Champion drag racer Tony Schumacher is talking about the various objects that have struck his dragster during his career.
"I've hit two birds with my front wing," he says, adding that if his head "hit a bird at 300 mph" in a race, "it's going to hurt. It could kill you."
That's one reason why Schumacher endorses the effort by his father and team owner, Don Schumacher, to make one of the most novel changes in the sport's history: Putting a canopy over the driver on top-fuel dragsters, the fastest cars in the National Hot Rod Assn.
As the NHRA's Full Throttle Series wraps up its season opener Sunday with final eliminations at the Winternationals in Pomona, the Schumachers are hopeful that the canopy will at least be on their team's cars within the next couple of months.
"Everybody should want this," Tony Schumacher said. "We believe in the safety side of it."
But the canopy has to be approved by the NHRA, and that's not going to happen overnight.
The sanctioning body first has to test the canopy car to see whether the cover provides an aerodynamic advantage and whether it would impede rescue workers' efforts to pull a driver out of a crashed car.
The canopy has a release lever in the cockpit, and outside knobs that rescue workers would grab to lift the cover.
But Glen Gray, NHRA vice president for technical operations, said "you have to look at the worst-case scenario. You have to look at the car not sitting upright, it's on its side, it's up against a wall, or the parts to release [the canopy] have been damaged and are jammed.
"If that happens, then what's our next alternative?. You may fix one perceived problem and create another problem that's much worse."
The canopy, which would be manufactured by Aerodine Composites, weighs about 25 pounds and is expected to cost roughly $15,000.
Development has been "a six-figure project," said Don Schumacher, whose earlier innovations include the roof escape hatch in NHRA funny cars. "It's taken us two years . . . to where it's more than something just cosmetic."
Don Schumacher said he "really became a proponent" of the canopy after driver Mark Niver, who raced in an NHRA second-tier series, was killed in July 2010 when his dragster crashed and the front end of his car folded back and struck the cockpit.
"People do things after someone gets hurt," Tony Schumacher said of safety innovations. Drag-racing legend Don Garlits, for instance, pioneered the rear-engine dragster still used today after he was seriously injured when his front-engine car exploded in 1970.
"There are probably some dangers to having [the canopy]," said Tony Schumacher, who tested the canopy car last month in Florida. "There are a lot more dangers to not having it."
Final qualifying
Schumacher was sixth in the last round of qualifying at Auto Club Raceway and defending Winternationals top-fuel winner Morgan Lucas took the No. 1 spot with a run of 3.783 seconds and 325.06 mph.
In funny cars, three-time Winternationals winner Robert Hight of John Force Racing jumped to the top qualifying spot with a pass of 4.060 seconds and 316.52 mph.
One last round of qualifying was scheduled Saturday afternoon but was rained out. The fastest 16 cars in each class advanced to final eliminations that start Sunday at 11 a.m.
Scary accident
Mike Austin, who drives in the NHRA's second-tier top alcohol class, escaped injury when his dragster skidded out of control and crashed during an eliminations round.
About halfway through his run, Austin's car flipped and sailed over the right-side guard wall. Austin walked away from the wreckage and was examined and released by medical personnel, the NHRA said.
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