The last thing any of us want is anyone to wreck there car or bike.... The race should not go... And hockenhein penalised and drivers rewarded for the good show they hav put on for the fans saving the people at faults arses .... I take my hat off to them all .... Let's pray all goes well tomoro and every one goes home safe ... As u no its totally different racing than quali ........

A bunch of guys from our local group (Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia) all spent a serious lump of their pi55-poor central European income to go and see the big teams. I spoke to a couple of them this morning and they sure are angry, they view the racing surface to be no better than those we are accustomed to preparing on our grainy airport tracks. They can see the immense power on display and know exactly what's going to happen on this track. In defence of Gerry Lackey and his boys, they will have been presented with a fait acompli over this and will be heartbroken about the outcome. I know they can make a good track, they do it every year on a very poor surface at Bechyne in the Czech republic so it won't be for lack of know-how. Will not the biggest damage be to the confidence of the fans? After the mutterings over the Santa Pod start-line earlier this year and now this, who can blame people for staying at home rather than risk watching a burn-out fest?

Such a sad day for our sport. I'm just a fan and not even there but feel so much for all the racers and fans attending.

I think we need to put this weekend to bed and look forward. Making the European Finals meeting a real success will fix a lot of the bad feeling and show how good Drag Racing can be. Roll on September.

It might be a good idea if the FIA repaid all the money they have removed from the race teams, organisers and spectators. I dread to think what anyone who has paid Hockenheim to see Drag Racing for the first time is going to make of this situation. After all, this disastrous event, marked by great loss to all and the lasting damage it has caused to our sport was of an FIA making. I wonder if they would be prepared to comment?? No doubt the great FIA press machine will pass the buck to someone other than themselves in an effort to remain in possession of their closed wallets and minds to any other form of motorsport other than F1 or ralling!!

I actually won tickets via Eurodragster and so was there Saturday and Sunday. The track was obviously very poor traction wise but I must say some of the teams especially in TMD put on a great show on Saturday, it reminded me of smokey runs by Garlitis et all in the 60s ! Obviously the poor times would have made the FIA rounds a bit of a lottery but Sunday was a complete let down as a spectator. I had got a pass to stand with the photgraphers right by the strip and in the end watched 2 great semis by TMD and a couple of half hearted passes by the Shockwave pair then that was effectively it. Not speaking German I had not heard any announcements but I had been a bit wary as in the morning no TF fired up {except Chris Andrews}and so I was back in the Hotel by 3.30.

The strip was obviously in a very poor state for the pro cars { the sportsman stuff seemed OK in the main}but given the number of demo vehicals {jet cars etc} there I was a bit surprised the organisers could not cook something up in the afternoon. A few things, the crowd on Saturday was massive Sunday much less busy, did the locals know something I did not or is the night show a bigger draw than the FIA ? It's a great facility in many ways but it did strike me how big the German GP must be, the drag racing probably uses 10% of the stands and 10% of the car parking. The distance from my stand to the paddock was enormous so I got much more foot sore than at the Pod. Talking to one of the locals she said they had been going for 6 years and it seemed bigger every year but I wonder if this year's fiasco might end that run. I thought on Saturday that there seemed to be less of the jumbo delays that we get at the Pod every oil down or whatever, maybe that is why the strip was in poor condition. On Sunday we got the jumbo delay to end all jumbo delays about lunchtime !

Anyway 3 cheers for the TMD guys for bringing back smokey runs, also Urs Eerbacher who did a fantastic 6.4 run {1000ft} which may not have been fast but looked fantastic.Also standing behind the start there reminded me of what I used to like about the Barn !

Bill

The spectators at Hockenheim seemed to be having as much fun as other years. They are happy with noise and smoke. The place has been rammed all weekend.

ok now im in possession of some FACTS i can tell you that out of all the pro racers just 5 voted to race, and 4 of them were tmd mostly because of a points chase and you can back a blown car down, you cant a nitro car,
i can say that Mr jerry lacky and his cronies, and if thats mispelt then let the mispelling stand as exactly what this man is... lacking in any common sense at all,
he is a disgrace as a race director and should resign NOW

he accused the racers of being cowards, fkin cowards cause they dont want to destroy their equipment or die... who does this prick think he is...
"iv been doing this 40 years I know what im doing the racers are just cowards"
right... and you sir are an Ass

The whole track was blasted not scraped and the blasting removed 90% of the bonding tar in the asphalt to put it in perspective the new start pad at santa pod that caused uproar had 50% of the bonding missing and this was the WHOLE track,
they will never prep that track again it will need re laying and will that happen???

no ones blaming him for the fact it happend, im sure that was out of his controll
but the way he handled it, spoke to people and tried to bully the racers was and is dispicable

Lackey do us all a favor and go dig a hole somewhere fall in it.....

I hope that untill someone who knows what their doing is in charge that the FIA dont entertain this place again

From my perspective to call the racers cowards given the state of the track would be unacceptable. You can clearly see from the times that the track just couldnt support the power that these cars produce, and that could be seen clearly from the fast sportsman cars - like JB - with the track being described as not as good as a rwyb track. Seems that it quite possibly resulted in one pro mod meeting the wall. Majority of the racers did not want to risk themselves or their equipment by racing on a surface that they struggled to safely get there vehicles down - and im sure that they are facing a lot of pain in their pockets from paying entry fee's, travelling and not racing, and possibly from damage done trying to get down a track that simply was not suitable for them. Im sure this is not good from a sponsors perspective either. Then there are the fans, who turn up expecting to see a full FIA drag race only to be disappointed. No one involved wins from this situation, however if this meeting was to once again disappear from the calendar _could_ that help to keep the 2 FIA meets at Santa Pod safely in the calendar - given the dwindling numbers seen at the Main Event?

"Rocket" Ronnie Picardo I'd expect.

Myself, Emil, Micke, plus Tommi, Sami and one other member of Anita Makela's crew experienced similar on Thursday evening when we went to inspect the track and check it with their traction gauge tool. We were clearly not joe public, and we were not interfering with the two tractors sledding the track at the time.