After a sideways run down a weeping racetrack Warren Johnson sounded off, loudly.

In an interview with Gary Gerould of ESPN2, Johnson let loose his two cents worth and then some.  Gerould asked Johnson about the Maple Grove track surface and that opened the flood gates.

“This has been a long time problem,” Johnson said to Gerould during Sunday evening’s broadcast. “It’s probably manifested itself worse in the last few years simply from the fact the NHRA hasn’t been paying due diligence to what they should be doing instead of just scalping the spectators.

Comments Made During Sunday Evening Telecast Created Stir …

After a sideways run down a weeping racetrack Warren Johnson sounded off, loudly.

In an interview with Gary Gerould of ESPN2, Johnson let loose his two cents worth and then some.  Gerould asked Johnson about the Maple Grove track surface and that opened the flood gates.

“This has been a long time problem,” Johnson said to Gerould during Sunday evening’s broadcast. “It’s probably manifested itself worse in the last few years simply from the fact the NHRA hasn’t been paying due diligence to what they should be doing instead of just scalping the spectators.

“What’s happened is that they didn’t slow those fuel cars down five or ten years ago as they should have by having a tech committee that was cognizant of what was going on,” he continued. “If they had slowed them down, the tracks wouldn’t have to be spending four and five hundred thousand dollars for shutoff areas for only 32 cars in the whole country. Less than one tenth of one percent of all the drag racing cars in this country are going to ruin this sport.

“What needs to be done is they need to slow those cars down beforehand not after. So the tracks have to spend all of that money fixing the shutdown area instead of fixing the race track for the rest of the competitors – the 99.9-percent.”

While it wasn't Top Fuel and Funny Cars causing the problem with the track, Johnson firmly believed “weeping” issues could have been corrected if tracks didn't have to spend money fixing shut down areas.

The issue, which plagued the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals all weekend, was a percolating issue similar to the one that plagued Summit Raceway Park in Norwalk, Ohio in the past. Maple Grove Raceway officials announced on Sunday a massive track improvement which will extend the concrete pad from 550 feet to the 1,000-foot mark of the track. According to a statement issued by Maple Grove Raceway, the asphalt surface will be milled 2 inches and new asphalt will be installed for 700 feet to the quarter-mile mark and beyond.

Track officials are confident this should prevent future occurrences of water seepage that caused the long delays during the course of the weekend.

As for Johnson, maybe the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

“I’m sure after this telecast there is going to be some dialogue or for that matter, all of the competitors with the exception of the fuel cars and the NHRA because it’s something that needs to be addressed before somebody gets killed out there,” Johnson said. “Scott Kalitta’s death was one of those unfortunate things and there are other racers who have died, we don’t need that. At the same time, there are other competitors out here that are going to be in trouble at mid-track, not at the finish line.”

ON YOUTUBE

 

Advertisement