"Fire Prevention" TAFC burns to ground at Indy (1 Viewer)

[Custom Body Fan]

The Fox coverage of Indy showed Chris Zgoda's TAFC burn to the ground in Q3. Seems like Chris was fine. Ironically, the car is sponsored by Chris' company, Zgoda Fire Prevention. As the car burned, you could easily read Zgoda Fire Prevention on the hood!

 

[Cliff]

Arghhhhhhh Glad he was OK, hate that the car burned. That was a nasty alky fire.

 

[Sherman, Sherm, & Sherm Gun]

Bobby has a longer version of that video. He never got out...

 

[mick]

that is difficult to watch

 

[Chili]

I do believe he was transported to a hospital following the fire. An ambulance left the track with sirens on shortly following the fire. Glad he is ok.

 

[Sherman, Sherm, & Sherm Gun]

In the NHRA video, it shows him on a stretcher.

 

[Cliff]

Man I have seen so many fires over the years. Once at OCIR an Alky Altered caught fire on the starting line. No visible flames, all I saw was the driver suddenly bail out of the car. Then we saw the heat waves from the fire. That was scary....

 

[Randy]

Safety crew could have used the rear body latch to lift the body off from the rear, not just from the front.

 

[Sherman, Sherm, & Sherm Gun]

I highly doubt they know anything about those.

 

[Chili]

Safety crew could have used the rear body latch to lift the body off from the rear, not just from the front.

You know a ton more about that than I would. With the integrity of the body destroyed at that point, would that still work? Sad to see an entire car destroyed but glad he escaped serious injury. I know Zgoda was fairly new at it. Hopefully he can recover and return to the track soon.

 

[Randy]

You know a ton more about that than I would. With the integrity of the body destroyed at that point, would that still work? Sad to see an entire car destroyed but glad he escaped serious injury. I know Zgoda was fairly new at it. Hopefully he can recover and return to the track soon.

Knowing the heat from and engine fire could damage the body, typically at the firewall, causing a collapse when raised as seen in the video, leaving the driver in the mess is why the rear releases were mandated years ago. The damaged body could pivot out of the drivers area at the firewall if raised from the rear if done correctly, or an entire burning body could be flipped over off to one side if both the front and rear releases were used. More training for the responders would help. Especially at smaller tracks where responders may not be familiar with the rear body releases. I'm curious how many here on Nitromater even knew there was such a thing?

 

[r2]

Knowing the heat from and engine fire could damage the body, typically at the firewall, causing a collapse when raised as seen in the video, leaving the driver in the mess is why the rear releases were mandated years ago. The damaged body could pivot out of the drivers area at the firewall if raised from the rear if done correctly, or an entire burning body could be flipped over off to one side if both the front and rear releases were used. More training for the responders would help. Especially at smaller tracks where responders may not be familiar with the rear body releases. I'm curious how many here on Nitromater even knew there was such a thing?

I knew!
I have also noticed some teams putting tape over it, for some reason. chute line?

 

[dr flames]

I knew!
I have also noticed some teams putting tape over it, for some reason. chute line?

View attachment 13426

Good catch on the tape Ray, looking forward to hearing reason for that, Randy been away for awhile did not know about the rear release, thanks for the heads up

 

[scratch]

I have one on my car.

 

[Pete]

Andy Bohl ran around back and pulled that lever...probably how they got the body off and driver out

 

[r2]

Good catch on the tape Ray, looking forward to hearing reason for that, Randy been away for awhile did not know about the rear release, thanks for the heads up

I'm going to guess the reason for the tape, is the way the pilot chutes have a mind of their own, and possibly has pulled the handle. That body is not coming off however. So I don't understand the reasoning myself.

 

[Dragracer]

The NHRA Safety Safari is one of the best, or the best Safety crew in all auto racing. It's been proven time and time again. Be glad you aren't running in F1 where your chances of a good outcome in a bad accident is questionable. In F1 you have to first wait for the safety car, have them stand around and decide what happened then, if needed, find people to help take care of everything.

 

[Burnnitro1320]

I have one too...but if the guys at the US Nationals don't know to go pull it then Im not sure what the point of it is.

 

[Butch]

So, this rear latch you speak of, does it work similar to the front latch? Last I worked on a flopper the rear was secured by a hook type of mechanism that held the
body.

 

[Burnnitro1320]

Same principle, on mine the "hook" portion is hinged, when it's pulled the hook rotates away from the cross bar so the body can be lifted straight off the chassis.