Nitro racing ’ s top-tier crew chiefs are taking matters into their own hands By Susan Wade , CompetitionPlus . com

“ The safety box was designed to shut the car off in case the driver can ’ t , for whatever reason – on fire , knocked out , unconscious ,” championship Funny Car crew chief Dickie Venables said .

Now , Clay Millican and Tony Schumacher are among the Top Fuel drivers whose crew chiefs have the power to cut off the dragster ’ s engine from the starting line .

It ’ s the latest addition to a system that has evolved from the initial Safety Shut-off Box to include a small , track-mounted shut-off receiver and a car-attached device that helps prevent oil downs . Mandatory devices on the car and a guard wall-mounted transmitter that communicates with a safety-box receiver can save a driver in distress . They can stop the flow of fuel and turn off the ignition to the 10,000-horsepower engine and deploy the parachutes in response to a variety of triggers ( manifold burstpanel rupture , fire-bottle activation , excessive oil-pan pressure , dragster rear-wing failure , driver pressing a steering-wheel-mounted button , or driver incapacitation ).

Dave Grubnic , crew chief for Clay Millican ’ s Parts Plus / Great Clips / UNOH Dragster , might have been the most recent one to use the NHRA-approved remote control .

Two weeks ago , in Brainerd , Minnesota , the team was elated that Millican recorded his career-best elapsed time ( a 3.696-second pass at 326.32 ) in his round-one victory . That E . T . reflected a significant threehundredth-of-a-second improvement ( from his previous best clocking of 3.72 seconds ). And Millican gushed that , “ my mate Grubby sure cut it loose , all right . He really poured the power to it through the middle of the racetrack , and it paid off .”

But just as quickly and decisively , Grubnic had to shelve any urge to push for more . As a testament to his wisdom and restraint for the sake of safety , Grubnic activated the remote control

during Millican ’ s quarterfinal run . The dragster had dropped a cylinder immediately after the launch , and Grubnic reeled it in .

During the teardown , the crew discovered that Grubnic ’ s instincts were spot-on and that halting the pass was a blessing in disguise . They saw that one of the rear wing mounts on the car was broken .

Said Millican , “ if we had made another 326- mph run , the rear wing maybe would have been broken off . If that had happened , it can ’ t be run again until it ’ s sent back to the manufacturer – because without that wing the car acts like an arrow without feathers . You have no control . We

have a safety system in place where the crew chief can shut the throttle off . Grubby saw the cylinder out early in the run , and he ’ s the one who shut me off . We weren ’ t going to win that race with seven cylinders , anyway .”

U . S . Army Dragster driver Tony Schumacher said he has been zipping down the track when assistant crew chief Neal Strausbaugh has jerked

the car to a premature stop with the push of a button .

Schumacher elaborated on the situation , saying , “ in a Top Fuel car , the motor is behind you . I can ’ t see cylinders go out . You can feel ‘ em , unless they go out early . We ’ re trying to make this live TV package work , which seems to be working great . And to do that , [ it ’ s smart ] to give the crew chiefs a way , if they see something flickering that has the potential to cause an oil down , to shut the car off . It ’ s awkward in the car , because it just shuts it off [ abruptly ]. But we can ’ t see some of that stuff , like a sparkplug coming apart or color changes in the cylinders and the exhaust . A few times Neal has shut me off when it might have been low E . T . of the round .”

When they huddle around the computer in the hauler back at the pit , each time they see that Schumacher could have completed each run without any problems . Just the same , Schumacher said he approved . “ It was the right decision . Safety first ,” he said . “ And at the end of the year , you look back on times drivers slowed the race down , you don ’ t want to be on that list . It ’ s our job to evolve the safety and the cleanliness .”

Moreover , he said , “ we ’ re trying to make a better show . Ultimately , we are an entertainment business . We are a competitive business ; we ’ ve got to win . But if winning shuts the track down for 30 minutes at a time , the whole system is broke . So , the NHRA shutting the cars off when you ’ ve got problems , is it going to cost a race here and there ? It could . But is that a bad thing ? No . I think we ’ re doing it for the right reasons .”

So , sometimes it ’ s clearly a matter of safety . Sometimes it ’ s a matter of oildown prevention . Either way , Mike Green , Schumacher ’ s crew chief , and Strausbaugh , devised their own hand-held version of the shut-off system . Green said he wasn ’ t sure which teams have the remote control but he knows that “ we made our own .”

Green said Funny Car team owners Chuck and Del Worsham have one ready for they conduct licensing passes for aspiring pro drag racers .

“ The safety system the NHRA put up is very well accepted . It ’ s active and working ,” Schumacher said . “ Any time any sanctioning body comes up with what we like to think is a solution to the problem of a driver being knocked out , how can anybody be anything but OK with it ?”

Taking it one step further not only can ’ t hurt but it has spared at least two teams some ugly consequences . DI

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