Anyone catch this while at the Winternationals today? We were up in stands about in line with Mike Austins dragster when it climbed the wall and went over. Notice in the pic there are no front tires? One of them flew right over the crowd down from where we were and thank God did not take off someones head. Spectating at an event is a danger in and of itself. What is amazing is Mike walked away from this wreck. Makes me think about the saftey devices I have in my own racecar. Maybe going through a thorough tech is not all bad...
http://espn.go.com/racing/blog/_/name/racing/id/7566350/mike-austin-one-happy-man-bad-nhra-crash Video in it.. Can't get it to work on here.
Wow!! Crazy crash. I can't get into modern drag racing any more. They make a big deal because the fuelers run in the 3's now. It's amazing what taking 320 feet off the course does for et's.
Wow! There a public road on the other side of this stands...wonder if anything hit someone out there! You don't see too many accidents in drag racing that put the spectators in danger.
good lord! we had ashley force's funny car blow up right in front of us last year at maple grove and send the body sky high. nothing compared to this though, glad no1 got hurt. fuelers are scary fast and powerful now
Back in the early 70's, a tire came off a car at a local dirt track and hit the fence so hard that the kid standing against the fence went airborne, and landed in the upper tiers of the bleachers. The kid, thank God, wasn't seriously hurt. Now you know why they don't let any spectators along the fence areas while racing. Drag racing doesn't have any fences, although the bleachers are set back in modern tracks. But as we can see, there's still a potential of harm to the spectators.
FRom our vantage point, and I'm figuring as well as the hundreds of other spectators, it seemed as if everything was unwinding in slow motion in front of us! As we watched the dragster hop over the rail, and start to gether up everything in its path( there was a ton of video and electronics cabling that got tangled up) we saw this "thing" go by, and realized afterwards,that everyone around us started looking into the area behind us, where the First aid trailer was, as this was about where that wheel ended up. Does anyone recall when Doug Herbert blew up his engine off the starting line here at Pomona many years back. They picked up blower fragments in the manufactures midway!! We went back over to where I had my car on display, and I could not help but think about the safety of people who were standing so close to these cacklefest cars, as they were revving their engines........... Funny thing, after Mikes wreck, the camera guy on the scissor lift had them put another barricade up in front of his position!!!! I'd say!!
The Jalopy Journal
