By David G. Firestone

Before we dive into this weeks Friday Feature, I want to discuss why I reposted an old article last week. As happens sometimes, I had to deal with a couple of minor things last week, and I didn’t have enough time to get to the Friday Feature. I hate doing things this way, but real life gets in the way. Now on to the Pedregon Brothers!

When “Flaming” Frank Pedregon passed away in 1981, he had no idea his sons would become some of the most respected drivers in Funny Car. Fast forward to 2019, and one son Tony has 43 event wins, fourth on the all time win list, and two championships, and the other Cruz has 33, and two championships, including the only Funny Car championship not won by John Force in the 1990’s. The Pedregons have gone down as one the greatest families in the history of drag racing.

The first brother to have real success in Funny Car was Cruz. He started racing in 1987 in a top alcohol dragster, moved to top alcohol funny car, then to top fuel in 1991, and in 1992 won the Funny Car championship. The biggest rivalry in drag racing in the 1990’s was John Force vs. Cruz Pedregon. Both were driving Pontiac Firebirds for a while, with Cruz driving this Interstate Batteries/Hot Rod car, represented by this 1/32 die-cast. John Force was not going to be denied, and decided to get in Cruz’s head by hiring Tony as a driver. By 1993, both Pedregon brothers were racing in full time funny cars Tony and John did not have the best of relationships. Both John and Tony were racing the same design car, but Tony would have to, on occasion, throw a race for John. This is a 1:24 scale mock-up of his Castol funny car from his days with John Force. In 1998, Tony won 2 events, one at Texas, the other at Denver. During that season, he wore these Simpson Holeshot drag boots.These boots are unlike most racing shoes because they are designed to cover both the shoe, and the end of the leg of the driver suit. Why would funny car drivers wear such boots? Well, to answer that, let’s look at the design of the inside of a funny car. The driver sits almost on top of the rear axle, with the 10,000 horsepower engine, and nitromethane fuel tank directly in front. Should there be an engine explosion, which isn’t uncommon, the fire would blow back into the driver. There are firewalls in place, but those can’t always be counted on to protect the driver from the full effects of fire in the time it takes to get a funny car stops. That’s where these boots come in. They will give that little extra bit of help to the driver in exiting the car.  They are rated 15, not bad for 1998 standards, but would have a 20 rating in 2019. Both boots have been signed by Pedregon and he added the inscription “’98.”  In 2002, the Pedregon brothers formed Cruz Pedregon Racing, Inc., and both have had driver duties. This visor was used by one of the brothers, and autographed by both. It’s designed for a Simpson Bandit-style helmet. The Pedregon brothers didn’t use “The Clydesdale Effect” with this visor. I asked Cruz if he uses The Clydesdale Effect, and this was his response:

“I did, but honestly, to me, if your susceptible to that, you probably have something else going on. Part of your God given ability to focus, to me should be, even if something is in your vision, your focus should be the thing you are focused on, not things on the outside. I did try that at one time, and all it did was verify that I’m really screwed up.”

I also came across this Cruz Pedregon race-used visor. It’s a Simpson visor, which shows a number of scratches, and scuff marks, and Cruz has autographed the visor with the inscription “2X FC CHAMP!.” The last item is a parachute bag used by Frank Pedregon Jr. It’s designed to hold the parachute on the back of the car, and was from the car when Frank hit Scotty Canon. Next week, I’m gonna go off topic.

By David G. Firestone

Most people associate parachutes with skydiving, para sailing, or military operations, but they have been critical over the course of auto racing as well. For those who follow drag racing or land speed records, parachutes being deployed at the end of the run is a common, and reassuring sight. Dragsters and funny cars can go from zero to 320 MPH in 3.87 seconds. There is no way these cars could stop as effectively without perfect parachute design. Most people also don’t realize that there are two very distinct designs used in drag racing, the Simpson design, and the Stroud design.

The Stroud design came from necessity. The cross-form has been proven effective in the faster cars, namely top fuel, and funny car in the professional classes, as well as top alcohol and top alcohol funny cars in the amateur classes. These are great at stopping cars over 200 MPH. However, there are a number of categories in drag racing where the cars run under 200 MPH and the cross-form deploys too roughly, and would drag the car up. This problem was confirmed by Bill Simpson himself. When he first tested the cross-form at 100 MPH the car took off, and he was hospitalized and arrested. Bob Stroud, who is an engineer who has made a number of designs to airborne parachutes worked on the problem, and came up with the current design in the 1980’s. While Stroud developed the chute, many companies have made design changes.

For a time, these designs were relegated to the amateur classes of the NHRA. It was in May of 1990, at the AC-Delco Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway that the Stroud design came to the professional leagues, stopping Warren Johnson at the end of his races. It should also be noted that at that time, many drivers simply didn’t deploy their chutes at the end of a run. While their design has evolved over time, it still remains the standard for cars that race up to 205 MPH. This example comes from Pro Stock legend Warren Johnson’s post 2009 career. It shows a decent amount of wear. The chute canopy has an opening in the very center, for air to go through. The pilot chute is attached here as well. Pilot chutes are universally used to deploy parachutes. When the cords are pulled, and the chute is released, the pilot chute deploys, which catches air and pulls the primary chute behind it. The parachute has a tag from the Stroud Company stating is was made in 01/09.The chutes are strapped to a bar at the back of the car, the straps pre-covered in Nomex to prevent fire damage, then packed into a bag, before the race. These parachutes and pilot chutes are massive, but are packed into a bag which measures 9 inches square. There are two designs that are used to launch a parachute. There is the empty box design, which mounts to the back of the car, and is opened by pulling the cable. The second is a pneumatic launcher, used with smaller cross form, and most Stroud chutes. Drag racing parachutes are almost always packed by the drivers themselves. As one driver so elegantly phrased it, “If doesn’t work, I have nobody to blame but myself.” How do drivers pack their own chutes? I’ll let driver Rickie Jones explain that:

Next week, the Pedregon Family is profiled again.

By David G. Firestone

As I said last week, the mere word “paperwork” will make any person groan. Nobody likes paperwork. It is just awful. Yet it’s become a necessary evil. It permeates every aspect of life, even in auto racing.

Drag racing has a unique form of paperwork, as compared to other classes of auto racing. After every quarter mile run, a slip of paper is issued to the drivers giving their speed and elapsed time. This is used by the drivers and teams to figure out what their times were, so that adjustments in both car and strategy can be made. Nowadays these slips look like store receipts, but for many years, they were custom designed for the track, or even the specific event. I have a few examples of the variations of these slips. For being as old as they are, they are in great condition.

These first ones are from ATCO Dragway at Atco, NJ. These are slightly larger than a standard business card. These white examples come from the Cayuga International Dragway Park in Cayuga, Ontario. They are similar in size to the ATCO slips. This slightly smaller slip is from the NHRA Springnationals at Columbus, Ohio. The slip is cream colored. It is customized for the event, and is a piece of advertising for Chrondek, a company specializing in drag racing timing systems.These small thin paper slips come from Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. One of these slips has “white Vette” as opposed to the car number. A picture of said Corvette was included with these slips.  This slip is from Maple Grove Dragway, and it not only lists Chrondek, but also has an add for SW Race Cars and Components, Inc. on the reverse. New York National Speedway was located in Center Moriches, New York, and existed from 1966 to 1980. These series of small slips are from New York National. Another photo of the white Corvette at the track is included with this set of slips. The reverse has advertisements for Musclecars Performance Centers. York US30 Dragway operated out of York Airport in Thomasville, Pennsylvania. It operated from 1965 to 1979. These slips are from that long gone track. The reverse has advertisements for Hartman Automotive Racing Engines. The last slip is from Great Lakes Dragaway. This is from 1990, and unlike the others, this one has more specific information, such as reaction time, and more complete speed. This slip was signed by “Dyno” Don Nicholson.

Next week, the drag racing theme continues with a parachute.