Connie Cohen?

[.]

Isn't there another way to shut those things off. A regular kill switch. Something? Whatever? That was about the worst I've seen and she JUST missed the opening in the turnout as well!

I've always wondered why they never had a killswitch on the right bar just like streetbikes. I guess the reason might be the fear of accidentally hitting it on a good pass and screwing up a good run. I'd rather goof up a pass then be held 'hostage' on a runaway bike. I've been riding sportbikes since 1991 and I've never once hit the kill switch by accident.

 

[flash]

Bob Frey said over the PA that it looked like a stuck throttle because the bike never really slowed down. .

That's exactly what I thought because when she did the burnout it was an extremely long burnout.

 

[Buddy]

That was about the worst I've seen and she JUST missed the opening in the turnout as well!

That's what I was looking at too... if she was just a little more to the left she would have run right into the edge of the rail, and I don't think we would be saying "thank god"s but rather RIP's...

CJ Curtsinger

 

[DrRocket]

There is a video clip of the incident on ESPN's website. Click on the NHRA section and there is a section of clips from Englishtown; Connie's incident is on the page 2. (there's 3 clips per page)

Here's the correct ESPN page. (It's not the most clear cut page to navigate to.)

The video is on the right hand side, navigate to the second page and you can see it.

I saw some smoke coming off her tires as the bike seemed to be heading off to the left wall. The throttle did seem to hang, and it looked like she was really fighting to keep it straight. She JUST missed hitting the striped curved portion after the final turn off, instead bouncing off of the flat portion before hitting the net.

I'm glad she's OK. That looked ugly.

 

[.]

The throttle did seem to hang...

To my ears it sounds like the engine is at at least 5000 - 6000 rpm as she's trying to keep it off the wall and it also sounds like it's laboring under load like the throttle is stuck open. She's definitely very lucky.

 

[big jim]

Can't you just pull the clutch in?...or does it melt/weld like top fueler?

 

[Sully]

Pulling the clutch in with the engine revved that high might be like pulling the pin on a grenade. And without the engine compression helping slow the bike down, the brakes alone might not do the trick anyway. Tough choice, I'm sure, and Connie only had a second or two to make the decision. She was very lucky it wasn't more serious.

 

[Eric Gross]

We have a master power switch on our funnybike . It would be impossible to shut it off during a run .And to put the "plug" would require you to let go and yank it out . My rider will tie the teather to his zipper of his leather instead of his arm . Either situation @ 190-212 mph would take my rider off the bike mroe than likely . No easy way to prevent it just glad connie is ok and that the bike lifted the catch fence for her .

 

[sdwarf36]

First off: Get well soon Connie!
What I have seen happen ( I drag raced bikes for 10 years) Is one of the 4 throttle cables for the Lectron carbs gets hung up when the throttle is chopped off fast. Watch at the end of a burnout-some times you'll hear the bike rev to 8k-but sound sick. Then the rider will wack the throttle a couple of times + the idle will drop.

 

[.]

First off: Get well soon Connie!
What I have seen happen ( I drag raced bikes for 10 years) Is one of the 4 throttle cables for the Lectron carbs gets hung up when the throttle is chopped off fast. Watch at the end of a burnout-some times you'll hear the bike rev to 8k-but sound sick. Then the rider will wack the throttle a couple of times + the idle will drop.

I forgot that about those carbs! I've only ran Mikuni RS radial slides and those only have one cable...but I have had the slides hang open before I got wise and bought a Yoshimura push/pull throttle assembly. The first time the throttle hung open on me was just after ripping into 3rd gear and I was just under 100 mph and it scared the s^*t out of me! Thankfully my brain kicked in almost immediately and I hit the kill swith to save my hide.