What the Heck...
- Thread starter Track-T
- Start date
Driving those cars takes big ones (or a screw loose). 
Ron,
75-80 closed in 2005 but appears to be back in business:
Old 75-80 Dragway reopening Frederick Maryland Online
Page Title
Are you from this area?
Bruce
Ron,
75-80 closed in 2005 but appears to be back in business:
Old 75-80 Dragway reopening Frederick Maryland Online
Page Title
Are you from this area?
Bruce
FastEddie59
New Member
After having watched this a few times almost if not all of these were driver error. Go back and watch how many pulled the chute late, braked too late and got on the binders too hard and started braking bounce and the idiot on the bike just didn't have enough brakes. I'll agree that it needs more shut down area, did you notice that these cars were running over 180 mph and some close to 200 mph? The ones that rolled was avoidable if they had kept control and drove off into the field, yeah it would have tore their car up , but it would not have been as nearly as bad as what the roll over did to them. Most of these tracks were built when a FAST car ran maybe 125 mph. A lot of it too is people who have never driven a race car in their life and have been fortunate enough to have a lot of money and buy or build a car like these and don't have a clue how to drive it. Some people never learn.
Mike
Well-Known Member
I suspect most of that was down the the drivers' being unfamiliar with the 1/8 mile. Our last Weddle chassis was lost at Ohio Valley Raceway because of that very thing. It could be tough to not run off the track on a good pass and the driver simply forgot where he was. He lifted at the scoreboards, which were at 1,000'.
I've seen some of the really amazing physiological research that has been compiled by people like Frank Hawley and Lee Beard. It's dumbing it down a lot, but when you hear a driver get out of the car at the far end and he knows he's run faster than before, he's generally right. Because of the brain's incredible ability to remember, track and channel information, a driver with enough seat time can recognize very minute differences without being aware of it. About the only time Brian was not able to accurately tell me an elapsed time within .005 to .006, before seeing the time slip, was when the car had picked up and had run faster than it ever had.
When you understand that it takes the average human .300 to .400 second to blink an eye and then look at how much ground a really fast race car can cover in that same time, things get pretty amazing. How many races have you seen where the spread between the number one qualifier and the number 16 qualifier is less than .100 second?
The problem arises when you take even the most experienced driver, with hundreds of 1/4 mile passes and put him on a dangerously-short 1/8 mile track. Too much driver experience can be the cause of a real problem.
I've seen some of the really amazing physiological research that has been compiled by people like Frank Hawley and Lee Beard. It's dumbing it down a lot, but when you hear a driver get out of the car at the far end and he knows he's run faster than before, he's generally right. Because of the brain's incredible ability to remember, track and channel information, a driver with enough seat time can recognize very minute differences without being aware of it. About the only time Brian was not able to accurately tell me an elapsed time within .005 to .006, before seeing the time slip, was when the car had picked up and had run faster than it ever had.
When you understand that it takes the average human .300 to .400 second to blink an eye and then look at how much ground a really fast race car can cover in that same time, things get pretty amazing. How many races have you seen where the spread between the number one qualifier and the number 16 qualifier is less than .100 second?
The problem arises when you take even the most experienced driver, with hundreds of 1/4 mile passes and put him on a dangerously-short 1/8 mile track. Too much driver experience can be the cause of a real problem.
