Sad Day

[Speedy_Sticks]

I meant in respect of the team being band, they had input as to how the car would perform in the burnout, without sticky conpound.

Could you imagen what would happen if F1 had an exhibition in the streets of London (which they did,) without the use of barriers?

The media would eat F1 alive!

If NHRA wants to keep it status as always improving safety, have have to apply it to off track events like F1 has.

That is why F1 is as big as it is now.

Cheers

James

 

[Nitrosnoopy]

The only thing I am gonna ad to my thoughts I previously posted is that in life stuff happens some good some really bad. Some bad stuff is preventable some not . Those people who lost their lives and who are hurt where innocent victims of something that went horribly wrong which in my opinion was and could have been totally prevented . With that being said the driver organizers and who ever else was involved in approving such actions need to be held accountable for their part of responsibilty in this unfortunate accident. Just the same as you would hold a driver of a car who runs off the road and kills someone in the process. Its not throwing one of our own under the bus its just the truth of the matter , we just need to make sure that ALL parties involved are also held accountable . Now I also want to leave a thought from Richard Petty .
Dont ever try to put a question mark where god has put a period .

 

[willy]

This is truly a tragedy. But all of this talk about penalties/banning, etc..is not right.

As was mentioned..there were many additional Pro Mods waiting in line for their turn. This has been an event for many years..as well as all over the country. These lil burnouts are staged every weekend somewhere and this one went terribly wrong. I couldn't believe how fast he was going..and won't even try to explain what happened.

There isn't a more professional outfit on circuit than Mr. Woods' teams and it's very disheartening to see all the posts ready to hang Troy..when what needs to happen is sit back..take a deep breath..and realize that these events have taken place 10's of 1000's of times without incident..but this one went tragically wrong.

My prayers are with the victim's families..as well as with Troy and the crew.

 

[megadeth]

I mean ban the team in respect of this accident. They had some part in the running of the car and should have known what the lack of sticky compound would do.

Would you have people lining a top fuel burnout without a barrier? If NHRA Drag Racing wants to keep its idea of safety always being number one, they have to do as much for safety off track as on track.

Could you imagen what would happen if F1 were wanting to do a exhibition on the streets in London (as they did) without barriers?

F1 would be eaten alive, that is why F1 is where it is today, they take safety as seriously off track as well as off track.

Cheers

James

Read Alan's post #152 and then tell me if you feel the same!
#1 NHRA only has Pro Mods for exhibitions and AMS pays for that series.
#2 A sanctioning body isn't responsible for participants outside of a sanctioned event which this wasn't!
#3 Who ever held the event I bet had insurance and will burden the responsibility along with the Police who gave approval.

Some of the statements made in this thread are ridiculous and unwarranted!

 

[Toejam]

Looking at the Press release on www.TroyCritchley.com they make it clear the local Law enforcement cleared the Highway before allowing the AMS car to make his Burnout! I'm wondering just how many kids and adults walked right in the middle of the road for a Better look? That's just speculation, but he was cleared to run by Local Police before doing this. I think the Town Mayor and Police have some explaining to do here...

 

[ozfuel]

Very sad deal.
The local news had a small 10 second spot about this accident Sunday night. Now that the media has learnt Troy is Australian, it's front page news on every report .
One question- Do PM cars runs a throttle stop like the nitro cars run in their burnouts ?

Mark.
My prayers to the deceased and to Troy.

 

[Randy]

http://www.troycritchley.com/

Alan

Not to sound lawyerly, I would stick to offering the condolences and leave the details and interpretations of what happened off the internet. "Anything you say (print or otherwise) can and will be used..." You know the rest.

This has impacted a lot car enthusiasts message boards and they aren't being very nice about it. I hope everyone learns from this and it's never repeated.

I was watching TV last night and they were advertising "PINKS." When I saw the burnouts all I thought about was what happened to those young kids. If it effects me it will effect the non racer types a lot more. I hope we aren't in for a storm.

God bless all those effected by this horrible tragedy.

RG

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

. . . Some of the statements made in this thread are ridiculous and unwarranted!

There's the understatement of the year! I sincerely hope this thread is removed prior to Troy's reading it.

I'm especially disturbed about the second paragraph of post #156.

 

[Speedy_Sticks]

I am sorry you find my sentence upsetting, I shall remove it if the powers that be wish me to.

But I do have some experince in mental health and was just expressing my honest opion.

PS I know my types are called 'PC detectives' etc but I would so love to get into racing car building and understanding the situations.

However, my main interest is bodying of buses, coaches trains etc.

Invite me to the USA let me give you my input and ideas!

 

[r2]

Invite me to the USA let me give you my input and ideas!

The door is wide open...
But we are full... Thanks but, no...

 

[scubasteve]

bobby , the best thing he can do is not waste his time looking at some of this garbage , like ive said i have dealt with a my situation everyday now for 16 yrs , and i will to the day i die, all i can say is im glad that his parents were god fearing strong christians and that when i go b4 the throne of god that some of these people on mater wont be there to judge me, i know all to well about the media etc etc . i dealt with it too. god bless

 

[rocketman]

I really don't know where to begin, but if you have a race team you had better come up with a strict safety policy concerning exhibitions and stick with it. This changes everything we do although when we went to blown alcohol we stopped firing up the car at shows, but we use to do fire ups a lot. Burnouts at anywhere other than the track was never a part of our act. I would never consider that because I knew this could happen.

The actions of a promoter and a driver have effected and ruined so many lives and have done major untold damage to the sport via headlines like " deadly dragster trick".

I see NHRA isn't saying a word on their site as they are sitting this one out. It's been a real bad year for our sport. But you know what? There were still rock concerts after 20 people were trampled to death at a Who concert. The show still went on but I doubt it will ever go on in Selma ever again. That still doesn't or should make anyone feel any better. We should all be grieving along with the people who knew and loved these victims so much.

 

[r2]

Rich
I commend both you, Nancy and anyone else for not firing your cars during a car show... I am going to have to tell the truth and show everyone that I had NO IDEA that they do burnouts or any other type of exhibitions at any of these charities or car shows... If you want to hear it as well as see it in action, have a video monitor playing clips from the track, or work with your local track about giving discounted coupons or free tickets to a days event... How many of those free tickets will get used anyway?? I really don't know...

But to even fathom doing a National Event type burnout on a city street lined with human beings just screams trouble... I don't care how many times it has gone without an incident... That Clay video scares the shoot out of me...

One last thing Rich... In an earlier post, you mentioned about a jet car on a public street doing a fire show... I am going to have to assume that includes a few burner pops as well... Now I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, but to me, that has disaster written all over it right there...

A car show should be just that, a place to show cars...
An exhibition of any sort should be held in a controlled environment, i.e. Racing Facility, with only people that know WTF they are doing, and not the keystone cops inspecting road conditions for a PM burnout, and doing crowd control via a walkie talkie... JMO

Flame if you wish... I have to plead ignorant here... I had no idea...
There are no words that I can come up with or have read concerning this horror... I just shake my head and wonder...

Here is one last thing that I found interesting concerning Troy and his future...Torco Racing Fuel's Competition Plus.com - Drag Racing's Internet Magazine - SELMER POLICE , “JUST A TRAGIC ACCIDENT - THAT’S IT”

 

[willy]

If the driver doesn't voluntarily retire, he should receive a lifetime ban from participating in sanctioned drag racing.

Racers have tried to improve the image drag racing for the past 50 years only to have this tragedy occur and do irrepairable damage to the cause. Race cars belong on race tracks.

My biggest concern is the victims and their families. Condolences to them all.

Hey Johnny Rotten Dude..you got your wish!! He's voluntarily giving it up this year..ya feel better??

From the Comp Plus link from earlier:

"Despite the tragedy, the Pro Mod Challenge will continue as scheduled. It is our understanding that the AMS Racing team driven by Troy Critchley has withdrawn from the remaining events this season and will not be racing," Matthew Brammer, AMS Pro Modified Challenge administrator said. "

You get to leave your keyboard ..Troy doesn't get to walk away from the tragedy like you do. Pfft..I wish I had a slap button on my keyboard.

 

[Nick Name]

There's the understatement of the year! I sincerely hope this thread is removed prior to Troy's reading it.

I'm especially disturbed about the second paragraph of post #156.

Yes.. #156 sounds like it was written by someone with mental health issues.

 

[rocketman]

Ray, I'm not going to flame you as you are right, there's always a chance something could go wrong as freak accidents happen all to often. We will be reviewing everything before we make any commitments for next year which we already discussed doing prior to this tragic situation. I feel so bad for that mother that just lost her two teenage daughters, I just couldn't put on another show knowing that could happen.

As far as starting up the cars. it's fine if they are on stands. We just don't do it very much any more primarily because the aluminum rods have a shorter life span. Before the blower, we were firing that car left and right but things have changed.

 

[Speedy_Sticks]

As anybody here can tell you, if you live with somebody with depression it rubs off on you. Let alone going out with two ladies with depression!

 

[PJ]

Do people realize that sometimes there are just accidents??? There's not always a good guy or bad guy? I realize in our sue happy soceity that we have to blame somebody. And yes we can sit here and point at everyone from Troy, promoter, the police and even the people crazy enough to stand right there so close with no protective barrier.
Does it help to blame?

This was an accident and out thoughts should be with those families of those that were lost as well as the peole who were injured and of course to Troy, as this is one heavy weight that he will bear forever.

 

[none]

Some of the people on this thread need to grow up and understand that "things happen and sometimes they are bad". I wonder how many of you guys would be throwing Troy under the bus if he choose "not" to do the burnout and the other cars that "WERE THERE" did it for the kids. This is very bad and Troy and Dave Woods and the AMS team will live with this everyday of their lives. Troy has removed himself from racing for the rest of the year. (Maybe for ever). We can talk and point fingers all day it will not undo what happened and six months from now it will be a bad memory but, for AMS and Troy is will be with them forever. Give the guy a break, its not like they did it on purpose.

 

[UK_Nitro]

I was going to use the word idiot to discribe the drivers actions, but that is abit strong. He was however very stupid and in running the car without 'reading' the track before the burnout to see what it was like.

The driver is in a VERY bad place right now and I bet u he has tried to take his own life at least one since the accident. I do feel for him.

It was one of those deals where baseball, or being a stunt pilot, you think you know what will happen, but unless your in a controled enviroment (baseball - a playing field), (stunt pilot - in the middle of the airfield away from spectators). - Ok, abit OTT! If your doing baseball in the street, as good as you think you are, you WILL break a window. If you want to hoop above the croud and you don't leave yourself enough room whehn your coming out of the loop, DISTASTER.

Unfortunally, it is one of those 'learn the lessions' things. We all new in our hearts something would happen to race cars who are let loose in uncontrolled enviroments, - burnouts in streets lined by people. It is just this driver was the unlucky guy who found out what does happen if things do go pareshaped.

I feel the driver should be banned from Pro Mod for a few years, along with the team from racing. But prision isn't the answer here.

He should now front a campaign with NHRA and AMS to show kids what the dangers are of street racing.

I doubt very much he would want to get behind the wheel again for a very long time anyhow.

NHRA says, no street racing, just racing on the strip. Is that the AMS policy?

I hope that alll NHRA drivers will think about doing this again, unless they have at least some form of barriers (protection according to the power of the car/bike.

Not a good chapter for NHRA PR

Cheers

James S Welling
[email protected]

You are a disgrace James.

You know nothing of the situation as many don't here yet you go deep into the personal life of Troy and how he is feeling. How the f*ck do you know how he is feeling?! Suicide attempts! What kind of jerk are you? You read the news report online, you looked at the videos on the web and all of a sudden you are an expert like 100's seem to be here.

What happened at the weekend was a tragedy and nobody planned for this to happen and nobody wanted it to but it has. We should all learn from this and respect the families involved rather than pointing the finger at a man who was there with his team who are heavily involved in supporting charities and young people.

I cant see how people can judge Troys call on the demo by one grainy poor quality videos and all state that when Troy pulled second gear he should of lifted at the 2nd pole at .25 second after he corrected the wheel 12.25 degrees!

I thought this place was full of keyboard crew chief's but i was wrong. We have keyboard drivers, keyboard health & safety executives, keyboard event managers, keyboard judges, keyboard police officers...etc.

I think we need to reflect on what has happened and look at ways of stopping this happening again. We also need to think of the families that have lost or suffered from this. I also strongly think Troy needs support from the fans and community he has raced with for so long.

Sorry for the rant but that post really pissed me off.

Dan