anyone who follows drag racing in this country or the USA will have heard of the kalitta family. Sadly last weekend Connie kalittas son Scott died when his funny car went out of control at high speed during a qualifiying run in englishtown new york. Only last month they previewed his 8000bhp hemi engined funny car in Hot Rod magazine. Another icon of modern day drag racing has moved on the the blacktop upstairs. RIP
You have to say that the poor run off was largely to blame Ian.
The cutes not deploying after a fire like that is pretty common, so the guys rely on a decent run off. The sand trap looked pretty much useless. I think some of the drivers are already pointing the finger :-
Sand traps do work if they are long and deep but looking at some clips of the crash the retaining wall curves round the back of a very short sand trap!!! clever idea that eh barry? Behind the sand trap is a load of trees, why couldn't the NHRA have lenghtened the sand trap or extended the run off area as these cars are now 2000bhp more powerful then 10 years ago and some tracks dont seem to of improved. the nhra has plenty of money so that surely would not be an issue. Scott kalitta may have still been with us if this was the case. At santa pod there is 1/2 mile run off with loads of farmers flat feild after that. safe enough i feel. John force nearly met his maker last year but fought back and before he even finished his rehab was working with ford, castrol the nhra and many more spending millions of dollars to improve the safety of the chassis and roll cages of these super powered monsters. someone else needs to take the reins as well, step up to the plate and make sure this does not become a regular accurance. parachutes wipe off 100 mph in a second but when they fail or burn off the driver needs to be able to coast to a fairly safe stop, especially if they are hurt or cannot see due to oil and fire in the car.
I think in the case of Englishtown, there is a road just through those trees and hence that short run off. (Pension Road, so I'm told by a friend in NJ).
I remember watching last years coverage on Five US and the commentators made reference to just how short it was.
The Top Fuel and Funny drivers still raced next day, knowing exactly the same risk existed as the day before.
I agree with you Ian, the NHRA have a duty to ensure that unacceptable risks are removed.
Some might say its disrispectful to race after a tragic death but these racers are professional people earning a living doing what they do and know the risks. when your sitting over or in front of a potential bomb then you and only you can make that choice. when blaine johnson was killed at the US nationals in the nineties his race team requested the race continue. I am sure connie kalitta would have had the same opinion. safety is paramount so maybe the track owners need to look and assess whether there track is up to handling a safe race meeting.
