Originally Posted by tporter
That's one. Take the case of Englishtown where the Kalitta wreck happened. There is a highway on the other side of the wall. If you add to the sand trap by shortening the shutdown area, how is that going to help? If you shorten the length of the race as is being done now, how many tracks besides Gateway are going to expend the funds to accommodate one race? Construction costs are out of sight now, and most tracks cannot afford the expense. It's tough enough to fill the stands now, and raising ticket prices so the fans can see a shorter race is not a good soution, IMO. Most spectators I have questioned want to see a 1/4 race, not half a race...
If you look at it as the total shut down area from the finish line to the catch net, we are not shortening the total shut down area. We are extending the trap so cars have more of that area to get them stopped.
We cannot extend our shut down any farther. Just past our net is a levee and a canal.
And as far as tracks can't afford it doesn't really matter to NHRA. Just like a few years age when NASCAR mandated safer barriers on ovals. Everybody had a deadline that they had to be installed.
Whatever regulations they come up with will only apply to national event tracks. I'm sure that the tracks make a ton of money on that "one race".