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prior to the 60s, seatbelts and helmets were sometimes missing from motorsports. now, it seems like an obvious safety gap...to even THINK otherwise is insane. we get a chuckle out of seeing leather racing helmets in old photos.

well, after seeing a few drag wrecks, i gotta say there are still some obvious things missing:

1-bigger, softer barricades ... hay bails, water filled drums ... with or without a guard rail. just get rid of those concrete walls! how about 4 rows of water drums on each side of the track, spaced. and space them a few feet apart to give the car more gradual deceleration. and make the drum easy to split open -- water or fire slurry couldn't hurt a car on fire.

2-soft center divider along the entire strip so a crazy car doesn't take out his competitor (especially when the competitor is slightly behind). so it obstructs visibility for the fans -- even a 48" high wall sitting in a 12" deep trough could delay the cross over a second or two. shame on you sanctioning bodies -- if you've left this out for fan visibility, you've been getting away with murder.

3-fluid catch pan/tray under the engine. how many times has something broke loose, spewing lubricant or coolant conveniently ahead of the rear tires. it could help with aerodynamics (smoother airflow under the car) and eliminate costly downtime (ridding the track of fluids).

4-if a car has a parachute and is not reasonably close to the center of his lane, or tire pressure drops way low, or a fire occurs, there should be an electronic auto-deploy of the parachute. i'm sure with today's technology, the signal to deploy could be sent remotely by track equipment. OK, this concept is a bit elaborate, but definitely worthy of some trials.

while you're at it, apply these concepts to other forms of auto racing.

items 1-3 may be present at *some* strips today, but if drag racing is around in 2050, they will be universal, and people will laugh at 2010 safety standards.

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