DINWIDDIE—Bob Vandergriff Jr., recently elected by his fellow drivers as the chairman of the new Drivers’ Safety Committee, said yesterday his organization continues to make progress in the name of driver safety and issues.

The group, formed in the aftermath of Scott Kalitta’s death this season at Englishtown, N.J., held a meeting yesterday at Virginia Motorsports Park.

Formed to give the drivers of the NHRA’s nitro classes (Funny Car and Top Fuel) a voice of their own, the group will voice its concerns through the PRO organization, a previously established group of owners, and driver/crew chief/owners. The PRO group is headed by former driver and current owner Kenny Bernstein, but is mainly ownership driven.

The fact the NHRA nitro drivers have formed their own organization is newsworthy. While all racing leagues—including the NHRA—work with their drivers on safety issues, neither the IndyCar Series nor NASCAR are believed to have their own official driver organizations.

When contacted by the Times-Dispatch about a possible NASCAR drivers group, spokesman Kerry Tharp e-mailed the following response.

“While the drivers do not have their own formal safety committee per say, NASCAR drivers in the three national series are required to participate in a preseason safety seminar during testing at Daytona. And, safety updates are periodically provided to the race teams during the course of the season. NASCAR has relationships with many of the leading safety experts in the world and makes available the latest information to the teams. The R&D Center in Concord, N.C., is a one of a kind facility in motorsports that is a good resource for the teams to utilize when it comes to safety, competition and cost management.“

The IndyCar Series is not believed to have a driver safety committee, but as of yet, I haven’t been able to confirm that.
With two driver deaths since March of last year (Eric Medlen at a Gainesville, Fla., test last year and Kalitta) and John Force’s horiffic accident at Texas last year, it’s understandable why the drivers would want their own organization.

“It’s just a good information drill,“ said Vandergriff. “Some drivers don’t feel informed. Now there’s an information source. Every goal is to make our sport safer.“

Graham Light, the NHRA’s Senior Vice President of Racing Operations, said the league is actively involved in driver safety.

“All forms of motor racing have an element of danger associated with it,“ he said. “Not in all cases can you protect all parties. We use the latest technology, testing and try to make sure these instances are survivable as possible.“

Vandergriff said one issue discussed yesterday was whether or not to study possible changes to the staging area, otherwise known as the Christmas Tree. The drivers voted in favor of looking into changes. The issue, Vandergriff said, involves introducing a “system of a true representation of what a driver does in the starting lines…a true representation of what a driver is doing.“

When staging, the driver goes through several incremental steps, thus lighting different sets of lights on the Christmas Tree. When both cars start, most believe the cars are on equal footing. But Vandergriff said that since the final rollout box is about eight to 12 inches long, it stands to reason that a driver could, and often does, have a several-inch head start.

And while it’s generally understood a perfect reaction time is .00-seconds, Vandergriff said a more accurate representation would be .40-seconds. “Better than that, and it’s a guess (as to when the light will start the cars),“ he said.

“Too many drivers out here whose jobs are on the line who are getting beaten up (on holeshots),“ he said. “We’d like to expand it to more than just safety.“

The NHRA Drivers’ Safety Committee will be meeting with the PRO group during the series’ next race, scheduled Oct. 30-Nov. 2 in Las Vegas.

Posted by Shawn Fenner in • Auto Racing
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