A serious No Prep Accident. (1 Viewer)

[ZWeinstein]

I do not see why some are blaming this on the fact that it was a no prep race. It does not make a difference whether or not it was a prepped or no prepped deal, the fact that there were crowds past the finish line without any barriers is negligent and I will bet the water barriers set up had no water in them which would have made those completely useless. Also others saying that races should not take place on temporary race tracks is missing the glaring problem of no barriers. You can have races on temporary tracks as long as safety is strictly followed. In fact this past weekend I was in Kingman Arizona where they were holding a street drags on Route 66. Now I know when I say street drags people will read that cockeyed but at this event was held on a closed off street. There were safety/rescue crews stationed at the starting line and in the shutdown area. Full tech inspections took place and a full crew working the starting line. I saw several cars get shut off for leaking or other problems along with a eagled eye starter making sure windows were up and belts were buckled. And most importantly full concrete barriers from burnout to turnout with any crowd well behind a secondary set of barriers and absolutely no spectators (that I could tell) in the shutdown area. In fact at one point Saturday night during the big tire class the starter actually stopped the race for a few minutes to get the excessive amount of people out of the starting line area that was piling up.

 

[Dragracer]

Sadly another person has died as a result of the accident. A women age 46.
So sad, it didn't have to happen.

 

[Butch]

Zed that Kingman race has been going on a long time. I'd say they have it to near perfection.

 

[SoCal Racer]

I saw a video of the run that resulted in this tragedy. The driver was smoking the tires all the way down the track despite being clearly behind his competitor with no chance of catching up. A smart driver would have lifted but these wannabes have more dollars than sense and drive the car way too far and end up losing control. But ultimately the promoter needed to either have barriers all the way to the end of the track or ensure there were no spectators in harm's way before running.

I will say this regarding prep - I'm spoiled nowadays with great racing surfaces. When I started racing there was no track prep other than rubber left over from last week's event, and if we were lucky a little VHT sprayed the first 60' or so. Stuff DID happen on track, but within the safety constraints of a sanctioned race track. Also, promoters would often stop the show until people cleared dangerous areas.