Johnny,game over.

 

[TR]

If anybody thinks Johnny Gray deserved a rerun needs to remember this from this years Pomona.

(W) Johnny Gray (Jonny Gray Racing Stratus) 0.017 7.219 191.97
(L) Kurt Johnson (AC Delco Cobalt) 0.042 16.422 56.08

Both cars shake and spin at the green. WJ's car just sits and spins and there are a long line of tire chatter marks in Gray's.

Gray recovered and was making a clean pass until near the top end, where the car got way light and really fish tailed through the lights. Even more than Gaines wiggle in the first pair!

5:10 p.m. NHRA is doing a close look at the right lane down track and has sent the Asphalt Zamboni down to drag and spray.

KJ didn't get a rerun and neither did Johnny,game over.

I didn't see anywhere on this blog about a re-run. Did I miss it? What's your point.

 

[chop]

I didn't see anywhere on this blog about a re-run. Did I miss it? What's your point.

Just nipping it in the bud. Gray went to the tower looking for a rerun but didn't get it and rightfully so and don't think that it hasn't crossed some minds here either.

 

[Joker]

Just nipping it in the bud. Gray went to the tower looking for a rerun but didn't get it and rightfully so and don't think that it hasn't crossed some minds here either.

He's not going to get a re-run and I dont see anywhere on this thread saying anything about one but it does suck when you lose a race b/c of the racetrack.

 

[.]

That is exactly what I thought Alan!

To even think that the NHRA would do such a thing is ridiculous.

To blame it on the "NHRA" is easy, but go and blame it on the individual NHRA Officials who have names, families and many of whom have raced themselves.

OK, so what about the incident (I think it was last year) where Steve Johnson just about crashed his bike because of water on the track? An official was notified yet they sent 3 or 4 more pairs down the track before anything was done! So is it still ridiculous to think NHRA would do such a thing since it has, in fact, actually happened in the past?

 

[Bullet]

OK, so what about the incident (I think it was last year) where Steve Johnson just about crashed his bike because of water on the track? An official was notified yet they sent 3 or 4 more pairs down the track before anything was done! So is it still ridiculous to think NHRA would do such a thing since it has, in fact, actually happened in the past?

So you are saying that NHRA officials knowingly sent Johnny Gray and WJ down a track that they KNEW was wet?

 

[.]

So you are saying that NHRA officials knowingly sent Johnny Gray and WJ down a track that they KNEW was wet?

Did I say that? Reinhart asked if anybody thought NHRA would ever send a pair down a track knowing it's wet. You said it was ridiculous to think that would ever happen but it already has happened. Just bringing up a past instance since you and others are so convinced that NHRA would never allow it to happen knowingly. Not only did they not fix it immediately, they sent an additional 3 or 4 pairs down a wet track before anything was done.

 

[Professor Dave]

One quick point about reruns. In comp at Indy in 2006, four pairs of cars went down the track after a car had left oil on the track, although NHRA was unaware of the oil on the track. After consultation with tech, those four pairs were re-run. My car, driven by Lee Zane, won second round twice. I might be the only guy to own a car that won six races in a 64-car field at Indy who not get the Wally. Still, it's quite nice to be able to say your car was in a final at Indy.

For more details, see INDY - Competition Eliminator Round 2 Eliminations

 

[JF]

Ok, heres what I think the pressure to make ESPN TV schedules, money and the fact that you sign a release prior to racing are great motivators to take a risk with a subpar track.

Did it happen to WJ & Gray I don't know I wasn't there to see the track. But WJ & Grey were and its their butt in the sling if it goes bad. So if they say it was I would have to believe it was.

 

[chop]

The track @ Atlanta has a reputation of going away if the right conditions occur weather wise. The track is basically in a hole and that alone makes it subject to variations. I do know the humidity went up about 20% before the run,want to know how I know that,I ask WJ. It was in the 50's before and the 70's after. WJ was actually laughing about it,said he was trying to keep from wrecking and keep Gray away from him @ the same time. You can ask anybody who was there,it didn't rain enough to wet the track,so I'm thinking the humidity had a play in the track getting slick.Just my opinion,I was out of school the day we had meteorology.

 

[Steve Ripley]

Just nipping it in the bud. Gray went to the tower looking for a rerun but didn't get it and rightfully so and don't think that it hasn't crossed some minds here either.

"A message from Johnny Gray"

Johnny never went to the tower to ask for a re-run or would have, so who ever said he did does not what they are talking about. He went to the starting line to talk to Rick Stewart to ask why they sent them down, Rick Stewart refered him to track offials and they said the track was good. Johnny says he does not believe the NHRA would have knowingly sent Johnny and WJ down the track with the conditions not good. He personally felt like the track was not to bad but at the transition he believes that there was moisture in the asphalt. He thinks that they could have dryed the track a little better before sending anyone with the conditions the way they were just to make sure, they may have been in a hurry to get started. At the finish line WJ told Johnny that they should have been running there rain tires for that pass.

Again, Johnny said he would have not ask for a re-run due to the Kurt Johnson incident in Pomona.

 

[chop]

"A message from Johnny Gray"

Johnny never went to the tower to ask for a re-run or would have, so who ever said he did does not what they are talking about.

I'm just repeating what I over heard and if that was bad info,my bad and I don't make this stuff up.

 

[.]

"A message from Johnny Gray"
Johnny says he does not believe the NHRA would have knowingly sent Johnny and WJ down the track with the conditions not good. He personally felt like the track was not to bad

That pretty much negates the title of this thread.

 

[G'ginna]

"A message from Johnny Gray"

Hey Steve, my husband asked if this was the same Johnny Gray that lived in Carlsbad & would drive anything he could get a ride on? (Well over 20 years ago & possibly close to 30 years...)

 

[fizzle]

Now I'm not going to say that the track was wet. It couldn't be proven at this point anyways. But what I can say it that SOMETHING caused the driveshaft RPM to go verticle a little after Johnny plugged it into high gear. At this point it coud have been caused by the bump, the wind or the toothfairy. Maybe we need to pull out 10degrees of timing in high to tame down that Roy Johnson Hemi horsepower...

Maybe a new policy should be implemented that says anytime rain falls on the racetrack the track dryers should be run. Well maybe it is a new policy, it happend several times after round 1 of PS.

It sucks to lose like that, and it also sucks to win like that. I'd rather get out run on a clean pass and lose than win on a pass with some mystery variable thrown into the mix.

Oh well. On to St. Louis where I'm sure we'll have fantastic weather and great racing conditions.

 

[Jenn]

Hey Steve, my husband asked if this was the same Johnny Gray that lived in Carlsbad & would drive anything he could get a ride on? (Well over 20 years ago & possibly close to 30 years...)

One and the same.

 

[You!]

Pretty simple to understand if you look at the runs AFTER they ran the track dryer. Everyone back in the 60's.

This will be my last post on this subject, but some of you make me laugh when you've said here, "it didn't rain hard enough to get the track wet."

So it was a dry rain, kinda like a dry heat in Arizona?!