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Unless it was deflating thru an orifice, falling and/or flying in a vacum, it was NOT gaining momentum.

After pondering my above comment, let me clarify my main point, once the tire left the car, it would unlikely ever gain energy, it could store energy in compressing the inflated tire when it struck a solid object, but most of that would be released on the rebound, it might change direction, and it would change velocity as gravity effected it, but eventually thru friction, air drag, energy absorbed even by thought to be "solid" objects, it would eventually come to rest. However if the wheel was accelerated to very high speeds/rpms thru slippage with the track or the fact that tire was in the air before seperation, it could easily increase is ground speed after seperation as the rotational energy is converted to velocity as the loose tire gets traction, hence the appearance of gaining "momentum", which really is just a conversion of rotational inertia to ground speed. Which is also why so much harm can from a low speed wheel seperation.

Reducing chances of wheel seperation likely should be the focus of prevention IMO.

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To carry these thoughts even further, what we may be seeing as well is the effects of gyroscopic precession. It appears in the video the wheel was spinning at a significant speed well past separation from the axle hub. I've seen aircraft gyro's literally tear themselves from their mounts in an event called gimbal lock. This can be a very violent event and some of the tires reactions to each hit (bounce) may have induced a more violent reaction/response by the tire (especially when you see it bouncing around the trucks). This may be what we are seeing vs. it appearing to gain velocity.

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I know that there is a slow motion video somewhere that shows what a T/F dragster or funny car tire looks like when they launch. One of tire shake would be better and would help get a better perspective. It is surprising that more stuff doesn't break.

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Stuff breaks on the car you never hear about as a spectator. When tire shake ocurs there always something broke on the car. That's why we don't paint our chassis because I weld on it almost every week from tire shake. I have had some big time bruises on my legs from tire shake, big time.

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Look at all Nascar has done in recent years-safer barriers,complete new car,better seats,hans device etc.

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As far as the nitro cars go these rockets are breaching sanity and that's their primary draw. You start taming them then their popularity will dwindle.

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As far as the nitro cars go these rockets are breaching sanity and that's their primary draw. You start taming them then their popularity will dwindle.

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I'm not sure I agree with that. Of the three top classes in NHRA, I think pro-stock is the most fun to watch BY FAR. Almost every run has both drivers make a clean, competitive pass. In TFD and funny car, very few runs have both drivers make a clean pass. Almost every nitro run has at least one driver, if not both, smoke the tires/get out of the groove/blow supercharger/etc.... If they would slow the nitro classes down the racing would be more competitive, it would cost less, there would be less breakage, there would be more teams, someone not named Schumacher or Force might win a title, and getting back to the original topic - less chance of racers/fans/track workers getting killed.

I love top fuel and funny cars, but I'd love them just as much if they ran in the fives or sixes.

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You, Jeff, are the exception. Go to a national event and watch what happens after the fuelers are done running.

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Putting any kind of restriction on them takes away the whole point of Top Fuelers. They are meant to be unlimited and to go as quick/fast as possible. You may as well just have them do exhibition burnouts and/or runs and just forget about the competition aspect of it if you restrict them.

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And you slept at a Holiday Inn last night. Right? You need to be there and know first hand before making such an assumption. Please.

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I think you should reread the post i was responding to .My point is that a redesign is a bit premature . But since your going there I do belive that nearly all failures in racing is human error . By the way If you need to know I sleep in the front living qtrs of my race trailer when on the road .

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Are you kidding? You are assigning definite blame to human error as the cause of this accident without knowing ANY of the details? These are professionals. They have a routine for lug nut tightening and I can assure you that the severe tire shake Antron was driving through had everything to do with the stud failure.

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Putting any kind of restriction on them takes away the whole point of Top Fuelers. They are meant to be unlimited and to go as quick/fast as possible. You may as well just have them do exhibition burnouts and/or runs and just forget about the competition aspect of it if you restrict them.

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there are already piles of restictions on them. they are far from unlimited.

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One of the main reasons they need the big dollar sponsorships is travel expenses and upkeep for going to 23 national events if they race the full circuit. In the old days teams used to match race to make money and go to the 4 (maybe) national events a year. Now, running the circuit is a full time job and then some. No time for match racing anymore. The old days are long gone. Slowing the cars down will never bring them back.

And BobR is correct. There is only one reason that P/S and PS/B run BEFORE the fuel cars. The stands would be empty if they didn't. Every class from P/S on down is merely space filler between rounds of fuel.

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I'm sorry, but I have to respectfully disagree. The reason the stands empty after the fuel car run is because S/C, S/G and S/street comes out. And just because they limit blower speed, mags, fuel pumps, doesn't mean that people won't watch and pay to see the show. They still watch Nascar don't they? And they went restrictor plates years ago. And they still watch the Alcohol classes don't they? How about Pro Mod? Think about it, people will watch the show that is offered if it's loud, pounds the ground and smells of nitro. That's the draw.

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Look at all Nascar has done in recent years-safer barriers,complete new car,better seats,hans device etc.

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All for the driver, not the track workers or spectators.....

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Years ago was at Texas Motorplex and opted to sit in the brand new finish line seats. Cory Mac had a blower come apart at about 1300 ft. As he hit the chutes, one of the rotors managed to free itself from the case and come flying across the track at a good 300+ mph, whizzed past the bleachers and bounced off the ground creating a huge dirt plume. There was two girls walking up the return road and the rotor continues after the bounce to whiz right over their heads missing them by a foot or two. The rotor then bounced in the dirt again and cartwheeled over a row of park cars and disappeared into a corn field. When the rotor bounced over the girls on the return road we were all in the finish line stands screaming for them to "WATCH OUT!". They never saw it go whizzing by. I opted out of the stands for the remainder of the day and hit the fence line near the starting line where in my opinion the probability of getting hit with debris is reduced. I'd say most are not cognizant of the possibility of getting hit until you see something like what just happened at Phoenix...

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And a BIG reason the stands empty for the Super classes is because of the throttle stops and timers - no one, even educated spectators, wants to go from seeing flat out runs in the pro categories to cars falling on their face right out of the hole.

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