Scott Palmer Keeps The “Throttle Whack” Alive!

In an era of racing that has seemingly gone the way of the dinosaurs, nearly all nitro fueled dragsters and funny cars used to have one step in their warm up procedure that would literally and figuratively blow you away.

Before they had the precision machinery right there in the pits that they have today, the teams would use the 10,000 horsepower engines to sort of “seat” the clutch pack, using a quick blip, or “whack” of the throttle to compress everything together and have it ready to hit the track for the next pass.

The byproduct of this procedure just happened to be a true thrill for die-hard race fans, those fans who run toward the sinus-murdering nitro fumes instead of away from them. The same fans who hold their ears only to keep the eardrums intact, because they would certainly love to hear those thundering horses without having to cram their fingers in their ears to preserve their ability to hear. The same fans that buy tickets to each race they can feasibly make it to year after year.

Imagine – as if it’s even almost possible to do so – standing literally feet away from one of these fire-breathing monsters as it idles angrily under the awning in the pits. The crew dutifully carries out their tasks without saying a word, equal parts precision training and the complete inability to yell over the engine, while the fans gather ever closer to the rear of the car, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the most raucous engines on the planet.

A few moments into the procedure and everything is looking good, so you see one of the crew guys reach toward the throttle linkage. You know it’s coming, and you prepare yourself. “Don’t jump. Don’t scream. Don’t run.” you repeat over and over, knowing you’re almost certainly going to do at least one of the three.

Then it happens. With little more than a flick of his wrist, the crew member unleashes all 10,000 horsepower and for maybe a tenth of a second, all of your bodily functions cease. You can’t hear. You can’t see. You can’t breathe. You literally can’t form a coherent thought. And it’s freakin’ amazing, which is why the fans used to line up several rows deep at each pit as they fired the cars up, literally waiting to get blasted by a shockwave of horsepower.

Unfortunately, much like long smoky burnouts and dry hops, the throttle whack has become a relic. Each fuel team carries with them a small clutch factory inside the transporter that allows the clutch specialist to assemble the clutch packs in a way that no longer require the throttle whack to seat everything together. With the rising cost of parts in the nitro classes, anything that can be done to save unnecessary wear and tear on parts helps the teams from top to bottom, so the throttle whack became a distant memory for most fans.

Scott Palmer, however, has decided he and his team aren’t going to let the tradition die completely. From my understanding, Palmer’s clutch specialist actually leaves the clutch pack out of the bell housing until after the team warms up the engine, so these guys aren’t clinging to old-fashioned tuning and assembly methods. Instead, they’re doing this for the fans. Palmer, a sort of outlaw racer from way back, knows that without the fans, the sport will die, so his crew has made the throttle whack a part of every warmup, and you can see in this video, the fans truly appreciate it, and so do we. Anything that these racers do to pull the fans in will ultimately help the sport we all know and love thrive, even if it means a little extra wear and tear on parts. Scott Palmer and crew, we salute you!

 

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