A.M. Motorsport Nitro Freak

How John Force's Crash Changed NHRA Funny Car Safety Safety in a nitro-powered vehicle is on an entirely different level. When you're dealing with one of the fastest and most violent race cars on the planet, every piece of the cockpit and every rescue procedure matters. In this episode of Tech Inspection, Dragzine's Brian Wagner visits John Force Raci...

Schedules make it difficult to be in the same place at the same time. Crossing paths at the airport gave us an hour to finalise details for our last two events this year, and firm up some plans for next season. The team heads to Indy next week for the US Nationals and a couple of weeks of funny car school. Can’t wait.

Continuing preparations for the East Coast Nationals at Sydney Dragway Sept 26,27. We’re keen to burn some nitro, who’s coming ?

Happy birthday to our crew chief Bret Ehmer.

Crew chief, manager, coordinator, teacher and friend, there’s nothing on this team that he isn’t involved in.

26 hours a day, 9 days a week he toils away making sure we get to the next meeting.

Over the years he has offered opportunities to people with a lot to very little experience and through patience, guidance and humour he has trained us to where we are today.

We can’t do it without you but we’ll do it for you.

Tyres. The last point of contact between horsepower and the track.

You can make all the power in the world and set the clutch set up to perfection but at the end of the day it’s two large round rubber things filled with air that determines if it sticks or not.

We have just received and mounted new Goodyear eagle 36.0 x 17.5 - 16 slicks to some Weld Racing beadlock rims we acquired from John Force Racing. Interestingly the last car these rims were mounted to was driven by John himself.

The first thing we check after mounting is tyre roll out, the circumference of the tyre. Typically around 112-113 inches ( around 284.50cm ) from new, due to centrifugal force expanding the tyre on each run the tyre stretches over time and we retire the tyre once it measures 118.5 inches.

Before each run two of our crew assess the track conditions in each lane and one vital piece of information collected is track temperature. It can vary due to the time of day, sun or shade on the track or changing weather conditions. This information determines our tyre pressures. An average family car probably runs in the 30-40psi range in all four tyres, our funny car runs 40psi in the front tyres and anywhere from 6.5-7.5psi in the giant rear slicks. Varying by only 0.1psi increments we adjust the pressure to suit the track temperature, higher pressure for hotter temperatures and lower pressure for cooler temperatures. While we are in the staging lanes track temperature is measured at various times as are tyre pressures right up until we are ready to roll up to the starting area. You may notice teams put covers over the tyres to stop sunlight affecting pressures while in the staging lanes.

During the burnout, initial hit of the throttle and race you may notice the extreme deformation the tyres sidewall goes through. From the torque at the hit of the throttle wrinkling the sidewall, the centrifugal force narrowing and growing the tyre, to the half square half round shape at speed it’s amazing these tyres continue to keep their shape after every pass.

Tyres. Just one of the dozens of tuning decisions that either make or break your race weekend.