I might not want include top fuel bikes in my original post
nothing more awesome 2 watch but nobody can deny there very dangerous.
Even though I have never heard it said before. I believe the reason no major drag race organization has top fuel bike races is due to the attrition factor. If you are going to have a following of riders like you do a following of drivers
in the top fuel classes they have to survive the sport to race another day. The frequency and seriousness of the crashes in top fuel bikes is to high for a family orientated entertainment business. I predict with 16 races ( I think ) a year
like Pro Stock bike in NHRA has now the number of serious accidents would be unacceptible. Lets estimate the number of runs from a 16+ bike field at an event. 3+ time trials per bike = 54+ runs. Eliminations would be 15 runs.
69+ runs per event times 16 events = 1104+ runs per season not including fields entered bigger than 16 contestants at an event. Also not included is testing like what happened to John Medlin on the John Force Team a few years ago.
So.... How often do top fuel bikes crash?
About street racing. From what I see on You Tube people are so reckless and disrespectful it blows my mind. Back in the early 70s we had a 1/4 marked off on a backroad just a few miles from my house on the edge of suburbia.
It was there because I measured it with a couple buddies!
We brought an old gallons of paint and made it conspicuious enough to see the finish line.
We didn't need a starting line after a while... the rubber laid down from our past runs were always visible.
We had look outs and only raced when we were the only cars in sight. We had competitors come from miles away to our little venue in the country and nobody was ever hurt until we had been at it a couple years.
Two friends on Yamaha 350s sideswiped each other not paying attention. One broke a wrist and the other hurt his foot... idiots...
After a couple years the cops finally started bringing the heat and we pretty much stopped. I suspect that the suburbia people could hear us and knew what we were up to so they called the cops.
My Mom also told me she could hear us from our house at night.
I should have taken pictures... we had some pretty bad ass cars show up now and then!
Street racing from a roll isn't a big deal if you guys are the only ones around and are going from lets say 30 to a 100... only takes a few seconds and the faster accelerating vehicle will reveal itself in that short time.
The big horsepower stuff you see on TV looks ripe for disaster. I don't like the starter between the cars because if something breaks and the car turns suddenly it could get ugly.
Mostly to find out what bike will pull what bike and on a road that is long with a clear view. we do know one thing from this a 14r with a pipe and flash will beat a hp4 with all the goodies ! That one was the best as the BMW guy was about to cry lol
