Scott Kalitta dies in NHRA crash...

SamJ

Yesterday's NHRA race fatality in New Jersey was the first in competition in quite a while...:(



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DziJdGwFQjU







http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080621/FREE/32600366/1508/newsletter02

Unknown

SamJ wrote:

Yesterday's NHRA race fatality in New Jersey was the first in competition in quite a while...:(



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DziJdGwFQjU







http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080621/FREE/32600366/1508/newsletter02

Why a "WALL" near the end of a drag strip ????

hornet53

As an avid NHRA fan, this is a very sad weekend, but, as all the racers have been saying, "at least he went out doing what he loved.", instead of being layed up in a bed for years losing his mental and physical capacities. That's how I want to go, fast, loud, and (to quote Clive Cussler)"ten dollars overdrawn".

Sadly, that is of no consolation to his wife and young sons who are facing a very rough time. My heart goes out to them.



NHRA is averaging 1 a year over the last five years. You can bet the Force team will find a problem and work like hell to fix it so this accident doesn't happen to anyone else. They've done an amazing amount of progress with the Eric Medlen project in just the one year since he was killed at Gainesville.

hornet53

Ron P wrote:

Why a "WALL" near the end of a drag strip ????

If you look at the track on Google Maps, you can see a road that runs just behind those trees. The wall is curved to, I guess, funnel the cars away from that road. They never really expected anybody to head into that sand trap at the speed Kalitta was going. Some reports have said the sand actually launched him up and over the wall and into the lift just beyond.

It looks to me that he actually hit the wall though.

SamJ

hornet53 wrote:

If you look at the track on Google Maps, you can see a road that runs just behind those trees. The wall is curved to, I guess, funnel the cars away from that road. They never really expected anybody to head into that sand trap at the speed Kalitta was going. Some reports have said the sand actually launched him up and over the wall and into the lift just beyond.

It looks to me that he actually hit the wall though.

If the chute deploys its very rare for a car to go beyond the sand. However, in the video you can see the chute burn up.

rambos_ride

My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

It was truly a horrific crash - nearly at full speed when he hit the end of the track.

[Deleted User]

Kalitta is very close to me in age, and I've followed his career for quite some time. What a drag racer!!! Racing is really the only sport where guys in their 40s through their 70s can be and are competitive with younger drivers/participants. Saw the replay on youtube, very sad indeed!



With the safety gear drivers wear these days, I hate to say that he probably was fully aware of his situation right up to the very end. To me, that is horrifying in itself. But, he retired twice from the sport, and kept coming back to the thing that really drove him in his life.