Challenging track conditions for NHRA PS

As a rule of thumb, I try not to favor one sport or topic, but what happened in NHRA on Sunday merits extra attention. Unlike the two nitro categories, the pro stock (PS) class cars reach 200 mph in the top end with very little down force. Consequently, if the track lacks the normal traction, meaning not enough traction compound has been sprayed onto the track, the car will skate around considerably. In the past, ex-champions have complained to the race officials about this, but to no avail. That is until last Sunday.

At the zMAX race in Charlotte, NC, PS driver Larry Morgan said he had the steering wheel turned a quarter turn in his first round race. Morgan, a veteran driver of 20 years, said he's never made this much of a drastic turn in his PS racing career.

Furthermore, this years' hottest driver Erica Enders, with three event wins in 2012, admitted she threw in the towel early on what could have been a winning round run because she felt the car do the same as when she crashed in testing a couple of years back.

"Nine times out of ten, it straightens up", explained Enders. "It's hard to say but I will tell you that's the loosest I've been in a race car in eight years."

Unfortunately, things only got worse once the second round eliminations got underway. Second generation PS driver, Shane Gray got the ride of his life when he lost traction in the top end, the same problem area.

Below, I have posted the pictures of the most spectacular PS crash I have ever seen. These pictures are courtesy of professional sports photographer Mark Rebilas, who acknowledged: "...the car flying through the air on fire is most likely a pro stock crash shot I will never top for the rest of my career."

Luckily, the driver walked away uninjured. NHRA usually doesn't share crash footage on YouTube, but this time they did. Below you can see NHRA's footage of the crash.



Larry Morgan, one of the drivers who had spoken out regarding track prep in years past, believed that this time around, the traction compound wouldn't adhere to the track. "[when] you have moisture in between [the track surface] and there's nothing you can do," explained Morgan.

Let's hope that going forward, both event as track officials are going to pay more attention to the top end traction situation for the PS class. Hopefully, we won't have to witness such a terrible crash again.

Thanks for reading.

Source: Competition Plus
Video Credit: NHRA
Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas

The zMAX Dragway

Back on October 17, 2011, I wrote a blog on "TV Tommy" Ivo, who brilliantly thought if two is good, then four must be much better and built himself back in 1961 a four-engined dragster. zMAX Dragway must have been created using the same vision...I think.

The zMAX Dragway is a state-of-the-art quarter mile drag strip, the only one of its kind with four lanes, instead of the customary two, and is the only all-concrete drag strip as well in the U.S.

Tomorrow starts one of the greatest spectacles in drag racing, the so-called Four-Wide Nationals, at the Bellagio of dragstrips. Lucky fans will get to see the fastest accelerating machines on the planet release a 30.000 horsepower assault on zMAX dragway. That's almost more than the entire starting grid of the Daytona 500!

Antron Brown, driver of the Matco Top Fuel dragster explained this event best.

"When you say 'a spectacle,' you're talking about 30.000 horsepower. Raw, ground-pounding, asphalt-ripping horsepower, and we are going to get it done all in one shot. When you hear that thing hit, you're hearing this percussion going, and everybody thinks it's a category 4 earthquake, and it's nothing but our Top Fuel and Funny Cars ripping up that concrete at zMAX Dragway."

Last year's winner, Jack Beckman, explained how he feels to be behind the starting line during the event.

"When we roll up to the starting line, when it's two-wide and the pair in front of us step on the trottle, it's pretty impressive, and I didn't think anything could top that. When you roll up there four-wide and the ones in front of you step on the trottle, our bodies are held up by these big metal poles; I swear it seems like that thing is going to snap in half and the body is going to fall down."

And it is not easy racing here. Tony Schumacher's second-round loss last year stands as a cautionary tale for why Four-Wide isn't so beloved by those in the cockpit.

"I didn't know what the car in the left and right lanes were doing, so I kept pedaling it, blew up, oiled the track down and lost 10 point,"recounted Schumacher. "[The format] forces me to do that. I'm glad it's not in the Countdown, but it's something different. I've got a lot of trophies on the shelf, and I don't have a Four-Wide yet. I want one."

For more information, please click here.

Thanks for reading.

Source: NHRA, Drag Illustrated