Nasty TF Crash @ Aussie Nationals (1 Viewer)

[D]

Just caught it on BBC World. Its also up on Sky News Sky News Video - Ouch! Dragster Breaks In Two At 300 Mph world wide coverage.

S/F
D

 

[HEMI6point1]

Glad the guy is OK, it made the evening news here as well.

Just one observation I made - the light posts are a little too close to the track. If the car would have turned right when it went airborne instead of to the left, things would have been really ugly.

 

[Kelly]

I can name 10 people at my office that brought this up to me today because they know I follow drag racing. One even said.......why do they do this when they know the dangers? Why? Because it's what they love! That's why! Can you say you are doing what you love? Hmmmm......dead silence. Imagine that!

 

[Nitrohaulic]

I can name 10 people at my office that brought this up to me today because they know I follow drag racing. One even said.......why do they do this when they know the dangers? Why? Because it's what they love! That's why! Can you say you are doing what you love? Hmmmm......dead silence. Imagine that!

Ask them what they think will happen if they hit a stationary object in their factory car at 140 MPH (as in them doing 70 and hitting another car head on that's doing 70). He's safer in that car than they are on the street. It's like the people who worry about flying, where they're statistically safer, then think nothing of driving down a road with thousands of oncoming missiles flying by.

 

[UK_Nitro]

Being shown over here in the UK too now...

 

[Toejam]

I was told by an Aussie TAFC driver visiting at Maple Grove that the reason why they buy cars from over here is that:
1.They can buy a good "used" car over here and have it shipped to Australia in 4 weeks.
2. If you are looking to purchase a new rail in Australia you are looking at anytime between 6 months to 2 years.

If you look at who buys the cars that are 3 years or less old the majority of the buyers are from down under.

Remember when Darryl Gwynn crashed in England, the car broke in half! They blamed it on transporting the car, or so I heard.

 

[HEMI6point1]

Remember when Darryl Gwynn crashed in England, the car broke in half! They blamed it on transporting the car, or so I heard.

They say that the chassis was weakened on it's trip to England.

 

[Just Paul]

They say that the chassis was weakened on it's trip to England.

Yup, and it had already been repaired at the spot it broke.

 

[bull05]

The car started to come apart at about 1000 foot. Happened about 10 meters away from where we were sitting. We had finished racing for the day and were enjoying the racing with the bracket sponsor. Initially looked as if the rear wing had come of and the 1st thing I thought of was Blaine. The sound of the crowd was pure silence of 10000 odd people. I looked at Steve and I said he is dead. That was the most eerie and weird feeling I have ever had at a race track in the 25 odd years I have been involved inthe sport. I have seen fatalaties at the track, have seen a guy go through the scoreboard but this was just horrific. When they said he had walked to the ambos the crowd went nuts. They then bought him along the return road ina buggy to show people he was OK. I was talking to one of the officials and they said he was in the car laughing saying what the hell did I just do. Unbeleivable.
And to the guy who asked about Oz chassis builders, as Wes said we have heaps of guys who do sportsman dragster and altered chassis, heaps of slammer chassis guys but due to the small number of FC and TF cars in the country there really isnt a market for it. One of the TF teams builds their own chassis. I know there have been the odd one or two over the years but as mentioned easier, cheaper and faster to buy from you guys. Also with the tech advancements made it makes sense for us to get them from you. We only have 8 rounds of TF racing during our season and no real testing so we have bugger all laps on our cars. Some would be lucky to see 30 laps a year with most teams.

Cheers
Jason

 

[Toejam]

I've watched that crash from 3 angles, and it looks like a carbon copy of Tony Shoe's from 2-3 years back. I always thought the part of the framerails between the Motor and Driver was the weak link on Dragsters. I guess in front of the Driver's compartment is not much stronger. I'm curious how many laps this car had on it?

 

[ozfuel]

I've watched that crash from 3 angles, and it looks like a carbon copy of Tony Shoe's from 2-3 years back. I always thought the part of the framerails between the Motor and Driver was the weak link on Dragsters. I guess in front of the Driver's compartment is not much stronger. I'm curious how many laps this car had on it?

Joe, the car was the ex Scelzi Winston car (2000 ?)

Mark.

 

[ozfuel]

Glad the guy is OK, it made the evening news here as well.

Just one observation I made - the light posts are a little too close to the track. If the car would have turned right when it went airborne instead of to the left, things would have been really ugly.

Sam, this is a compilation of clips from Willowbank raceway. It shows a quick clip of Jim Read going over the wall and hitting one of the lightpoles in his TF.
Very lucky to survive that.
YouTube - Drag Racing Burnouts, Crashes, Wheel stands and more...

Mark.

 

[rocketman]

Brent Sanford saw it on the local news and told me about it a little while ago.

 

[Toejam]

Sam, this is a compilation of clips from Willowbank raceway. It shows a quick clip of Jim Read going over the wall and hitting one of the lightpoles in his TF.
Very lucky to survive that.
YouTube - Drag Racing Burnouts, Crashes, Wheel stands and more...

Mark.

That still amazes me seeing all those American Muscle cars in a foreign country like that.

 

[D]

That still amazes me seeing all those American Muscle cars in a foreign country like that.

Remember Ford and GM were global companies, before anyone knew what global meant. A lot of those cars were opening their right door not their left.

D

 

[Gipraw]

The most amazing thing I see in the video is the extreme difference in the NHRA Safety Safari, and everyone else's ..

Look at how long it takes the safety guys to react in that video, versus how quickly the NHRA guys react . look at the video of Corey's Bristol crash last year .. you can see the truck coming up the track while Corey's cars is still sliding to a stop.


I don't think we can thank the NHRA Safety Safari guys enough for the bang up job they do at every event.

 

[ozfuel]

Doug, that footage is probably 12-15 yrs old.

Mark.