Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: NHRA moving quickly to increase safety measures

Thursday, July 15, 2004 | 9:41 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

In the wake of Top Fuel driver Darrell Russell's death in an accident last month at Gateway International Raceway, NHRA officials have mandated several safety changes that will go into effect at this weekend's Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway near Denver.

In the days following Russell's death, NHRA specified a new Goodyear tire for Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars and additional shielding on the roll cages of all Top Fuel dragsters. According to the St. Louis medical examiner, Russell died of a head injury when a piece of his dragster struck him after the car broke apart.

Also beginning this weekend, NHRA has mandated that the minimum tire pressure, as recommended by Goodyear, for rear tires will be 7 pounds per square inch for Top Fuel and 6.5 PSI for Funny Car.

Beginning at next week's national event at Pacific Raceways near Seattle, the maximum percentage of nitromethane/methanol mixture used in the Top Fuel and Funny Car categories will be reduced from 90 percent to 85 percent.

And more changes could be coming, NHRA senior vice president Graham Light said.

"NHRA always will be committed to refining our unique style of racing to improve the quality of our show for our loyal fan base and improve the safety of the participants," Light said in a prepared statement. NHRA officials also announced the formation of a task force to "evaluate and recommend short-term and long-term performance parameters for the Top Fuel and Funny Car categories" and said that "other possible changes are expected in the near future."

The new tire in use this weekend -- the first NHRA event since Russell's death on June 27 -- could make things interesting for teams, Funny Car driver Whit Bazemore said.

"The situation going into Denver is a little different now than normal because of the new rules that have been implemented by NHRA," Bazemore said. "We're going to have a different tire supplied by Goodyear that we're mandated to run, so there's a little bit of a question mark as to how that tire's going to react and what we're going to have to do to make the car competitive.

"The good thing is that everybody is in the same situation. It may take a run or two before we get a handle on it. Sometimes in those situations, it's a crapshoot and you can get lucky and some people figure it out before others."

Gary Scelzi, Bazemore's Don Schumacher Racing teammate, agreed.

"My big concern right now is this new Goodyear tire and how big of a curveball it's going to throw our tuneup," he said. "The only thing I feel positive about is that we've had three different tires this year and we've been able to make each one work in a relatively short amount of time.

"I'm hoping the same will hold true for this new tire."

IN THE SWING: This weekend's Mile-High Nationals begins NHRA's traditional "Western Swing" -- three races on three consecutive weekends in Colorado, Washington and Northern California.

Last year, Top Fueler Larry Dixon became the fourth driver to win all three races in one season, joining Joe Amato, Cory McClenathan and John Force.

LEADING THE PACK: John Force, who advanced to the Funny Car final at Gateway before losing to Gary Scelzi, grabbed the Funny Car points lead for the first time this season. It's the first time Force has led the Funny Car standings since the 2002 season finale.