Mike_in_Boston
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Heard that he passed away at age 42. Have seen him race at many events. This is sad news - What happened to him?
What happened to Shawn Gann? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Mike_in_Boston
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RIP Shawn Gann
Don't have details, but Shawn died last night. He was a heck of a rebel. And he has been missed as of late on track. A Very colorful character, gone WAY too soon. Alan
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Look at Bob's post.
Cliff
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He was a normal guy. Just a FAST normal guy. Suicide is a sad thing. I've known people in my church who killed themselves and I thought how could they do that? I think a lot of people go thru depression and get to the point where death is the only way out. Depression has been in my dad's side of the family & I dealt with it when I was younger. Mike Snively was a T/F and F/C racer, won lots of races and killed himself. They found a list of the races he'd won in his pocket after he died. Depression is not the only cause. Other medical causes as well.
wasn't Mike snively killed in a dragster accident I think you might be thinking of Bruce Sarver
Sorry Mike did take his own life Drag Central article from 2014 by Steve Reyes
Dragracer
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I knew Mike Snively as a friend and unfortunately he did take his own life. He was a wonderful and extremely talented person.
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Cliff
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Mike Sorokin of Surfers fame was killed in a dragster accident, I think at OCIR. His son Adam Sorokin drives the Champion Speed Shop nostalgia AA/FD and won Bakersfield, as his dad did.
Cliff
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Gone Dead Train
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December 30th, 1967. Mike was driving the AA/FD owned by Tony Water's at OCIR. He had a catastrophic driveline failure.
Mike was only 28. Sad deal indeed!
Bob K.
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It was BRUCE SARVER that took his own life NOT MIKE SNIVELY Mike was killed in a racing accident as far as I know.
wrong!
Dragracer
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Mike Snively took his own life. He did not die in a racing accident.
stitcherbob
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From a review of Robert Post's great book "High Performance"
Dragsters are the fastest race cars on earth, capable of reaching 300 miles an hour in a quarter-mile sprint. With 5,000-horsepower engines that use a thunderous blend of nitro fuel, they accelerate in an awesome fury of smoke and flame. For those who love high drama and high-powered machinery, there is nothing to top big-time drag racing. Millions of fans flock to speedways in Pomona, Indianapolis, and other cities each year. And though the rewards the winners reap seem paltry compared to the financial and physical risks they must run, top competitors often speak of drag racing as an addiction - getting hooked on "the sound of those engines and all that technology."
High Performance is a dramatic, first-hand history of this daring sport, from the earliest "legal" drags run on rural airfields to the spectacular - and sometimes tragic - careers of drag racing's boldest innovators. Post, a former racer himself, was an eyewitness to many of the episodes he describes. He has interviewed most of drag racing's legends and superstars, such as "Pappy" Hart, who opened the first commercial strip in Santa Ana, California, in 1950, and Florida's "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, the first person to define himself as a professional drag racer. Post looks at all aspects of drag racing: the sport, the business, the means of personal affirmation. But most of all he explores it as an example of technological enthusiasm, tracking the innovations that permitted racers to disprove on pavement the "laws of physics" that experts had laid out on paper.
What emerges is a compelling look at the men and women who have devoted their lives to this extraordinary pursuit and a sensitive exploration of their motivations. From Garlits, who served as role model and "top gun" to generations of racers, to Shirley Muldowney, who was nearly killed in a 250-MPH crash and returned to the cockpit two years later with the simple explanation, "It's what I do." From Richard Tharp, who wryly summed up dragging's notoriously small financial rewards this way: "Racin' may not be much, but workin' is nuthin'," to Mike Snively, who committed suicide at 31 with only one thing in his pocket: a handwritten list of his major wins.
"Drag racing is an activity with a history so brief that people still around were there at the start," writes Post. "They can recall how it began as a hobby among young men infatuated with speed and power - 'hot rodders,' they were called. They have seen it become a compelling spectacle with a complex web of commercial relationships. And they have seen women impelled into mainstream roles to a degree far beyond what prevails in most similar activities."
The confusion over Mike Sorokin and Mike Snively might stem from what happened here
Dragsters are the fastest race cars on earth, capable of reaching 300 miles an hour in a quarter-mile sprint. With 5,000-horsepower engines that use a thunderous blend of nitro fuel, they accelerate in an awesome fury of smoke and flame. For those who love high drama and high-powered machinery, there is nothing to top big-time drag racing. Millions of fans flock to speedways in Pomona, Indianapolis, and other cities each year. And though the rewards the winners reap seem paltry compared to the financial and physical risks they must run, top competitors often speak of drag racing as an addiction - getting hooked on "the sound of those engines and all that technology."
High Performance is a dramatic, first-hand history of this daring sport, from the earliest "legal" drags run on rural airfields to the spectacular - and sometimes tragic - careers of drag racing's boldest innovators. Post, a former racer himself, was an eyewitness to many of the episodes he describes. He has interviewed most of drag racing's legends and superstars, such as "Pappy" Hart, who opened the first commercial strip in Santa Ana, California, in 1950, and Florida's "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, the first person to define himself as a professional drag racer. Post looks at all aspects of drag racing: the sport, the business, the means of personal affirmation. But most of all he explores it as an example of technological enthusiasm, tracking the innovations that permitted racers to disprove on pavement the "laws of physics" that experts had laid out on paper.
What emerges is a compelling look at the men and women who have devoted their lives to this extraordinary pursuit and a sensitive exploration of their motivations. From Garlits, who served as role model and "top gun" to generations of racers, to Shirley Muldowney, who was nearly killed in a 250-MPH crash and returned to the cockpit two years later with the simple explanation, "It's what I do." From Richard Tharp, who wryly summed up dragging's notoriously small financial rewards this way: "Racin' may not be much, but workin' is nuthin'," to Mike Snively, who committed suicide at 31 with only one thing in his pocket: a handwritten list of his major wins.
"Drag racing is an activity with a history so brief that people still around were there at the start," writes Post. "They can recall how it began as a hobby among young men infatuated with speed and power - 'hot rodders,' they were called. They have seen it become a compelling spectacle with a complex web of commercial relationships. And they have seen women impelled into mainstream roles to a degree far beyond what prevails in most similar activities."
The confusion over Mike Sorokin and Mike Snively might stem from what happened here
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stitcherbob
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Dry hops in heaven
Buster Couch looks over as the Funny Car approaches the staging beams and winks at the new arrival, a tousle-haired kid with a lead foot whom he has known since the lad was in diapers. Scott Kalitta moves forward as longtime Kalitta crewmember Doug Dragoo peeks in to check the oil pressure. It's...
