Ford and NHRA Team Up On Safety
Accelerating safety development in the sport of drag racing, the NHRA and Ford Racing jointly announced that all cars in the Funny Car and Top Fuel classes will be outfitted with the Ford Racing "Blue Box" crash sensors for the 2008 season.
Ford Racing offered the crash sensors and engineering support for their use after the death of JFR driver Eric Medlen in a testing accident in March, which led JFR, in cooperation with Ford Racing, NHRA and the sport’s suppliers, in August to launch "The Eric Medlen Project," a wide-ranging program designed to further improve safety in the sport.
Ford Racing and NHRA will work together during the next several weeks and prior to the start of the 2008 POWERade Drag Racing season on specific program elements.
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"NHRA has, since its inception, always been committed to improve safety in the sport," said Graham Light, senior vice president of racing operations. "And, during that time, NHRA has worked on an ongoing basis with manufacturers and the racing community to enhance the safety of these vehicles. We are very proud of our safety record, given the inherent risks in the sport, and look forward to analyzing the data we anticipate to receive from the Blue Box initiative to further our commitment to safety."
In addition to initial testing on the Force Mustangs, the Blue Boxes were tested for the final two races of the 2007 season on the Top Fuel dragster of Larry Dixon, to start a prove-out process on that class of vehicle.
During the first seven months of the latest initiative, Ford’s safety effort has focused in on four main areas:
* Data collection through the Blue Boxes and accelerometers in the drivers’ ears
* Helmet and driver restraint testing
* Computer modeling of the current chassis, as well as 7-post shaker testing
* Occupant modeling of the driver cockpit area
Initial changes already made by Ford Racing, based on the data collected, have included the addition of extra head padding in the driver’s cockpit, and several changes to the chassis that helped strengthen it during the 300 mph runs.
Those changes have been tested several times during on-track incidents this season, including a crash in Dallas by John Force that left him with serious injuries on his extremities, but no head or internal injuries.
"It's important to note that these are just first steps in what we hope will be a long-term effort toward making drag racing an even safer sport," said Ford Racing Direcotr, Dan Davis. "Having the Blue Boxes on all cars in Top Fuel and Funny Car will allow us to gather more data in a shorter period of time, so that everyone in the sport can use it to benefit all of the competitors."
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