Pomona, we have a problem..... (1 Viewer)

[Joker]

Justin...I was glad to see A Force do well but to have 4 JFR crewman positioned @ various points on the service road to help her in case she has a problem is a little overboard......and according to Kevin w/ JFR she is instructed to abort if in trouble after half-track.....

Terry I will agree the 4 people positioned down the track is a little overboard. But it doesnt surprise me really. John doesnt want anything to happen to his baby and I understand that. I dont have any inside info on if Ash can or cant but I know what she said, and I also saw the replay where she got back on it and nothing happened. Doesnt really matter to me, either way.

 

[Kelly Andersen]

I don't see a problem...its kind of exciting and thats what drag racing is all about.....Records are cool but I for one love to see two cars up in smoke, sideways, blipping the throttle and getting down there......Lots of excitement and shows the true colors of a driver...Look @ Whit.....he knows how to pedal and took out a veteran dragster first round....same w/ Hight first round....If A Force had been given the green light to pedal she could of caught him but she has been told to abort if the car smokes the tires as JF is afraid of a serious ka-boom......If everyone wants side-by-side low e.t. races its gonna be BORING for some...

You must not have watched the same show we did, she was pedaling but the blower belt was off, you could see the butterflies opening and closing but nothing was happening. Did you here John say he is afraid of a blown engine? She's already been thru that scenario.

 

[Kelly Andersen]

4.40s and a 4.64, I dont think there was anything wrong with the track prep, they should be commended for getting it in shape to handle those numbers with all the rain they had. If knowone else will say it I will. Great job in getting the track ready boy's !!!! you did a hell of a job with what you were dealt sat. p.m - sun. a.m.

 

[Rollout96]

Donie, I was not saying there was a problem with track prep, I am saying there is a problem with the track itself. I think you guys do an awesome job. What I was getting at was that almost every race had a car going to the centerline, that shouldnt be happening. I never recall watching or being at a race where that has happened before and the cars are always set on kill. It was like watching an outlaw 10.5 race almost.

I have a question. Does a track's groove CHANGE? In other words has the right lane always steered people to the center or is it a function of how the rubber has been layed at THIS event? Just curious.

 

[Al smith]

gee dooya think?

Maybe running two races a season has something to do with the narrow groove? You forget the track is closed the rest of the year. As far as pedalfests being exciting, They aint. I would rather see side by side low ets. Unless your into some sort of straight line drifting.

 

[crewcheif gt/aa]

donnie
I strongly disagree you are at the far end and it doesn't require as much prep as the starting line does. We may not be a pro team but we still should be entitled to run on a well prepped track and as the guy who lines up 3 super stock cars on the starting line. To go up there and not even find 1 sticky spot to put my cars on then in my opinion the track is JUNK and unsafe. It was this way all weekend long and on our last pass for the 2 remaing cars we had in ,the first one just spun the tires like crazy and the other went left in the wheelie and almost hit the wall. Therfore unsafeconditions for our combo. Miore attention is put on the pros and we just get crapped upon even though we are the ones that have to pay to be there!!!
just my insight

 

[4g63rwd]

donnie
I strongly disagree you are at the far end and it doesn't require as much prep as the starting line does. We may not be a pro team but we still should be entitled to run on a well prepped track and as the guy who lines up 3 super stock cars on the starting line. To go up there and not even find 1 sticky spot to put my cars on then in my opinion the track is JUNK and unsafe. It was this way all weekend long and on our last pass for the 2 remaing cars we had in ,the first one just spun the tires like crazy and the other went left in the wheelie and almost hit the wall. Therfore unsafeconditions for our combo. Miore attention is put on the pros and we just get crapped upon even though we are the ones that have to pay to be there!!!
just my insight

This is a very good point. When the 4 pro categories are running, I see NHRA employess at various intervals along the track. After almost every pass, they come onto the track and do a quick check of their area of the track. After the pros are done, so too are our track checkers. Maybe this standard can change??? Anyone who watched Comp at Indy (where four pairs of cars had to be re-run after an oildown that no one saw) would agree.

 

[Fueler32]

# 1 ,If there is a problem at the starting line, The starter Rick Stewert takes care of it, We prep the whole track, We spray from the starting line to 100 feet past the finish line, We DO NOT SPRAY BEHIND THE LINE. If the track was not sticky maybe he needed to Do a stronger burnout, Not saying he did not, But thats what Im thinking, I too look forward to the sportsmen classes, I have a ton of friends that run in SS and Stock class.

#2 As for the Personel along the track, Take your glasses off and clean them, They are there, We have guys standing at 330, 600, 1000 and 1320 all day, You may not recignize them as some wear Blue shirts and some wear the NHRA Circus shirts with Powerade on them, I know they are there all day as I ride by them during the day and stop to see if they need anything to drink,.

 

[DG]

I believe that I heard that the "Kone Karnage" was approaching twentyfour by Sunday afternoon!

The Top Alcohol Funny Cars and dragsters got thier limit too!

 

[crewcheif gt/aa]

# 1 ,If there is a problem at the starting line, The starter Rick Stewert takes care of it, We prep the whole track, We spray from the starting line to 100 feet past the finish line, We DO NOT SPRAY BEHIND THE LINE. If the track was not sticky maybe he needed to Do a stronger burnout, Not saying he did not, But thats what Im thinking, I too look forward to the sportsmen classes, I have a ton of friends that run in SS and Stock class.

#2 As for the Personel along the track, Take your glasses off and clean them, They are there, We have guys standing at 330, 600, 1000 and 1320 all day, You may not recignize them as some wear Blue shirts and some wear the NHRA Circus shirts with Powerade on them, I know they are there all day as I ride by them during the day and stop to see if they need anything to drink,.

I may only be a sportsman crewchief but I do know when a burnout has been done properly. The burnout done by my driverS was done correctly. As far as the track prep goes come up and inspect it for yourself. When I walk up to the exact spot that the cars are leaving from and I can literaly SLIDE my foot back and forth after several pairs of cars have gone down does that meen that nobody is doing it right or that the track is at fault? I can go on as the rounds went but that is the past and we move on to the next race and hope it gets better!!!

 

[none]

Actually that is not true. Ashley admitted that she made a mistake by not staying on the loud pedal in her race. She also stated that John had given here the ok to hurt it if neccessary.

jim

In one of Mondays LA newspapers that I was reading on the plane, John did tell her to blow up as much stuff as you need to, in order to win. The crew all told her...."don`t listen to him, you don`t want to find yourself on fire at the first race".

 

[Fueler32]

Ken, Im not trying to piss you off, Just telling you that iftheres a problem, Tell the starter, If your foot slides that easy, Then tell someone . We do the prep from the line to the finish line, Not behind the starting line, We may Scrape the line behind but not that often, Hope to see you in Phx at the National and Div Race, Come by and ask for Donie.

 

[crewcheif gt/aa]

hey Donnie point taken. But when we go up to run they are prepping the track from about 15ft behind starting line to the 60ft mark. That said there are/where some very bald spots there. Brought to Ricks attention and all we get is grief... and ignored most of the time. I understand that the pros run the show but let us little guys have a chance at a good track. We payed for it and the pros don't. I will look you up in Pheonix and maybe we can go up to the line and I can show you what we see so maybe you might have some pull with Rick !!! Or maybe some insight on what we can do to help with the problem. Otherwise the track is well maintained by you saftey guys. Thanks for being there for our drivers

 

[T.Smith]

Doorslammers are the biggest violators of leaving bald spots and when 400 cars are trying to leave the line in the same spot, what do you want the track workers to do?

What to do about it?...try lining up to the left or right of the bald spots? Try the other lane? Adjust the car?

The pro's complain about track prep too, just in case you didn't know.

I had an IHRA track official thank me for not asking "how the track is?".."what's the track like?".."what's wrong with the track?".

 

[crewcheif gt/aa]

Tony the difference between the pros and us is they listen to the pros and give us grief!!

 

[T.Smith]

Tony the difference between the pros and us is they listen to the pros and give us grief!!

Well I must be an "us", because they don't listen to me.

 

[Anthony Forrand]

Maybe we should direct our attention to the new director of top fuel/funny car. Some things were done to the track a couple of weeks before the race that did not make any sense to anyone but him. A couple of people that I really trust, and know a lot about track prep didn't even understand why he did what he did. Kind of hard to explain everything, but lets just say that it involved 40 grit sandpaper and a floor buffer on bare concrete on the lauch pad.

 

[Chuck]

My opinion is, THAT'S RACING, deal with it. The track is not going to be the same in both lanes all of the time. Most of the time, one of the lanes is going to be better than the other, that's why having lane choice is a good thing. That's also why the crewchiefs make the big bucks, to figure out how to get down the track, under less than desirable conditions, and do it the quickest. That's also why the drivers are in the position that they are, ala John Force, Gary Scelzi, Rod Fuller, Greg Anderson, etc., because they have the ability to take care of business as it is handed to them. Let the Bar-B-Queing begin.

 

[headporter]

I thought JR Todds driving was perfect, going anything but straight and not lifting. with him all over the track like that I thought to myself the grove was pretty wide. unless I was not paying attention. ok it was a fluke but man he drove it hard. now if they fix that wing before the front end breaks that would be good.