Nitromater

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Not good

A line came off the pump when pressure hit it from starting. They tried to reattach it but the pressure was too great. When they hit the fuel shut off it spray out and caught fire.

The good is that no one got hurt, the car was replumbed and ran again a little while later that night.
 
The track manager and staff had a meeting with the national drag racing body Tuesday just gone over the situation - I imagine they got chewed out pretty hard!! The way the situation was handled was very poor!! Thankfully no one was hurt at the end of the day.
 
A line came off the pump when pressure hit it from starting. They tried to reattach it but the pressure was too great. When they hit the fuel shut off it spray out and caught fire.

The good is that no one got hurt, the car was replumbed and ran again a little while later that night.

Thanks for the info, Virgil. Glad to hear everyone is ok! Looks like it could have been a lot worse.
 
The track manager and staff had a meeting with the national drag racing body Tuesday just gone over the situation - I imagine they got chewed out pretty hard!! The way the situation was handled was very poor!! Thankfully no one was hurt at the end of the day.
Why do you say the handling was poor? The safety crew was on it immediately, they used the proper extinguishers without panicking, the fire didn't spread and nobody got hurt. So what is it they could've done differently? The only thing I saw wrong was the crewmember struggled with the leaking fuel line for too long, ho should have shut it off right away, but I saw nothing but good work from the safety crew.
 
Why do you say the handling was poor? The safety crew was on it immediately, they used the proper extinguishers without panicking, the fire didn't spread and nobody got hurt. So what is it they could've done differently? The only thing I saw wrong was the crewmember struggled with the leaking fuel line for too long, ho should have shut it off right away, but I saw nothing but good work from the safety crew.

Because the tried to re-attach the fuel line instead of shutting it off. How simple is that?
 
Because the tried to re-attach the fuel line instead of shutting it off. How simple is that?
Unless I missed something, that was the crewmember doing that (which I already mentioned), not a safety worker. Michael Veskovich made it seem as if the track manager chewed out the staff for their handling of the fire, at least as I read it. Can't imagine the race team hanging around an extra day for a butt-chewing, so I assumed he meant the track crew.
 
In that situation, you have three choices:

Re attach the line, stops problem, no negative results. Plus while he was doing this it slowed the escape of fuel and allowed the rest of the crew to back away from the problem.

Hit the mag shutoff switch, and probably have a hydraulic situation that could hurt a lot of people.

Pull the fuel shut off and when the spray takes place the exhaust will ignite the nitro. By the time he did this, everyone was out of the way so that no one got burned.

Or a fourth option I guess he could have stood back and watched the carnage.

There wasn't much time to think about options and he went on instincts.

I thought the track crew did a good job except for the one who used a dry chemical extinguisher after the fire was out which ruins every hot surface it touches.

I know of what I speak here as it was my son in law that was trying to re attach the fuel line and pulled the fuel shut off and I feel he reacted in a timely and safe manner to protect as many as he could.
 
I'm with you Virgil, it took 3 seconds for your son to try to fix it, he then shut the fuel off and rolled the car forward----- in a total of 8 seconds there was three fire extinguishers in use and more coming into play--

I thought the crew on the car and the safety crew acted extremely fast and effectively---

It could have been alot worse , moving the car was a very good thing.

Glad it all repaired and ran later.

Michael , just what do you think should have went different besides not having a fuel leak ???

The fuel was shutoff and the engine was shut down quickly.

I would feel very safe with that safety crew on the video, they responded quickly,were calm, had the extinguishers in hand ,ready to use.

Having all the videos is a great training tool for future safety crews !
 
Don't those Aussies know anything? The should watch Alan Johnson. Wrap a rag around the leak-and when the starter tells you to shut off, signal ok + stage anyways. ;)
 
You better hope you want your steak well done.:D

Ha....:D
I wasn't making light of the nitro fire, which fortunately turned out not to be as serious as it could have been due to some quick thinking and fast reactions. But man, that nitrous deal was unbelievable. That driver was lucky to escape with his life.
 
The onboard doesn't make it seem as bad as the angle from down track. I thought they handled it pretty well for what they were dealing with.
 
Why do you say the handling was poor? The safety crew was on it immediately, they used the proper extinguishers without panicking, the fire didn't spread and nobody got hurt. So what is it they could've done differently? The only thing I saw wrong was the crewmember struggled with the leaking fuel line for too long, ho should have shut it off right away, but I saw nothing but good work from the safety crew.

Jim,

Lets start off with one of the officials riding a motorbike up the lane of a fuel car coming into stage (this was the car Mark was to pair with before his incident) the starter left the start line leaving Lamattina waiting. The fire crew had to come up from the top end of the race track to help with Marks fire, so when Lamattina got to the other end of the track on fire there were no fire crews there right away to put out his fire. To me that is not good enough. You be the judge. The national body obviously thought it was not good enough, hence a meeting about it on Tuesday.

Regards,

Mike.
 

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