Today’s motor sports have never been safer, from roll cages to computers that monitor the engine and have subroutines in place to turn the engine off and deploy parachutes to slow the vehicle down. All set to save the life of the driver in the worst case scenario disaster or catastrophic failure of the engine.

The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) is the worlds largest auto racing organization. It was founded by Wally Parks in Glendora California in 1951. There are many classes of drag racing in the NHRA on the type of car you plan to build to take out of the garage on a Saturday morning and go racing. Also, along with all of these classes are pages and pages of rules set in place by the NHRA to keep the drivers and everyone else safe.

John Force is one of the greatest drivers today in Funny Car Racing. He owns his own company and has a team of racers driving for him, including a mechanical team for each car to tear down the engine in between runs and to fix anything that breaks. Today’s team consists of John Force, Robert Hight, Ashley Force Hood, Mike Neff, Brittany Force, and Courtney Force.

Former racer Scott Kalitta died on June 21, 2008 in Englishtown, New Jersey. Kalitta’s Funny Car was traveling at 300 MPH when the engine exploded near the finish line. The flames from the engine damaged the parachutes so they were unable to slow the car and it proceeded to enter the sand trap then slamming into the retaining wall at the end of the trap. He was pronounced dead when medical teams arrived.

In 2007 John Force was in a crash where he broke multiple bones in his arms and legs although he has been back for a while and still puts up great competition for the other drivers in the Funny Car racing class. However with the death of Kalitta, John Force and the Force Racing team backed NHRA’s Safety Committee in developing sensors that monitor the engine of Top Fuel and Funny Cars. The sensors are meant to shut down the fuel pump and deploy parachutes if the engine backfires.

A backfire is where the fuel that leaves the combustion chamber of the engine is not done burning, and it ignites in the exhaust system unintentionally.

This backfire could also occur in the intake manifold and ignite the fuel and air intended to go into the combustion chamber before it enters causing all kinds of problems for engines.

Following Kalitta’s death, Top Fuel and Funny Car races were shortened to 1,000 feet as an extra safety measure for all tracks with padded retaining walls at the end of each track. This was announced by the NHRA on July 2, 2008.