Gasser lines up crooked and crashes.

He had to be lookin at the wall, ****eyed as that thing was.

 

lol i just scanned the comments to see who else thought that!

 

i liked the one where the dodge police car ran down the miata and put the pit on it

 

That is now a training film for my crew.....

 

just cant believe the line-up !! Was also checking out the Opie Gone Bad videos of the E-line Van wheelstanding then running 130mph 10.0's at the strip-Wow !!!!

 

gee Andy ,Aunt Bee aint gonna like this mess

 

That '55 T-bird was destroyed a few weeks ago at Samoa dragstrip here in Eureka. Very, very bad, the chute didn't come out at over 200, Cecil (the owner/driver) was in a coma for a while, but last I heard is on the road to recovery.
http://youtu.be/S1GG3IstbDc

 

I agree. He should have noted that he was not aiming straight. The flager should have corrected his position. After watching this clip several times, I didnt see any official look at either car. Everyones attention is focused at the finish line. The main dude, w/ earphones on, standing bedhind the tree looks like he's a statue.

 

It used to be a "trick", in order to get more rollout through the beams, to stage at an angle. BUT, it was usually lower cl***, stocker style cars/drivers using that technique. Even "Little George" Cureton was known for it. For ANY Pro category car doing it..........well, you see the result. Saw a 33 Willys g***er get all crossed up, then roll, and ball up because the car owner decided to let a friend drive the car, and he'd never even driven a drag car before. All kinds of stupid, but only one kind of *****. Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Come out sideways: Lift right foot..... don't get hurt... don't get dead.... don't wreck car.....swallow pride, lose race, come back out kick *** next run

 

They go where you point them (most of the time) maybe a glance forward would have told him that was going to happen. Makes you wonder what the hell he was looking at. I don't know that it is the starters responsibility to help you drive your car.

 

I just watched that video and that really is a shame that that happened, no fault of the driver there - whenever he got out of shape he'd lift and gather it back up befor getting back into teh throttle. I don't know what he hit to tear the car up like that but if these tracks can't provide adequite safety zones for when the unthinkble does happen then they should limit the race to 1/8th mile.
I hope he recovers and gets back into it.

 

If anyone wants to talk about how to stage a race car as a starting line helper, holler, and I'll post up what I do. Stuff like that vid could have been avoided.

 

Agreed!

 

Exactly what went through my mind when I watched this. Obviously this "trick" is best left to the slower cl***es, and the more experienced drivers!

 

Well, **** fire.

 

I really don't understand 1. why the starter didn't have him back up and re-stage and 2. why the driver didn't realize he was not in the correct lineup position. I built and drove a C/Gas, B/Gas '55 Chevy in the middle '60s. Tube axle, 427" BBC, 4-speed and spooled rear. Never in the three years that I raced it did I every lineup crooked and make a run. This was inexcusable, both starter and driver were a fault.

 

(In the voice of hank Hill) That boy ain't right...

 

I tend to agree that there's some blame to shared for what happened here. The fact that he had to cross over the adjacent lane on his way to ramming the opposite wall suggests a safety issue, which would be the responsibility of the track marshalls to watch out for. On another day under different cir***stances, there could easily have been a competing car p***ing right through there at the same time, because he was a little bit late out of the gate too.

Funny though, nobody in the video seemed to even blink, and he was lined up pretty crooked. Just before he lights it up in the video, he is pointed directly at the camera, which is on the opposite side of the wall only a few dozen yards away.

 

I have seen it before. Guys are hooking right. Coming of the line so they think they can stop it by lining up to the left. Never works.

We had a 37 fiat that could not make up it mind which way it wanted hook so every time you took off you just waited for it and corrected it.

 

you can,t fix stupid !!

 

love the comments from the peanut gallery, including Hank Kunkel

i'd almost bet that single wheelie bar on the T-bird was the problem in that case

 

Frank Kunkel was the camera aimer, voice of Hank was by my friend and still camera man George. Call me hank if you want though,ha,ha..Frank Kunkel

 

Totally! Was the guy driving named Bobby?

 

Apperently Hank Hill was doing commentary

 

The track was NOT at fault in that case. The chutes got tangled, then he grabbed waaaay to hard on the brakes, even though Samoa has lots of run-off. Then the car started bouncing, so the wheels weren't touching the ground, then it veered head-on into the wall, breaking in half. BTW, Cecil is something like 74 and three months prior to wadding up the T-bird, he also wrecked his 214 mph '67 Mustang. The first time I ever saw him run, he had a 9 second '66 Fairlane and he got sideways, stayed in it too long, jumped the steel guardrail and went end-over in the sand at half track. He swears he'll be back, but if I were him I think I'd find another driver.

 

That's ridicules.

 

His seat must have been installed crooked

 

Here's another great video by Frank. I was driving the Nova in the far lane. Good thing the driver of the Olds was slow to leave or it would have been a big bummer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr47mYc_fkM



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