PHOTO : JOE MCHUGH |
Al Billes : A lot of cases , I totally separate both of them , in the sense that anything that is safety-related can ’ t be touched as far performance modifications . Safety is first . A lot of the driver cockpit stuff , I think it needs to be even enhanced more . You look at what they do in NASCAR , I think more driver protection is even better . The stuff is working quite well now . You see some of the violent wrecks and the guys aren ’ t beat up too bad , but more cannot hurt .
Cars go fast – you see a lot of guys driving them more aggressive because the class is tougher . You can ’ t just run down the track and put a number on the board , and then you ’ re qualified for the weekend . Every run you ’ ve got to be on it , so the guys are trying harder . Performance-wise , I look at the driver ’ s cockpit and there ’ s not a whole lot I would modify there for performance .
The performance of the cars in these classes continues to improve at an incredible rate . How do you get the safety measures to keep up ?
LB : I think ( SFI ) 25.5 ( firesuit ) should be a minimum . I think a Funny Car hoop is a definite . A fire suppression system , that is a no-brainer . The purpose of a firewall is to keep you separated from the engine compartment in case of a fire . We drill holes , you ’ ve got piping coming through and we all run our wires through there . You need to seal that stuff up . That was a big fault in our part as far as my crash . Steven Fereday at Georgia , he had a pretty nasty fire and fortunately he didn ’ t get hurt , but he said that while he was in there trying to get stopped it was very visible where his weak points were because that ’ s where the fire comes .
As far as the way things are progressing now , when I started running X275 , it was a high 5.00s-low 5.10s class and now they ’ re running 4.30s , which is absurd . Eight years ago , we were running 5.00s and then the next year we were 4.90s and 4.80s , and the class left me . It ’ s just crazy how fast the class has taken off . Radial vs .
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the World is some of the most outrageous progression I ’ ve seen . I remember thinking there ’ s no way they ’ re going in the 3s and now we ’ re knocking on 3.60s . Unless you ’ re on top of that or building a new car every couple years , there ’ s
DRIVER ’ S ED Billes has repeatedly witness doorslammer wheelmen overdriving their cars , leading him to believe one of the next big steps towards improving safety should be better training drivers to lift when a run isn ’ t worth saving .
no way you can keep up with your chassis and car safety as fast as the car progresses . It would be really hard without a big-time budget to keep up progression-wise . The cars can go fast and not be safe , but in order to keep those two together
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it would be tough ( financially ). I think my crash definitely opened a lot of eyes . They ’ re fairly safe , but I think it would be tough to keep up .
AB : Most of the stuff doesn ’ t really involve safety , save for modifying supercharger components or engine stuff . I guess inherently you ’ re saying you don ’ t want to modify a part and it break . But at the end of the day you just don ’ t want it to break regardless because of the expense aspect of it , so they kind of mix together . As soon as you talk safety and performance together , it ’ s difficult .
Drag racing has always been home to forward-thinking individuals when it comes to car performance . Do you feel like that aspect is in a good place while still maintaining a focus on safety ?
AB : I think that it ’ s not bad right now . I think one of the biggest things to move safety ahead is driver training . I don ’ t know how you control that or manage that , though , but that ’ s huge . At the PDRA race ( at Darlington ) I watched guys drive across the centerline into the next lane , and it ’ s like , ‘ What on Earth are you guys doing ? That wasn ’ t a sudden move .’ I think of the slow improvements with the guys with traction are making and all the head protection and all the body stuff , I think that stuff needs to evolve a little bit . But I think there ’ s just a whole aspect of the mentality of the racer . I watched one guy leave the starting line in the left lane and he drives across , slowly , slowly and then he ’ s three feet from the centerline , where you ’ re really out of the groove , and the car made a sharp turn into the right lane . He was fortunate that nobody was beside him .
To me that seems to be the biggest and hardest thing to get at . How many races do you watch and wonder why on Earth did that guy not lift ? It ’ s a tough call when you ’ re in the car because so often it feels fine , feels fine , feels fine and all of a sudden you ’ re turned into the wall . That , I think , is simply the biggest area ; somehow teach the drivers and change the mentality of when to
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May 2017 |
DragIllustrated . com | Drag Illustrated | 95 |