Exactly When I saw the Scott Kalita Accident I said its a shame that the track is so poorly designed. They simply do not provide enough room to scrub off speed before it deadends.

RIP to Mr Parker and My thoughs and prayers go out to his family.

 

I think part of it is E-town is fighting the town that doesn't want them there. I remember the township becoming tighter and tighter with restrictions with regards to noise and crowds.

In an ideal world, yes, they could pave a road to cross over pension road, and on race days, they could shut down pension road, open up the gates to cross over pension road for a longer shutdown, but I don't know who owns the property across the street, or the legistics to getting that done.

 

Some feedback on YB I got suggests Raceway Park owns the land on the other side of Pension rd. Probably township issue as you say. Same township that will bitch and moan about raised taxes due to lost revenue the track brings in.

 

If it's true that they own the land on the other side, extending the shutdown another 1/4 mile would help considerably in keeping the NHRA (one of their biggest money makers) at E-town. I wouldn't be surprised if the NHRA comes back to E-town and pressures them to make some substantial changes.

It's just sad that two men had to lose their lives because of inadequite shutdown area. What's next, making it an 1/8 mile track only?

 

Check out this invention... "frangible" nets that absorb energy as the vehicle/aircraft progresses.. E-Town/NHRA should seriously look at this:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3876170.pdf

One embodiment of the invention has just two groups of subnets, a major group the vertical members of each of whose subnets are 31/2 m to 6 m apart, and a minor group the vertical members to whose subnets are 1 m to 3 m apart. It is intended that the net will be deployed with the major group upstream of the minor. Preferably all of the top edge members are bunched together by frangible ties which remain intact for normal erection and lowering of the net but which break during enmeshment of an aircraft. The bottom edge members may be similarly bunched together and also attached by frangible ties to the ground.

The net may be slung between stanchions on either side of the runway which support it at such a height above the minimum that when wet the top edge members will still be at or above minimum height. The top and bottom edge members may join one another at the sides of the runway and be connected to energy absorption means such as rotary hydraulic arrester gear etc. The attachment of the net to the stanchions is thus preferably frangible when the net is engaged by an aircraft. This may be realised in a breakaway unit having a frangible member taking the load of the net as a whole and at the same time in frangible links between the breakaway unit and each subnet. The stanchions may be associated with remotely and locally controlled gear to be raised and lowered for deploying and stowing the net.

While each net member may be made of steel wire or natural or man-made fibre rope, a nylon tape has the advantage of minimising damage to the aircraft. Because the net material is likely to degrade with exposure to weather, the net may have a removable redundant sample member whose strength may be tested from time to time.

 

RIP. I was there and saw Scott wreck and die, last year the nets did their job and saved a womans live in the very same accident(her chutes broke after deploying) and now this year. If something isn't going to be done, I doubt we will see any NHRA races there. Then again, the locals who moved in after the track was built have been trying for years to get it shut down.

 

The funny cars have rear brakes. Scott Kalitta was knocked out. He couldn't slow the car down. From the sound of it, this guy may have had a heart attack or something. If he hit the sand trap at full speed, he was either out of it, or there were multiple failures. Chutes, brakes, etc. Might not be the tracks fault, although it should be longer.

 

Your comment regarding Neal possibly suffering a heart attack during his fatal pass may be correct....On the NHRA site, the article listing Neal Parker's obituary, it asks for donations to the American Heart Association...possibly why chutes were never deployed, and maybe he never had the opportunity to brake the car....Regardless, a sad situation for sure. The Alcohol funny cars should be mandated to have the same automatic shut-off and chute deployment safety devices that the Nitro Funny Cars are equipped with.....just my .02 cents...WJ

 

Yep. A session before Scott wrecked Antron Brown had a chute failure where none came out and he was able to stop the car.

 

u kno what would be cool. but prolly not safe. making a tall bridge over the shutdown area for that road and extending the shutdown area. how sick would it be to go over the track lol

 

One of the mid-west tracks, maybe it's Topeka, has the shutdown area extend into a farm as it crosses a road I thought.