I've seen plenty of Sportsman cars crash, but never seen a SC Dragster roll like this one!
YouTube - Unbelievable Drag Race Crash Australian WSID Raceway
YouTube - Unbelievable Drag Race Crash Australian WSID Raceway
Nitromater
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Never seen a Dragster roll like this!
- Thread starter Toejam
- Start date
The ugliest sportsman dragster crash I ever saw was at Fremont Dragstrip. It was John Costa in a B/ED built by Ron Fry, right after the finishline it went into REVERSE and went everyway but straight. John walked away and was fine and then passed out but OK later. It was UGLY.....
The Swegian
Nitro Member
That was as violent a crash as I've ever seen. Once a race car starts rolling, it seems to accelerate its spins. Amazing.
Dragsters and non-winged sprint cars (and midgets) tend to do that when they snaproll. Those big rear tires act like big springs and keep re-launching the car each time they hit the ground. Full-bodied cars occasionally do the same thing, but their mass is distributed farther away from the center of rotation and they spin a little slower.
willy
Nitro Member
Which was originally why wings were incorporated into sprints. Weird because the track record went from 19.3 seconds without a wing..to 14.7 with at Knoxville..but it has eliminated that snap-roll thingy.
Not sure how..or even if it could be reduced in a dragster..sideways at the lights @ those speeds.
Nemo
Nitro Member
A diaper and timely chute deployment would have helped. Looked like the motor let go and dumped oil on the tires. I try to ride my hand on the chute the last couple hundred feet of track until the car has slowed way down just in case the rear starts to wash out for one reason or another.
Triple Nickel II
Nitro Member
I'm a strong advocate of diapers but that looked like the oil was coming out of the upper part of the motor so a "lower engine containment device" might not have made a difference in his case.
Thankfully, the driver walked away.
Bullet
Nitro Member
I was at the race where that happened. I was talking to someone about the car as it had already been real loose in the traps in one of the earlier rounds. From memory (may not be 100% accurate) I think he was having trouble with the vacuum pump tank spraying out a mist of oil out. They thought they had fixed it, but unfortunately not. I spoke to Paul a little later in the day and he was a little sore but okay. I am pretty sure that all of the rods were still intact too.
Joker741
Nitro Member
The ugliest sportsman dragster crash I ever saw was at Fremont Dragstrip. It was John Costa in a B/ED built by Ron Fry, right after the finishline it went into REVERSE and went everyway but straight. John walked away and was fine and then passed out but OK later. It was UGLY.....
My father-in-law did the same thing at Fremont in 1977 in a high 7 second front motor dragster(C/ED and B/ED). Through the lights, into reverse and the car came about 3-4 feet off the ground. He was racing Ted Seipel and he said he looked at Ted and Ted's eyes were HUGE!! It destroyed the gears in the tranny but everything else was okay.
