That was my point Alan,although the impression I get from the reports is that the violence and intensity of the vibration was unlike anything experienced before this.From what I understand,the only thing that could have stopped the vibration was to physically stop the car,which we all now is a little difficult at 250+ mph.

BTW...what's the weather like down in Houston Alan?

Cloudy and clearing, but it is really, REALLY wet out there.

Alan

The whole thing is tragic and doesn't make any sense to me. I figure there was about 2,500 Funny Car runs in NHRA competition last year and not once single instance to compare this to. Since it was testing is it possible that they could of been trying a new setup or even new parts? We can speculate all we want but until the team and the experts come up with an answer we can only hope it doesn't happen again. NHRA teams are always pushing things to the edge and sometime a freak thing happens and we lose someone.

I am trying to understand this the best I could. These are just some thoughts I had on this recently.

From what was stated in this thread and on ESPN, there was a harmonic vibration never felt before that was possibly caused by a tire losing concentricity. If this is true, is this still ultimately a tire issue? Not a chunking issue like in the past but something new?

Also was the chassis the same one that Eric was driving on Sunday during eliminations? I believe it hit the wall then. Could that have weakened a weld or did something to the balance or something to have led to this vibration?

Thanks.

Alan,

Yes, when I lifted it stopped immediately. You have to figure, I had driven through tire shake before, and it sucks, but it's manageable. This incident however, started like all other shake, I tried to drive through it a little, but it got really bad, really fast. There were people on the starting line that could see my car shake, and they had never seen anything like that. Like I said, in my case it was just a screwed up clutch setup.

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Greg,

I understand exactly what you are saying. I have seen enough of it from the outside to know that I don't want to try it from the inside.

But imagine that same harmonic starting at speed, just passed half track, and it just won't stop.

Alan

Alan,
Thank you, as always... Over the last 2 weeks, I know it's been hard for you not to just say, "shut the 'heck' up, your wrong, that ain't what happened, and when JFR really knows, THEY WILL RELEASE THAT INFORMATION IN A TRANSPARENT WAY THAT LETS EVERYONE KNOW AND WHAT MIGHT PREVENT THIS FROM HAPPENING AGAIN... GIVE THEM TIME, PLEASE"

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Hey Alan , I would suggest you also name your sources then too. Some of us that have been burning Nitro for more than 30 years know people, and things that can't be presented in an open forum. Reporters have gone to jail for not reveling informants that are in sensitive positions .

The newspapers are not the "truth papers" , in the legal game we use the saying "consider the source". For me saying "trust me" is the same as saying " It was reported".
You are a valued source on this site ,please just take out a couple of percent before you put the rods out.

Jerry,

I did reveal my sources when this all started,

Medlen Info

I'm not on the chip or even near it now. If my typing is coming across that way, then I'm sorry, it's not intended to. I'm all for discussion, and that's what I thought we were doing this morning, I'm not upset with anyone here. I'm just trying to share what I can without violating a trust on the other side.

There's absolutly no bad feelings on my end.

Alan

I'll take Alan at his word any day...
There are so many different kind of "harmonics" and "shakes" going on in race cars. With our TAFC we had what we called the "Hoosier shuffle" which was no big deal and was in fact quite normal. As opposed to full blown tire shake. One time I shelled a rear end (split a titanium housing) and the shake associated with that was so bad that everything in my vision went absolutely gray - and as soon as I lifted came back (though I did hurt for awhile).
Though this is not directly related, did you see the in-car shot of Kenny B. from Gainesville when after the burnout he had that front tire wobble? The steering wheel was just flying around in there back and forth. I've had that happen several times and it is nasty. Once it starts all you can do is get the car stopped to make it go away. That's what I think of with what I'm reading here about this tire vibration issue, once started no stopping it. And that is why it is so important to try to figure it out and prevent it from happening to anybody else.

Alan Was This A Tire Test Session. If You Don't Know Or Can't Answer I Understand. Thanks For All The Information That You Have Provided.

Don,

No, it was not a tire test. It was an open test session and there were about 35 or so (I'm guessing) cars from Top Fuel to Super Comp that were making runs.

Alan

Thanks, Is The Audiocast Working, Heard It About An Hour Ago But Silence Since Then.

From the accounts given of Eric's crash it sounds like the vibration he experienced was similar to Eddie Hill's dramatic incident at Sonoma years ago. Eddie's caused the entire car to vibrate apart.

Whether Eric's was caused by an internal tire failure or failure from an outside influence (i.e., debris) the root cause was the tire. Going forward the key issues should be eliminating the propensity for such an event to occur.

From the angle of debris is concerned we have to know if there was something stationary on the track or if something came off Eric's car during the run. Say there was debris on the track...then we need to look at track inspection processes both during events and testing. If something came off the car then we can look at ways to better secure components-such as safety tethers for parts bolted or clamped to chassis and so on.

If the failure was due to the stresses put on the tires we (racers, NHRA/IHRA, SFI, etc.) need to finally take serious and permanent steps to signifigantly reduce and/or eliminate the stresses we put on the cars, drivers, and tires. The only logical answer is to dramtically reduce power output. While there have been many previous attempts to reduce power and downforce I am beginning to believe that the only way to effectively accomplish a lasting reduction in power of a nitro engine is to remove the superchargers and go to an injected-nitro combination. As long as you are able to create atmosphere and squeeze that much fuel into a cylinder the classes will continue to go faster, quicker, and induce the stresses we see today. Every single step that has been taken to "slow down" Top Fuel and Funny Car has resulted in higher financial costs to the teams, increased stresses on drivers and parts, and ultimately quicker ET's and faster speeds.

I know my opinion and idea of taking away superchargers will not be very popular with many people. I can already hear the arguments (they won't sound the same, they won't have as-big of flames, they won't do this, they won't do that, you can't do this, and you can't do that...). But it is long past time that the major drag racing organizations cease the marketing of quicker ET's and faster speeds and start promoting the drivers that sit between the pipes and entertain the fans. As long as the cornerstone of drag racing advertising continues to be centered around "record performances" we'll continnue to require the teams to spend an inordinate amount of money as well as putting the drivers in a much too dangerous position.

I don't mean to hijack this thread but...Can any of you that have experienced tire shake give us,that have never been through it,some sort of reference that we might be able to relate to what it might feel like?