Andy Bohl & John Foster Collide in Shut Down Area @ SREMP!

[Drake Simmons]

Does anyone have any more information on how the drivers are and what happened besides what Larry Sullivan said below from DragRaceCentral.com from the division 3 Season Opener @ Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio?


LODRS 3-2 - Top Alcohol Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #1

 

[Sully]

Both drivers are okay, both cars are pretty well messed up - the left rear and right front of Foster's car took hard shots, tearing off large pieces on both corners. Right after the collision there was a cloud of red pieces from Bohl's brand-new Mustang body from the impact, so it's probably a writeoff as well. Not sure how badly the chassis of either car was damaged, but it's hard to imagine that much body damage without a lot of bent pipe underneath. However, the chassis did their job and the driver compartments were intact after the collision.

Everyone I talked to said Foster was pretty much a sitting duck when Bohl's car got out of shape and crossed into Foster's lane. He ran a huge speed for a 6.1-second elapsed time and his car never did get settled down during the run.

 

[T.Smith]

Wow! That sucks. I know both Chris and Andy quite well. I'm glad their ok and hope they both have the means to fix their cars to race again someday.


Also that 5.72 @ 249 is a career best for Chris Foster. This is their first year racing under NHRA.

 

[Sully]

The chassis on both cars were also badly damaged - front of Bohl's was almost broken off. The guy from the ET shack said Bohl's chute came out about the time the two cars came together, never did fully deploy. It was a bad one, two cars destroyed, but "they walked away."

 

[elvis]

That DOES suck. The Fosters are "local celebrities" and liked by many. Glad to hear they walked away though.

 

[Sully]

I've had a chance to talk to a few more people this morning and want to make it clear that I'm not pointing my finger at either driver for causing the accident. From my vantage point, it appeared that Bohl's car was close to the centerline, but the safety crew said that the debris on the race track put the initial impact left of the centerline. I also found out that one of Foster's chutes was found wrapped around the left side of his rear axle, which may have caused his car to move to the left when he put the chutes out. Bohl's chute was late, so the overtake speed was high and he was unable to avoid Foster's car when it moved over toward him. Everything happened very quickly - both cars were running over 240 mph at the line - and Funny Cars don't make good road racers.

One thing is certain - it was a very violent collision and we were fortunate that the damage was limited to the two race cars.