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Why there are safety rules at the track


wagner

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Two perfect examples of why safety rules are in place at the track. I know it sucks to not be able to run your car all out, HOWEVER if something does go wrong that roll bar/cage, helmet, or neck collar will save your ass.

 

I saw this one in person and it has to be the scariest thing I've seen at the track.

http://www.dragzine.com/news/video-dewayne-mills-takes-flight-at-lights-out/

 

Flat out, this mother fucker is lucky to be alive. I've never been a fan of having a freaking catch fence that close to the guard rail at a drag strip...

http://www.dragzine.com/news/video-ekanoos-khalid-mohammed-uninjured-in-terrifying-crash/

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Pardon my ignorance if this is obvious, but is there a disadvantage to running a wheelie bar on a car this fast? Seems like it should be a 'safety' standard as well, once you get to a certain HP/weight ratio on a RWD car......

 

No wheelie bars are supposed to be a way to "limit" how much power can be put down, but as you can see there is a slight drawback to not having them on a car...

 

Wheelie bars are looked at as "sissy sticks" by some because they are a way to cheat.

 

On the flip side, when a set of wheelie bars break the outcome is 100 times worse than this. I've seen them break and send a car shooting across the track with zero warning.

 

Long story short, sometimes you need to know when to lift if you don't have wheelie bars, sometimes you are just screwed no matter what.

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IMO anyone who calls them sissy sticks needs to earn that right by tumbling down the track and over a catch fence first.

 

The idea behind taking away wheelie bars is to level the playing field so people can just throw everything they got into a tuneup and drive the thing like a pulling tractor on the back tire.

 

I saw 2 cars end up in the wall this weekend because they went on the bumper or did not know when to lift.

 

Ask Ray about when the car carries the wheels out past the 60 foot cone. The first thing we do after that shit is tighten the front end or add weight.

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Great example of idiots on wheelie bars was in the Outlaw 632 class this weekend.

 

Dude put the car on the wheelie bars (that were not set up right) drove the wheelie out to the point that all 4 wheels came off the ground, caused a MASSIVE nitrous backfire that caused the car to look like Truck-a-saurus sending sparks, fire, smoke, and hood parts everywhere.

 

Wheelie bars help, but like anything stupid finds away...

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Stupid ALWAYS finds a way......thanks for the explanation..

 

No problem. Wheelie bars work great for some classes but not for radial tires, and its part of the outlaw mentality of the classes.

 

I've seen Bill Lutz run his car the full length of the track on the wheelie bars without issue and no fucks given.

 

I've also seen guys who don't know how to set up a car hit the wheelie bars and send the car into the christmas tree...

 

For big tire cars on slicks wheelie bars are a chassis/clutch tuning tool that help the car out big time. If you watch the really fast cars they have a crew guy behind the car that checks the height before each pass and sets the bars.

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