[james schaechter]

If an approved tether fails, the same lawyers that approved this will simply push the liability away to the racer anyway.

The point here is to improve safety for a problem that can and has occurred. I certainly understand that. Hopefully, NHRA will be open to better and more solutions. When there is only one provider, it is going to be more expensive than it needs to be. If they open it up, this could actually be a good thing by 2014.

I think that NHRA suffers from the same problem that many other Corporations suffer from. The Lawyers and Accountants make key decisions that are outside of their core competancy. Lawyers and Accountants (and other specialists) are supposed to offer expert advice to executive level decision makers that have done their due diligence. Then the Executives make a decision based upon all of the expert advice, their experience and any other research, which should include manufacturers and racers. If the executive level of decision makers are not capable or willing to take the responsibility of their positions and make these decisions, usually someone else will. Looks like a classic case here. Hopefully, the rule improves before 2014. I would not fault a lawyer, they are only looking at reducing risk. An accountant would be in favor of reducing potential payouts. We need a stronger executive level management team to run and represent racers in our Association. If we don't get that, these flaws in decision making or maybe absence of decision making will continue. The unintended consequence of this is a rule that is less than ideal. My hope is that common sense will prevail here. There are good people at NHRA that possess the experience and common sense, they just don't appear to have the authority they need.
I wonder who actually signed off on this?