REDGAR

I have been noticing what I thought was odd until I had it confirmed yesterday. It appears the drivers with chutes are letting them out before the finish line. In yesterday's drag racing on tv they showed a finish line snapshot as Jeggy just at the line and his opponent just before the line and both already had the chutes out though they had not oppened yet. They were just hanging right there.

INSANITY

Whats up Bro. I asked merkel about that and he said the reason was so if the chute dont come out, they can try to stop with the brakes.. It gives them alittle more shut down..............

Fuzzy Dice

They've talked about that, very briefly, on TV before...they said the guys pull the chutes before the finish line because it takes a bit of time for them to open...they want them fully deployed at the stripe....

mackeyred96

MikeV

Talking to a pro I know and a few guys that do run over 180 MPH, they said that it depends on the following: 1: Track condition. 2: Type of race car. 3: Race situation. 4: Murphies law. 1: If the track has a shorter or bumpy shutdown area you have a tentancy to pull the shoot as soon as you can. The bigger the tire, the more the car wants to bounce. This is pronounced with a bumpy track. Every Pro pilot can tell you who has the worst shut down area. 2: If you have a car that is not sprung, I.E. a T.F. Dragster vs a Pro Stock car, it will bounce more in a bumpy shutdown area so you would pull the chute just before the finish line because it will not fully come out and fill until after the finish line. 3: In the pro ranks, if your loosing by a large margin at the 7/8 point in the track, you may as well pull the chute. 4: The worst one. The shute is folded up and installed with the large spring for what is called preload. This ejects the chute as soon as the cable pulls back far enough to let the spring release. Some of you OLD GUYS you may remember seeing a chute or two come out at half track or before. This happened because the chute release handle was set up to release with a rearward pull on the handle or toward the back of the car. With this configuation the handle could either rattle or move to the release position.


Mike V


[Modified by MikeV, 11:15 AM 5/24/2004]

PRNDL

I thought they were doing it to avoid breaking out!

Dr.Ron

I was thinking the same exact thing this weekend. I thought maybe it came out automatically to a calibrated distance, say 10' short of the 1/4 mile.

Power Shifter

One of our local racers used to drive a jet dragster, She pulled the chute on a 300+mph run and it flaired the other jet seeing this aborted early(he was behind) to try to be there to help(in a crash) well jessaca got it slowed down enough to make the last turn before the sand/dirt pit, the gentalman that tryed to be johnie on the spot, rolled his jet on the turn. All good reason's to pull the chute on time, NO MATTER WHAT's going on. Ric

REDC4CORVETTE

I rank in their with the hall of shame, how about the shut poping out on the burn out? The packer pulled the pin before the burn out instead of waiting until I staged and out it came .
:mad The crowd thought it was
FUNNY.
a shute doesnt last that long and if the track is rough they will pick up about 2 cups of rocks that tear the shute ,also the finish line is in the middle of the 3 lines the first and last lines are mph and when you are going over 250mph
you dont need a speed slip you only want the time!
good info on the above post.


[Modified by REDC4CORVETTE, 12:00 PM 5/25/2004]