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Larry Dixon in bad crash, thankfully OK. (1 Viewer)

Lots of sparks around the right front tire area before it broke apart or as it was breaking apart. It looked like he was on a good pass..Thank GOD he can race another day!!!
 
I was surprised at it being just open tubing, obviously very heavily braced, around the drivers compartment. I thought 15 years ago when Tony had his huge wreck in Memphis, they discussed a tub for the driver. Kind of just a compartment within the frame rails of carbon fiber to keep a driver from leg banging the bars and breaking them. I suppose that never did actually come about.
 
If I recall correctly, after Muldowney's crash in 1984, they started doubling up the tubing around the driver's compartment, or at least did so on her car when she came back. think they still do today - Larry would have been in bad shape if it was just single tubing.
 
Looking at third shot of sequence's you can see the chassis broke before it folded, it is almost looking like metal fatigue of sort, I am sure the chassis builder buys quality tubing but this is something that could be easily missed when you have a whole cache setting in rack, there may be equipment to check tubing that I am not sure of. I have had some experience with chrome moly but nothing at this level, I'm no expert so it is just my observation and opinion.
 
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It reminded me of Corey Mac's crash at Bristol in 2006. The difference being where the frame let go. In Corey's wreck, the frame broke behind the roll cage. So glad he is O.K. Scary to watch.
 
Registered member said:
I was surprised at it being just open tubing, obviously very heavily braced, around the drivers compartment. I thought 15 years ago when Tony had his huge wreck in Memphis, they discussed a tub for the driver. Kind of just a compartment within the frame rails of carbon fiber to keep a driver from leg banging the bars and breaking them. I suppose that never did actually come about.
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I believe that is what the Schumacher/Aerodine canopy is. Not sure how far it extends to the feet though.
 
So now they they are doing 330 at 1000' and breaking chassis like wishbones again, maybe they will honor the memory of dale Armstrong by taking his advice and backing these monsters down a bit.
 
Registered member said:
Nothing against your great shots Brent , Marks shots are so clear and precise the equipment has come a long way, besides being awesome pictures they should help in officials get a better take on what happened.
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None of these shots are mine, they're all by Mark Rebilas or Roger Richards. The first shot of the LCD screen is from Mark himself before he had access to a card reader.
 
Registered member said:
None of these shots are mine, they're all by Mark Rebilas or Roger Richards. The first shot of the LCD screen is from Mark himself before he had access to a card reader.
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I think all you guys do a great job giving us fans the enjoyment of seeing these great drag racing shots that will last a lifetime, Thank you.
 
Important to note that the Drivers cockpit section did not fail - it was well infront in relation to the front of the cockpit. You can see in the last pic on Mark's blog post on the crash, where the arrow is pointing to the throttle pedal, there is a 3 dimensional X at the front of the footbox that is designed to deflect any head on impact with the wall after the rest of the car has broken away.

I will say that I am amazed at how well the car held up after being slammed into the deck from that height. I am glad the tires appeared to take a lot of the hit. So glad that Larry walked away this time.

Reminds me (A LOT) of this accident we had down here in Australia a few years ago, with my buddy Phil Lamattina in the seat. Watch it here:
 
larry was on 'fox and friends' around 5:50am cst today.....talked about it for about 5 minutes.
 
If the cars didnt have such a long wheelbase would it keep them from taking off like that or is it because the wing is so far back?
 
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