HAMB drags near miss

Well as some of yall may already know we had a HA/GR incident at the track on Saturday. Thank God no one was hurt, but I will ask yall this. If you had a car grenade and scatter pieces of metal into a crowd and you were not hurt. What would be your first reaction? I am doing this for all the people that attend racing events. Ryan and the track did a great job as always, but when something like this happens we should all learn from it. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS have a scatter shield on your car! And an apology would be nice too. I know I am on a rant, but there are to many good people at that track that would do any thing to help each other. But there is always a DIP SHIT that can leave you thinking WTF. It is well know that any drag event is dangerous and we could have something happen like this happen. Just hope that ASS HOLE learns how to sorry. Oh and my deductable for the door is $500!
Robert

 

We're are soooo lucky noone took that chunk of flywheel to the dome! Scary shit for sure!

 

i am still in shock over this! what tha hell

 

Ummm.... DETAILS!!!!

Please.....

 

So what was the full story? Did your 31 cop some shrap in the door from it?

If so nice of them to say sorry (Sounds like they didnt) or see if they could help!

Doc.

 

I may be wrong but this is one of the cars that put a end to all the ha/gr stuff . They were putting way to much money in them and no one could compete . I am so glad no one got hurt .

 

damage and car ? that did it ..

 

that shit'll buff out. now maybe someone can remind me who first said that line. seriously glad no one was injured, and sorry about your truck.

 

Man.. that really sucks !!
I saw the car (dragster) after the explosion, and there were several people trying to "get a look" at it, that may have had the guy out of whack..
What i saw of it, the thing had a scatter shield on it, i believe the flywheel came out in front of the scatter shield, and did alot of damage to his hot rod.. I would give the guy the benefit of the doubt and say, he probably didn't know ? About the damage to your truck ? If he did know , I agree, an apoolgy (at lea$t) would be in order.. I would guess that he was shaken up, and didn't know about it ?>
Just trying to help..

 

Did it have a 1/4" thick steel plate between the scattershield, and the block like it's supposed to, I'll bet not because the parts wouldn't have came out the front of the scattershield.

 

yikes!

 

Agreed.

 

Exactly why I got a new Scattershiled and block protector goin on my sedan and anglia

 

damn, its a wonder no one was killed!!

 

som o bitch. that sucks about your truck. glad to hear nobody took that to the bean.

 

scary for sure! Glad nobody got hurt, let alone killed.

 

The scattershield was a homebrew mounted on the chassis and wasn't attached to the block at all. It was blown toward the rear of the car, exposing the clutch/flywheel area. Flywheel was cast iron, which IMHO has no business being on a drag strip in a 12 second car and probably the worst part of this whole scenario.

 

Yep !

 

Safety equipment was designed for the unexpected event. I've been to every kind of motorsports event and see toddlers playing along the fence like it's a sand box. Shit happens. If you're near the track be alert.
I heard comments of why I was wearing a helmet in my slow car. If the car in the other lane breaks an axle and makes a hard turn in to my lane, I'll take the extra protection. I already own a helmet.
I'm glad no one lost their feet or was injured with shrapnel. Spectator injuries kill many race tracks.
I was at Grove City Speedway 25 years ago when the bleacher next to mine parallelogramed to the ground with a load of spectators. The program was canceled and the track was closed long enough so that when the drag strip part reopened the saplings in the middle of the dirt track were 5 inches in diameter.
When you see something that is dangerous in your experience, pass the information to the car owner or driver.
Lets be safe our there!

 

Wow scary stuff. Luckily nobody got hurt. Back in the old days several drivers were badly injured in my great grandfathers cars. The safety hadn't caught up to the speeds. I'm not in the know on this stuff. Was any of the construction of the car in violation of regs?

 

Whoa! I picked a good time to go eat a sammich. I heard it over the loud speaker but had no idea the carnage. We were standing close to the track on the pit side minutes before.

 

class act ...

Ryan, I am PROUD to say I am a member of your board.

Deuce Roadster

 

I was amazed the driver received no damage. I was watching the car closely from the stands..it was running so hard I couldnt' look away. He buzzed that GMC so high in 1st gear I was amazed it hung together. It popped at the top of 2nd gear. I watched as the flywheel shield flew in the air and came down on the strip along with some smaller shapnel. The flywheel must have been really traveling as I didn't see it at all and I was looking directly at the car when it blew...or maybe it exploded and it was pieces that hit the chevy pickup...
BTW, I was under the impression late model 4 and 5 speed transmissions were not allowed in that class. I clearly heard a pretty close ratio 4 speed being shifter in the 12 second flathead ford V/8 digger. If I'm wrong about the rule..sorry. Bud I'm most defintely not wrong about the car having 4 distinct gears and using them all.
Man...both the GMC and the flathead cars were stout! 12.20s ETs take a lotta power and a good setup.

 

Always impressed @ never surprised.
Ryan, you inspired me to get my Alliance money in the mail to ya.

 

It is amazing that the driver didn't get hurt... scary stuff...

 

Glad as well nobody got hurt... I have it on video, Im not sure how to post it on u-tube then copy here, someone PM me their e-mail and I will send it to you to post, after a 13 hour drive home ( Denver ), I had to fly out early this morn. ( Vancouver ) I still have not looked at all my pic's yet.
Thanks to all that worked their butt's off for us to have fun...
Roach
Mokan Morris 10.40

 

Thank God no one was hurt or killed. A large chunk of flying FED nearly took out my right leg at the CHRR a few years ago down in the swapmeet section. I still wish I would have picked the piece up, would have made a great paperweight.

 

Which is why I dont care much for the manual trans only rule myself. 60 lbs of iron (flywheel) 50 years old at 5000 to 6000 rpm makes me nervous. I ll duck now but it does bear thinking about.
Don

 

Maybe it's about time the rulemakers stopped being pigheaded and stubborn and listened to some of the racers needs.
A lot of the HA/GR people have been trying to get Auto Transmissions accepted [ check out the rules threads in the HA/GR section ]

They're stuck with pre-' 62 engines in a budget class, and manual gearbox only
[ Try buying a SFI Scattershield for a Hudson or GMC is impossible these days ,or a Steel Flywheel and Competition Clutch ]
There are minimum requirements for scattershields in the rules.
To be totally safe in this class, you would end up doubling the total investment in these budget cars just in the clutch area alone

I've hung around race tracks for 40 years now, This is just another racing incident !!!!
Most tracks usually have a disclaimer about damages to your property [ park at your own risk etc ]
There is usually a gentlemens [ sporting ] conduct ,but it isn't a neccessity at all.

So the poor racer here owes somebody an apology for trying to entertain them at his own expense????
What did he do wrong ? Did he try to go faster or something ?

I think the apology should come from the rulemakers
I feel sorry for the poor racer, he's suffering enough as it is!!