Another NHRA driver killed....SEATTLE

My sincere condolances to the Niver family, and his crew. Mark was a top notch individual, as a machinist and a racer, and one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet. The A/fuel field now has a giant hole in it. Godspeed Mark.

 

Don't forget:
Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Neal Parker was killed June 11 2010
at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park at Englishtown, N.J.


Those "safety nets" have got to be changed.
The technology exists, to slow the cars safely, and NHRA knows about it.

 

there was a youtube video yesterday but it got removed, its all very sad,

here another video from Fox

http://multimedia.foxsports.com/m/video/32551409/tragedy-strikes-the-nhra.htm?seek=3.84

 

i would like to see a foam barrier on the end of the track not sand and a damn net

 

That isn't related in the least to his accident. The pro stock thing was handling past the 1000 ft mark where NHRA stopped putting traction compound down.

His accident happened because his chute didn't deploy. Then the car folded when it hit the safety net.

Sad loss of a great guy who had been racing for a long time.

 

thats a really good idea, we already have the technology to do this, but it would cost MONEY which the NHRA won't spend. the nets could be slowed down using something simple like water in a cyl. There's a reason the hook on a carrier has give. If you've ever seen early carrier experiments, they had planes fold up like this wreck, at the speeds they are moving, a sudden stop is a pretty bad idea. what about something as simple as concrete blocks on rails with cables for the nets? they will move, but it will absorb a lot of force before they do, and no sudden stop

 

does the NHRA test these systems?, do they run a car doing 200MPH into them to see where the failure ponts might be?, i bet not, a series of nets designed to fail would make more sence, you wouldn't think the cost would be a factor, if the chutes didnt fail the outcome would have been different.

 

When I raced Top alcohol (TAD) several years ago you could run a non blown nitro engine in the alcohol class. I have not kept up with the sport as of late but I assume this is still allowable. Anybody know the facts? BTW 5.5 sec 250+ mph 1/4 mile is fast. Godspeed Mark Niver.

 

Sadly it's going to take the death of a drag racing superstar for the NHRA to wake up and take preventive actions much like NASCAR did after the death of Dale Earnhardt.

A lot of drivers were killed in racing accidents that could have been prevented,,,Smoky Yunick pushed NASCAR for years but they wouldn't budge because of the cost factor,,,but after Earnhardts death they got on board with the safer barriers,,,I do hope NHRA follows in making the drag racing sport as safe as possible for ALL the drivers. HRP

 

By NITRO car I was refering to the AA classes and his mighta been since it was injected not blown and the speed I refering to was going into the trap if you go on utube someone just reposted it,NHRA keeps blocking it..........I bet he went into the sand at under 100mph,Im not saying it was not a fast class 5.5 is damn fast (hell fuel cars were lucky to run that when I was crewing) but watching this it seem to be a couple of things going wrong all at once.........NHRA wont even try to inprove the saftey until there is RACERS running the company,and the dog food execs are gone.

 

Really sad story, prayers go out to the family left behind. NHRA is in some bad shape, it's idiotic to not spray the entire track when all the pro Stock class wants is a little safer surface to run on. Whoever is running the show at the NHRA either needs to get shitcanned or get some help in there that can right the ship.

 

IMO, doing away with traction compounds would be a step in the right direction...

 

I just watched the video. His 'chutes came off the car when they were deployed. Looks like he went into the sand at a low speed. The net folded the car.

 

Very sad news. I have seen the video and three questions need answering. Why did the chutes leave the car? Why didn't he hard brake the car? Why didn't the nets have more give? I suspect NHRA will put the alcohol class cars on the 1000 foot track also. Seattle does not have a short slowdown area and it is uphill.

 

Raven,the fact is, many tracks DON'T HAVE ROOM to make the shutdown area longer. O'Reily Raceway Park (Indianapolis Raceway Park to us stubborn old farts) is a good example. This is one of NHRA's premier tracks. Years ago they moved the starting line back to give more shut down area but thats all there is available. At the top end of the strip there is a MAJOR railroad mainline that crosses at the end of the property at a 90 degree angle. NOBODY is going to move that! Not NHRA, not the state, not the railroad, nobody. When the facilty was built in 1959 nobody in their wildest dreams, would have guessed they'd be going well over 300 MPH and need so much real estate to get stopped. Lots of tracks have simular problems. Unless you'd rather see tracks closed and abandoned, something to slow the top speed is inevitable and likely the only thing that will save drag racing. Frankly, I don't care much for racing so fast, that if you sneeze as the green comes on, the chutes will be out by the time you get your eyes back open and focused. But thats the product they have.
Personaly, I'd rather see the pro catagories go away and return racing to the fuel altereds, gassers, and modified production classes for the sportsman racers. Of course, that will never happen, but personal delusion is a powerful thing.

 

if the NHRA refuses to address the safety issues as pointed out by the pro stock guys, maybe its time to consider forming a new sanctioning body. Granted, it may not have made a difference in nivers crash but knowing full well the pro stock guys feel its an easy fix to prep out to 1320, why wouldnt they? Hell glue the fuckin parking lot! Its not that expensive. Whatever the pigheaded bureaucrats excuse, its just that, an excuse and a piss poor 1 at that. That bein said, mark was movin and with any luck, he'll beat the devil to heaven by at least a car length. R.I.P. mark

 

Then it's time to close them and move to better locations.

That's what I was thinking.

 

I watched the accident on ESPN, it really was a low speed crash into the nets, its a terrible loss to racing.

My condolences to the Niver family.

 

GOD SPEED, our prayers and deepest condolences to the family

 

I was talking with Terry McMillin last week and this discussion came up. He said NHRA is looking at smaller blower inlets, less air means less HP, but then its only a matter of time before the crew chiefs figure out how to make the cars as fast as they once were. He also said that they are actually going quicker now at 1000ft. then they were before the change.

The answer is to remove one of the MAG's, and reduce the fuel pumps. That would slow the cars down. Now it won't help if the parachutes won't stay on the car, that was just a freak accident.

Personally I feel that the corperate dollars need to leave, lets get back to how it was, a bunch of guys get together and build a car and go racing. No more multi car teams. Reduce the blowers to 6-71's make the funny cars look like the car they are suppose to be, not some super slick areodynamic wedge.

As far as the tracks go, if they are too short to handle todays cars they need to be taken off the circut. I don't think they need to be shut down because most local racers need someplace to go and usually don't go that fast. For everyone they take off the schedule a new one will be built if given the chance. Right now the schedule is so packed if someone builds a new state of the art facality it couldn't be added without removing another venue. So lets start building new tracks and remove the older outdated ones.

I'm sick of the NHRA trying to be like NASCAR with their points race and all. Time to start watching the ADRL..........

 

Slowing the blowers down would be a simple way to slow the cars.
A 1:1 ratio would be easy to enforce, probably need a static compression rule as well.

But that doesn't cost enough money.

 

Terrible. That is the only thing to say. Been there and it is part of the game. I will add this. Why is it that IHRA does not seem to have these types of issues? I do know one thing that the fuel cars go through a hell of a lot less parts than the NHRA guys. The sport lost another gentleman.
Steve Glucoft
Amocat Speed Emp.

 

Mark went 5.36 @ 270 on that run, running an injected nitro entry, or "A/Fuel Dragster". Smaller fuel pumps on the nitro cars is the best answer to slow them up, but, this accident just proves that there needs to be a better answer to the net design they have. Slowing Top Fuel cars to even running 5.3's won't solve the problem.

 

Here is a nice article that i found about Mark. Pardon if it has already been posted...

http://www.competitionplus.com/inde...s/14874-tad-racer-mark-nivers-fatally-injured

 

Pacific Raceways has one of the longest shut down areas around. I've seen a number of top fuel and alchohol cars make the end safely with chute problems. Maybe it's net design or a car issue, but we should wait for the investigation to be sure.

 

I've raced @ S.I.R. many times and the shut down area is plenty long enough. You DO NOT want to "hard brake" (your words) the car will start bouncing on the tires and you lose more control. My question is why the loss of chutes and why did the front end fold up like a cheap lawn chair?
I'm just really sad that Mark went out that way, I've experienced 2 chute failures in the past...the feeling is indescribable.

 

My condolences to the Niver family, he was a real racer, built his own stuff just like in the old days.

We have probably lost more drag racers in the shutdown area than for any other reason, goes back to Santa Ana, San Fernando, Half Moon Bay, etc...first chutes, and then safety nets, but the nets have their limits too: Denny Milani died trying to drive around the net at Half Moon Bay, and the net at Columbus almost killed Doug Kerhulas and Jeg Coughlin (I saw that one), and others have died in them as well. My suggestion: get rid of the nets, then put foam barriers at the end...and ultimately NHRA has to get away from the shorter tracks like Englishtown (2 fatalities in 2 years is enough)...that was, as I understood it, one of the reasons why NHRA left Columbus (though the Rader family was apparently the other)...I know that Pacific Raceways is longer than most, but at least the net should go.

 

My condolences to the Niver family, he was a real racer, built his own stuff just like in the old days.

We have probably lost more drag racers in the shutdown area than for any other reason, goes back to Santa Ana, San Fernando, Half Moon Bay, etc...first chutes, and then safety nets, but the nets have their limits too: Denny Milani died trying to drive around the net at Half Moon Bay, and the net at Columbus almost killed Doug Kerhulas and Jeg Coughlin (I saw that one), and others have died in them as well. My suggestion: get rid of the nets, then put foam barriers at the end...and ultimately NHRA has to get away from the shorter tracks like Englishtown (2 fatalities in 2 years is enough)...that was, as I understood it, one of the reasons why NHRA left Columbus (though the Rader family was apparently the other)...I know that Pacific Raceways is longer than most, but at least the net should go.

 

Very true, the shut down area a SIR is nice and long. Have helped out on some front engine cars there in the past, always nice to have the extra room. Prayers for family and friend's, John

 

Very sad indeed. My condolences to his family and friends.