Drag racing legend “Big Daddy” Don Garlits says he occasionally grew woozy at extreme speeds, and he believes high G-forces have left other drivers similarly disoriented, causing some to crash.
Garlits, one of at least three drag racers who also suffered eye damage from years of blistering starts and rapid stops, says the National Hot Rod Association needs to formally study whether massive G-forces are jeopardizing drivers.
“We’re at the edge of the envelope,” Garlits, now retired, said Friday. “There may be some point here where they just can’t accelerate these men and women any faster. You don’t want to accelerate them and knock them out. I’m worried about the guys off the starting line. We get them going so quick.
“They need to know: What is the human tolerance?”
Graham Light, the NHRA’s senior vice president of racing operations, responded that drag cars already contain G-force meters so crews can watch any spikes in those gravitational numbers. What’s more, the league is not seeking to boost track speeds beyond the modern mark of 336 mph.
“Do we need them going 340 or 350? The consensus among race teams is no,” Light said at Bandimere Speedway, host of the Mile-High Nationals this weekend. “There is no other barrier to be broken other than 400 mph, and that’s totally beyond anybody’s imagination.
“We are obviously concerned about the conditions of our drivers.”
Top fuel racers say they typically hit 5 Gs, or a gravitational force of five times their body weight. But that exposure is brief, with sprints lasting less than five seconds on quarter- mile tracks.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, prolonged exposure to 4.1 Gs can squeeze so much blood out of the brain and into the legs, all color can wash out of a person’s field of vision. Fighter pilots, who wear special pants that push the blood back to the upper body, call that a “gray out.” After a period of time at 4.7 Gs, a person’s sight can go black, and at 5.4 Gs, they can eventually lose consciousness.
One American oval has shown racers how quickly big Gs can play bad tricks. During practice laps at the Texas Motor Speedway in 2001, almost two dozen open-wheel racers complained of dizziness. A CART doctor found the drivers were hitting 5.5 Gs during 18 seconds of each lap. The race was postponed.
By contrast, space shuttle astronauts zoom into orbit at about 3 Gs.
“That ain’t nothing,” Garlits said.
The icon, who ranks fourth all time among NHRA top-fuelers with 35 wins, said he sometimes felt woozy after the initial, explosive burst of a race.
How often did that happen?
“Every run that was good,” Garlits said. “You wouldn’t get over it till you were 300 feet down the track. …
“We think some of the cars have crashed because of it. But we don’t know if they got knocked out by the G-force or by the crash,” he added. “See, a lot of guys may not say anything about it. They want to keep driving.”
During Garlits’ heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, some drag racers were knocked unconscious inside the cockpit by a horsepower-caused recoil dubbed “tire shake,” Light acknowledged. But thicker padding within the helmets and on roll bars helped the NHRA prevent that phenomenon, he added.
Each year, the drivers also must undergo aviation-caliber medical exams. And the hearts of drivers 55 and older are checked with electrocardiograms, Light said.
Still, to the delight of fans and drivers, the sport remains equal parts fiery fury and sudden thunder.
Races begin with the violent shudder of an exploding rocket, cooking the cockpit to as hot as 130 degrees and jerking the car from zero to 100 mph in less than a second.
“It forces your eyes to the back of the socket,” said Mitch Stott, a pro-modified driver from North Carolina.
Strapped stiffly into their seats, drivers are slammed from head to chest by a crushing, frontal force.
“It takes the wind right out of you,” funny car racer Gary Scelzi said. “Do I breathe? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.”
Some drivers shift gears, depending on the type of dragster. All steer, trying to maintain a line, and many grab a side peek at the next lane. They are busy.
“I can tell you seven different things I do in 4.7 seconds,” Scelzi said.
“Drag racing is not as cut and dried as it appears,” Stott added. “These cars definitely have to be driven. It’s not aim and shoot.”
At the midpoint, some drivers say they feel like they are riding “from inside the windshield.”
Then, it is over. They pull their parachutes, unleashing up to 3 negative Gs of force. They’re immediately yanked toward the front of the cockpit. The straps grab hard against their shoulders and back. Their eyes bulge.
“Once, I saw stars,” Garlits said. “That was in 1992. Then, off in the distance I saw flashing lights, like lightning.”
It wasn’t looming weather. Garlits was suffering from a detached retina, the light-sensitive layer of tissue that lines the inside of the eye. A doctor later repaired the tear with a laser, and Garlits returned for a handful of races a few years ago.
“But it put me out of business eventually.”
The constant mash and tug of starts and finishes caused similar retina tears in Stott and Joe Amato, top fuel’s all-time wins leader. Amato retired in 2000.
Stott, who has suffered some headaches and eye soreness, said he plans to race five to seven more years. Stott’s doctor told him he doesn’t risk blindness and his vision will worsen by only about 10 percent if he continues.
“I still have a tremendous desire to win. I wouldn’t race if I didn’t,” Stott said. “Besides, there ain’t no ride like this at the county fair.”
ABCs of Gs
Gravitational force is measured in Gs, starting with 1 G, the earth’s normal pull. Under 2 Gs, your weight doubles as you feel twice the regular force of gravity.
Tolerating high Gs depends on physical conditioning, the body’s position, the equipment worn, and, more important, the length of exposure.
1 – Your weight on Earth.
2.3 – The reported exposure to riders on “Mission: Space” a giant centrifuge at Disney World. A 4-year-old boy died in June after riding the rocket ship simulator. Some amusement park rides are said to hit 3.5.
3 – What shuttle astronauts face during lift-off.
5 – Approximate level some drag racers say they feel at the start of a run. When they pull the parachute about 4.7 seconds later, they are exposed to about negative-3 Gs.
5.5 – In 2001, a CART race was canceled at Texas Motor Speedway after many drivers got dizzy in practice. Speeds of 236 mph and high track banks boosted the G forces above 5 for more than 18 seconds at a time.
8-9 – The point at which a human typically loses vision and/or consciousness.
9 – The level at which fighter pilots, wearing special equipment, are said to train.
10 – Test subjects in a U.S. Air Force centrifuge suffered chest pain, shortness of breath and occasional loss of consciousness in 1952 when exposed to this force for more than two minutes.
15 – What a pilot in an ejection seat endures for a split second.
40 – In 1954, U.S. Air Force Col. John Paul Stapp rode a rocket sled that matched the speed of a .45 caliber bullet before stopping, exposing him to 40 Gs for a fraction of a second.
(COMPILED BY THE DENVER POST)
Aging quickly
Within the ranks of the National Hot Rod Association, 18 drag racers qualify for AARP membership (50 and over), four are 60 and older and one, Chris Karamesines, is 74. Here’s an age breakdown of the world’s fastest sport, in which few people slow down at 45.
PRO STOCKS
NHRA drivers: 27
Age 45 and up: 15 (55.5 percent)
Age 50 and up: 8 (30 percent)
Age 60 and up: 1
Oldest driver: 62, Warren Johnson
TOP FUEL
NHRA drivers: 28
Age 45 and up: 6 (21 percent)
Age 50 and up: 3 (11 percent)
Age 60 and up: 2
Oldest driver: 74, Chris Karamesines
FUNNY CAR
NHRA drivers: 26
Age 45 and up: 10 (38.5 percent)
Age 50 and up: 6 (23 percent)
Age 60 and up: 0
Oldest driver: 58, Gary Densham
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE
NHRA drivers: 30
Age 45 and up: 3 (10 percent)
Age 50 and up: 1 (3 percent)
Age 60 and up: 1
Oldest driver: 63, Joe DeSantis
(SOURCE: NHRA.COM)
Mile-High Nationals
What: 13th of 23 events in the $50 million NHRA Drag Racing Series
Where: Bandimere Speedway, Morrison
When: Today, prerace ceremony at 11 a.m.; final eliminations at noon
TV: 7-10 p.m., ESPN2
Staff writer Bill Briggs can be reached at 303-820-1720 or bbriggs@denverpost.com.
