I know it’s a personal opinion, but I do race every weekend all summer, and I feel the 1/8th mile events do run quicker than ¼ mile events.

At Keystone the switch to 1/8th mile occurred after the accident where a dragster lost all brakes (probably a line broke or a Master Cylinder problem). The issue was not that the Top cars could not stop. It was an effort to prevent serious injury should something like that happen again in the future. Without brakes, running 1/8th mile, the speed with which a car would hit the catch net would be dramatically less. That dragster that crashed would routinely be at 175+ in the ¼. I go 178 and I can stop without a parachute, as can most people. Most bracket dragsters do not want to pull the chute as it is a pain going rounds and packing the chutes. I see the action that Keystone took was completely safety related and prevention.

I was not there but I assume the 200 MPH funny cars pulled the chute. A hard tail at 200 MPH at keystone would have severe puckering trying to stop without a chute.

Bob Spelic