Drag wreck, he walks away.....a miracle

[Berger RS Copo]

Sadly, I've seen much worse stuff pass tech. Go to 3 tracks and you will get 3 differant tech inspections. Most of them are not too tough to get thru, which has always surprised me. I guess the form you sign must keep the track free of any lawsuits from unsafe cars.
That being said, the driver of that car had at least 2 or 3 times that he should have lifted. It even sounds like he got back on the gas when the car was sideways and about to roll.

I totally agree on your points. But I was just trying to put into perspective this accident happened a long time ago, and what was acceptable then might not be today.

Take care...

Wayne Scraba

[Jonesy]

After the wreck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3WD0yw8ns0

[markjohnson]

Well, my approach has always been to never type or post something that I wouldn't say in person to another human being. The old rule that our mothers preached to us still applies........if you don't have anything nice to say about another person, then don't say anything at all. The guy was not on the steet somewhere but on a proper, safe dragstrip and nobody, including himself were seriously injured. Now, I don't know this '55's driver but he's a fellow racer and racers share a common bond. I'm always baffled and just don't understand the personal attacks and name-calling here that people can make towards another human being from the safety of their home computer and a phoney screen name that they think is witty. I'm not much of a church person, but I've always liked that particular verse of: "Let him who be without sin, cast the first stone." Enough with the name-calling already. That only says more about you.

[JIM]

Well said Mark so true of Many of the Car sites !!!!!!!!!

Jim

[markjohnson]

Why thank you very much Jim!

[RichSchmidt]

I dont see where the front tires didnt fit the rims.I see a set of properly fittig bias ply tires,nothing out of the ordinary.I have driven some old iron.For starters the car wasn't even close to hooking,and the guy got back on the throttle after the car changed lanes.Second,that car could have done that at highway speeds.It may have said 12.30 on the window,but I doubt that car was going more then about 45 mph when it crashed.I wonder when the last time that car was on the alignment rack.Did anybody see if something failed in the rear end that had the car moving around like that?

I spent many years racing cars that went 12.0 and slower.Most of my first cars were very safe and that led us to have some cars that ended up being far from safe.The first car we ever ran in the 12's out of our shop was an 80 Malibu that my friend bought from some guys who were tying to build a super light weight stree tace car.They cut the floor out from toe boards to tail light panel,notched the rear rails for more tire room,and put in a 6 point roll bar all with a hardware store stick welder.We were only 18 back then,and got the car with no floor,just wheel tubs welded right to the 1/4 panels.Our shop was right across the street from a hardware store and alongside the towing/impound yard that my friend worked for.We tinned the car in with a bunch of 3'x3' tin squares and roof flashing we bought from the hardware store and used pop rivets and window caulk to hold it together.We had one seat from some kind of late model convertable in the impound lot bolted directly to this cheasy tin work using large flat washers.When I sat in the car the seat would sink 1/2 and inch from the metal flexing.We used one of seat belts fom the same car the seat came from.One end bolted to the rocker,but the other was bolted to{you guess right} the tin work! The gas tank was a 5 gallon red boat tank held down by 2 big ratchet straps runing thru holes in the tin work.The fuel line was 15 feet of 3/8 copper tube.We couldn't get the car to not squat down on the slicks that were sitting out of the wheel wells so we found a set of old bolt on ladder bars,stick welded them to the rear end housing,drilled the front mounting eyes out and screwed rubber snubbers into them.Then we screwed blocks of wood to to the bottom of the tin work for the bars to hit against.

This POS passed tech and we even told the tech guy it should run low 12's.He did tell us to not bring it back again until it had real seat belts in it just because all cars with a roll bar must have them.

This wasnt at some hole in the wall track,it was at Englishtown on a points racing day!

We raced there with our usual 15 second cars many times before,and we were always right to the letter safe with all the right stuff and then some,so the tech inspector didnt even look at our cars.I dont doubt that I cold have walked up to the inspector with the the card in my hand and if didnt tell him I wasnt running my usual car he would have just scribbled his intials on my card no questions asked.It still happens at almost every track I go to 'til this day.

Thats how rickety turds get onto the track.

And the ironic part was that we had a friendly competition with the guys ho originally sold my friend the car.When I said we were going to run 12's with it,the previous owner replied "If that car eve went 12 anything the driver would spill out ontothe track" lttle did he know how close he was to being right.