New chassis configurations are reportedly pending for the Funny Car division and one particular area that is being monitored is the use of heat treated tubing under the current S.F.I. specs.
 
Like every other competitor, Funny Car veteran Ron Capps has heard the arguments about the use of heat treated versus normalized tubing in chassis applications. In a post-run interview by Alan Reinhart over the track PA in Las Vegas, Capps left no doubt where he stood on the issue by offering his support of heat treat tubing in his Murf McKinney chassis.
 
“I personally don’t think it’s got anything to do with it being heat treated,” Capps told Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com recently. “I’ll continue to drive whatever Murf McKinney will build for me.  People have to be educated before they make assumptions and before they go making public statements.  Part of that whole thing with the chassis is we’ve been running a slip tube and they’ve all been heat treated cars.

 

“Where is NHRA on Funny Car safety?” – Ron Capps

New chassis configurations are reportedly pending for the Funny Car division and one particular area that is being monitored is the use of heat treated tubing under the current S.F.I. specs.
 
Like every other competitor, Funny Car veteran Ron Capps has heard the arguments about the use of heat treated versus normalized tubing in chassis applications. In a post-run interview by Alan Reinhart over the track PA in Las Vegas, Capps left no doubt where he stood on the issue by offering his support of heat treat tubing in his Murf McKinney chassis.
 
“I personally don’t think it’s got anything to do with it being heat treated,” Capps told Torco’s CompetitionPlus.com recently. “I’ll continue to drive whatever Murf McKinney will build for me.  People have to be educated before they make assumptions and before they go making public statements.  Part of that whole thing with the chassis is we’ve been running a slip tube and they’ve all been heat treated cars.
 
Is it really about heat treated versus normalized for Capps? Not really. It’s about the National Hot Rod Association taking an active role instead of letting others do all the research.
 
“Why doesn’t NHRA have a person like Robin Pemberton in NASCAR, or whoever they’ve got over there?” Capps said. “We’re relying on John Force, Ford and their people and Murf McKinney, too. But, why are we waiting on those people to do their tests?

Why am I waiting for Ford and John Force Racing to come up with a better chassis for the rest of us to run?  It shouldn’t be up to them strictly alone.  NHRA should’ve jumped right in and hired some engineers and said this is what we’re going to do. - Ron Capps

 
“I’ve always believed in what Austin (Coil), Force and Medlen are going to do. They’re going to make their decisions on obviously what they’ve been through, so they want everything to be as safe as possible.  I’m a little miffed at why NHRA doesn’t have something, whether it’s a department or somebody on this.”
 
Capps is emphatic when he says that he’s not digging on John Force Racing and what they are doing. He’s just wondering why the NHRA hasn’t taken a more active role in the project.
 
“I don’t want to wait on Ford Racing or John Force Racing,” Capps said. “Why am I waiting for Ford and John Force Racing to come up with a better chassis for the rest of us to run?  It shouldn’t be up to them strictly alone.  NHRA should’ve jumped right in and hired some engineers and said this is what we’re going to do.
 
“I love Dan Olsen to death -- he was my assistant crew chief and I’d love to have him back as my assistant crew chief.  I don’t think it’s his fault, but I think that higher ups in the NHRA need to step up.  They should’ve stepped up back in March and gotten together and said this is what we’re going to do.”
 
Capps pointed out that whatever new configurations are adopted for the Funny Car chassis design will take much of the next season to be fully implemented.
 
“There will be things implemented for the chassis next year, but we won’t see them until half way through the year or the end of next year,” Capps added. “We’re waiting on others.”
 
Capps said it’s important to point out that he’d drive a chassis designed by JFR. He related that his team put the new bars in the chassis after the required fix. Capps was reserved about taking other steps beyond that such as other teams did. He admitted he was on the conference call with McKinney and saw the new designs.
 
“I believe it’s a safer car,” Capps said. “But, you can barely get in and out of these cars with all this new stuff. There are guys out here that didn’t put up the new stuff.  I told Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) that I didn’t want to do it at the time. I didn’t want to change anything because I knew that they [NHRA] were going to change stuff later.”
 
Basically Capps said his team is in a holding pattern, just waiting for a decision of what will work and what won’t. Two weeks after the conclusion of the season and are no definitive chassis design changes have been announced.
 
“Guys like Murf McKinney are waiting to find out what everybody’s going to do,” Capps said. “Murf has his own ideas and to wait this long for things to happen -- I think NHRA, especially with these partners coming in, I think you’re going to see big changes.  I really believe Eddie Hartenstein and those guys are going to take a model after NASCAR and make the changes that we need.
 
“We need more involvement, I think, in that department out of NHRA.  I’m not ripping on [the NHRA] because of their lack of involvement.  I want them involved.  I want them to come down and say This is what we think is safe and we have these engineers and we’ve talked also with Ford or whoever but this is our department of safety here at NHRA.  That’s what I want to hear.  That’s what I want them to say.
 
“I want the opportunity to say this is the car that I have to build because NHRA’s engineers spent a lot of money to find a safer Funny Car chassis.  That’s what I want to hear.  I don’t want to hear John Force spent another million dollars.  John Force shouldn’t have to spend a million dollars to find out why these cars are coming apart.  These cars are coming apart because these chassis are the same configuration, these are the same cars that I get in and drive at the nostalgia reunion events.”
 
Capps said there’s a big difference in safety for a car designed to run five and six seconds at 200 mph than one that carries 8,000 horsepower to 4.7-second elapsed times at well over 300 mph.
 
“They’re plenty safe as other cars,” Capps said. “Now we’re making 8,000 horsepower and they have been for half a decade. They shouldn’t have gotten to where we’re wondering about whether the biggest name in the sport, John Force, was dead at the other end of that track.  The worst moment in my life was to sit there and wonder – wonder if my car is a safe enough car.
 
“Oh, it can be much safer.  To watch what John Force went through and sit and wonder whether we’re going to have to go to his funeral is not something I wanted.”