crazes

This year there has been a large jump in the accidents that have occurred in import racing as a whole. We have lost 2 cars from the Prayoonto Camp, 1 from 4130 performance shop, 1 from TAE team and 1 from the Belek industries Team, 4 piston Pro stock carwith possible others. I do understand that accidents are something we face when it comes to drag racing, but is there something that we should accomplish as a community to help better these situations from occurring in the future?

The TAE crash was unfortunately seems to be from oil on the track from a previous engine loss before him and the track not checking it with a few other factors being involved. Of course we know what occurred with the 4130 and Tial accident. I don't know the details of the supertech car or the belek car, 4piston unknown.

So these are some of my questions.

1) Do we need to look at the large forward bias of these cars and even it out more?

2) Does rear skinnies actually make such a large rolling resistance compared to regular size light wheels? (weight is not an issue with the amount these cars are either cut and weight is redistributed around)

3) Push to have the track checked after someone blows their engine or transmission when they run?

These are just simple things that I thought about. If you have any suggestions or other situations that should be brought to the forefront lets discuss it.

Pro-SeriesFab

It's part of drag racing . . . you have to be on the edge to win.

RWD pro stock cars are setup the same way just opposite, loose is fast.

doood

iTrader: (1)

Don't forget the 4piston rsx

tasco

I don't see how having a front to rear weight bias rule would hurt competition. Maybe even make it a little closer? I have seen pics of cars rear wheels coming off the ground without the chute being pulled.

ATYPR

None of these cars seem to have aany droop in the rear suspension. I saw one of the big teams move the rear over on a car by bouncing it on the tire only.

SPOOLINmatt

I know i stay at no greater than 70/30 but im considering a marginal reduction at 65/35. I havnt had an issue yet involving it but the more i take notice the more i feel it isn't worth it.

4piston

I crashed because of an incomplete weld on the rear panhard bar. It was tacked and not finish welded by whoever did it, and when I hit the bump up top it broke off and rear steered the car head on into the wall. I was still under acceleration. The good news is the car is a total loss so at least I get to start fresh with someone I trust to finish the job.

There are SFWD cars that have a lot of front bias and you can drive them with 2 fingers, and others that have to be muscled to get them down the track. You can see some of them unloading and wiggling everywhere just on gear changes.

180-190mph...there are a lot of factors. Pro stock cars crashed at those speeds and still crash with all the data and technology today. Chute mounts, the wind catching the chute, fluid on the track, the driver making a mistake, or bumps getting the car unloaded in a funny way, tires failing, tires rubbing on the fenders, etc. Cars are going to crash at those kinds of speeds and its going to be a learning curve. There are so many different guys building these chassis and setting them up....most of the time its guys who build other stuff and are just doing a fwd for the first time, or maybe have only done a few. No one has really been doing these cars long enough to know exactly what to do and anyone that has figured it out isn't out teaching everyone how to do it.

At speeds like this, people are gonna crash. Just my $.02

crazes

I agree that cars will crash because of a different circumstances, but a few of them could have possibly been avoided if proper checks and installation were done on these cars. Others were track issues that caused these problems. While I agree that we can't stop all of them we should try and look at preventing some of them if possible. I know MIR is always somewhere that these issues with the bias being shown comes up at the end of the track.

Twenty47

whats funny with using this pic is that this particular car had very little weight ballast up front.

Rtype16

From our ProFWD days before we ran we walked the entire length of the track. Looking for oil, bolts, whatever we could find on the track. Of course now days they may not let you do this, but back then it was common practice. All the teams before the racing began would walk both lanes of the track. It took a while but we knew what was on the track and what wasn't. If we found a problem we informed the track and they came out and fixed it. If someone had a problem we would walk the track again or at least with the golf cart to make sure it was cleaned properly and ready to race.

On another note chute placement is a huge role. Too high or too low can upset the car. And pull the chute. Don't touch the brakes until the chute is fully deployed. In cars where the rear end can bounce off the ground just from lifting off the throttle pull the chute under partial power and then ease off. Unloading the car and hitting the brakes is a sure way to get the rear end to come up.

Bently_Coop

Here is a Speedfactory close call that was just uploaded.

4piston

If you go stand at the top of the track where the cars are letting off the gas, half of them have the front tires digging into the fenders and smoking. Walking through the pits you could see on peoples tires where they were rubbing the fenders.

AZ_CIVIC

iTrader: (1)

This happened to me two years ago, I was on stock brakes on all 4 running skinny's. At the top of the track I hit the brakes a little to hard locking the rears just a tiny bit. The front end went down making contact with my stock fenders. I ended up doing a 180 and was lucky not to hit the wall. As soon as I got home I bought an Exospeed Front End and raised the car a little. I also run my rear brakes directly to my staging brake and for the front switched to manual brakes.

My fenders dug into the slicks and I was lucky that they didn't blow up. I do see so many other cars out there running stock front ends with tires centimeters away from fenders.

SPOOLINmatt

I'd say the worst one for the books in 2015 and probably ever in "SFWD" was the La Violenta (I think thats right) car at 2015 WCF. That was nuts!

The accident would have never been as bad if they didn't have that stupid opening in the guard wall so close to the finish line for people who break.

crazes

The car never actually hit that opening barrier, it hit the one after. I do agree they should have it closed because it could have been worse if it went through that opening into the stands.

NWDyno

I see this every friday night I go out to my local track....I am just standing there waiting for something bad to happen. FWD and weight bias is a lose-lose situation.

SPOOLINmatt

It happened right in front of our pit. He hit the "right" side of the opening first and deflected the K Rail and then that deflected him right in to the end of the wall on the "left" side of the opening which launched his passenger front corner and caused the flip. Had he been 2 to 3 ft to the right on the deflection his car probably would have ended up in the pits!

One of those accidents that makes you go back and CHECK ALL OF YOUR STUFF! there were photographers and maybe another camera down there that no one has seen footage from yet i don't believe.

itsukivr6

I'd say that Dave (Crazes) had the best possible view
<div id="fb-root"></div>(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1046486872062998&amp;set=a.10464828 02063405.1073741904.100001050865696&amp;type=3" data-width="500"><div class="fb-xfbml-parse-ignore"><blockquote cite="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1046486872062998&amp;set=a.10464828 02063405.1073741904.100001050865696&amp;type=3">Po sted by <a href="#" role="button">Mark Tinari</a> on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1046486872062998&amp;set=a.10464828 02063405.1073741904.100001050865696&amp;type=3">Tu esday, November 10, 2015</a></blockquote></div></div>

Also same exact thing happened to same exact team / driver last year, 100% identical popped a motor/HG fluid on tires and into the wall, and flip / ride the jersey barrier

SPOOLINmatt

I don't know who dave is but thats we were as well. Does anyone have video from that end possibly?

itsukivr6

Dave is Crazes like i said in previous post, which is the person who you quoted, who was sitting on the back of the TGR truck right next to the wall in the picture.

No video there was 3 photographers, the 2 that almost got hit and 1 on the other side, furthest down track was the GRS same side view. they only allow select media past half track for that reason.

Best view would be if the release the gopro footage from the car, other then that nothing gonna get any better.

crazes

Like Tim said I was actually right there and the car came directly at our team. If you look at the individuals on the truck that's our team. Specifically I am the one sitting at the edge of the bed closest to the fence. Plus if you look closely at that picture, you can see the 2nd barrier is cracked. The first barrier right after the opening is actually pushed away. If you look at the GRS video that is showing down the track, you can see the camera crew that it missed. What actually is so fortunate, was those camera members were actually standing at that barrier. They moved up the track before the opening. If they had not, who knows what could have occurred.

I tried to take a screen shot of the video, but I am having issues doing it. If you look at exactly 1:41 you can see he hits the barrels right pass the last barrier of the opening and slams directly into the second barrier pass the opening. The reason the car went into the air was the angle he was approaching the barrier at. That's what caused him to be airborne and the flip.

SPOOLINmatt

many people have said that using those K Rails is no better than the metal guard rails. Both types are Slingshots compared to a blunt concrete wall that most places have.

crazes

I completely agree with that, nothing can change from a solid piece of concrete.

SPOOLINmatt

this video at around 56 seconds clearly shows the blunt impact to the END of the krail on the left side of the opening, and it breaks the corner off of that krail. Found this today.