[Randall Thomas]

While I thought the event was GREAT as it was, if someone were to ask me how I think it could be made better and safer at the same time, I would suggest the following...

1. CRUISE: This type of venue will only be as safe as the people in it. Sometimes with all the action going on, they forget there's 100 cars in front of them, and even more behond them. Maybe a more detailed laid out written plan given to participants AT the crusie of HOW a safe cruise is done could be helpful, such as car spacing, speeds, NOT stopping for the cameras along the way to do burnouts (lol).

2. LONDON DRAGS: The London street wars was something else. Speeds over 40-60 are going to be potentially unsafe down main street no matter what the circumstances. If this is to continue (and I think it could) I suggest having the cars idle about 100 feet away from the crowd to a "burnout box" with water and the works. Then a preset length of cones to do that burnout in... maybe within 100 feet (?). After that, a predetermined "crusie" route around the city for the passenger to "enjoy" the rest of the experience that we enjoy so much in these cars, as well as a predicatble parade route for residents to enjoy cars passing by at normal street speeds.

3. AIRPORT SLALOM: The Airport slalom course really could not pose much of a problem since average speeds could hardly get above 30 or 40 with nothing but grass and cones to impact.

4. AIRPORT DRAGS: The Airport drag area is just not ever going to be safe with that short of a run off, as well as hard to see with the depth perception restrictions of a flat airstip staring you in the face. Maybe instead of an all out speed assault, turn it into a 0-60-0 accelerate and brake venue. Speeds would be kept down and the adrenaline pumped up... after all, the 0-100-0 is what made this car famous... but stopping at higher speeds can be more dangerous than accelerating to them, so the braking cones would have to be positioned to prevent this and keep speeds down to under 60.

Now, once again these "suggestions" are not meant to be "shoulda-beens", but rather "could-be's". It would safen up the events without reducing the thrill. It would be better for everyone all the way around, I think. If anything, it's just a start of the ideas to make a fair comprimise across the board, rather than an extreme move to one side or another.

/Randall Thomas