Safety Third

The early days of drag racing were wild and relatively rule book free. Race on Saturday, Sunday, maybe go to work on Monday, if you didn't die. In the late 1940s and 50s drag racing took off on the west coast of the US. Post war time talented people were modifying their cars, adapting old aviation equipment, and generally enjoying a more peaceful time in life.

It didn't necessarily start with Creighton Hunter, but he was pivotal in the development and adoption of drag racing as a dedicated motorsport.

On July 2, 1950, Creighton Hunter, C.J. “Pappy” Hart and Frank Stillwell held what is generally regarded as the first organised commercial drag race at an unused runway at Orange County Airport in Santa Ana. Hunter later recalled that the first event attracted around 25 racers and 75 spectators. Although other sources say there were 60 racers and 500 spectators so yeah. Each racer paid $1 to enter which I'm sure back then was a lot of money! Hunter was a street racer prior to the inception of the event and admitted to racing illegally and being run out of a few places. Santa Ana was to be the home of drag racing for its first few years of life.

So back to this safety thing, or lack thereof. From what I've been able to read on the internet from official NHRA, Hotrod and commentators like Don Prieto, initially the first races had as many as 5 or 6 cars racing at the same time. I can't quite make out if this was at Santa Ana or just the activities of illegal racing by others at dry lakes in the area though. The format soon evolved into the familiar two-car race, in part for safety. Safety thing number 1.

That said according to an interview by the LA times with Hunter at some stage a spectator did die when a flywheel came off a car and hit them in the chest, killing them. So I'm sure scatter shields were being discussed at this point. Scatter shields didn't become a safety requirement until 1955 under a mandate from the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA). Safety thing number 2!

In 1951 Wally Parks established the NHRA in an attempt to organise hot rodding and standardise the sport. From 1951 to 1954 there was one recorded fatality at a Texas-based track, according to figures supplied by the NHRA in a 1955 safety report. Importantly, this didn’t account for every drag race happening across America. Illegal street racing, independent events and poorly documented tracks make the true number almost impossible to know. But at NHRA-sanctioned tracks, the early safety record appeared surprisingly good.

In 1953 on the 7th of February Art Chrisman exceeded a theoretical limit in speed of 140 mph that was suggested by Roger Huntington. Huntington was an influential automotive writer. Chrisman went 140.08 mph in the No. 25 dragster at Santa Ana. Speed records after this just kept getting higher and higher. And as you could imagine the danger levels got higher and higher. While there wasn't a particular safety principle that would dictate the need for new rules the NHRA was continually writing and reviewing safety protocols. So in essence the "rules" being added to and refined during this period helped build the foundation for safety. Safety thing 3.

By the middle of the decade the rulebook was beginning to look a lot more serious. Helmets were appearing on drivers in the early 1950s, and by 1955 NHRA safety regulations required helmets and seat belts in specified classes. Firewalls separated the driver from the engine and fuel, while open and modified cars required roll bars. That said, those early roll bars could be little more than a hoop behind the driver and only needed to reach around shoulder height. So yeah. “Safety third.” Safety things 4, 5 and 6.

As the years ticked by, safety incrementally improved. More tracks opened, more joined the NHRA, and lessons learned from accidents slowly found their way into rules and safety equipment. As speeds increased, new ideas such as braking parachutes were developed to help bring the cars back to a stop.

But by 1958 and 1959, it was becoming clear that the cars were evolving faster than some of the tracks they raced on. In September 1958, two drivers were killed just seven days apart at the gasoline-only San Gabriel Valley Drag Strip. Nitro wasn’t to blame here. Then in November, Lions Drag Strip experimented with shortening its racing distance from the traditional quarter-mile to just 990 feet, reducing terminal speeds while giving racers more room to stop.

The problem was no longer simply how fast you could go. It was whether the car, the driver and the track were capable of dealing with what happened next.

In 1959 driver Red Case was killed when his dragster left the track and hit a piece of farming equipment. Reports suggest that the crash could have been survivable were it not for what he hit. Eek. Drag racing historian and Drag News publisher Doris Herbert estimated that 15 people were killed in drag racing during 1959. That same year saw the establishment of Drag News’ influential Standard 1320 record system, requiring participating tracks to meet standards for track measurement and timing. Safety and credibility were becoming connected: if drag racing was going to mature into a national sport, its tracks, timing and rules all needed standards. Safety thing 7.

Finally in late 1959 NHRA members nationwide met in Los Angeles for the National Drag Rules Conference. Here they would review and revise the rules for the sport and set a marker for safety going forward. The NHRA had created its first rulebook in 1954 and published its first comprehensive drag racing rulebook in 1956. By the end of 1959, the rules were again being reviewed and refined as the sport continued to change.

Where this story ends up is here with you reading it and thinking about the next time you go to the track to race. How much is your life worth. In the early days of drag racing they were figuring it out as they went. Now-a-days you can watch a million videos on YouTube on what not to do. Some of the wildest racing I've seen is at Yellow Belly Raceway. But still drivers are getting out of their cars alive. The vehicle might be mangled and upside down but they are alive. Be sure before you go racing next time make sure you have the most important piece of safety gear working correctly, your brain. It will save you. Safety thing 8.

Thank you for reading this short story about safety. There are so many things I didn't cover but really wanted to. There is just so much history to go over and I'm only human.

Nic :)

For more reading on these topics here are a few great links.

Santa Ana Drags... The End of an Era (by Don Prieto) https://wediditforlove.com/SantaAna.html

C.J. "Pappy" Hart (by George Mattar, Hemmings) https://www.hemmings.com/stories/c-j-pappy-hart/

Life Is a Drag--and Fun (by David Haldane, LA Times) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-01-05-me-21451-story.html

Doris Herbert (by Don Garlits Museum) https://garlits.com/hall-of-fame/doris-herbert/

This story was written by me and AI was used to help research and fact check it.