The Risks of Speed (Fatal Crash)

[RavenNeverMore]

This happened today at Englishtown dragway and killed Scott Kalitta.

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[don143]

That so sad. He was doing what he loved to do, and that's something.

May he rest in peace.

[Spinnr1]

KABLOOEY.. damn that's crazy. yeah good point Don we should all be so lucky to go doing what we all love.

[Mister C]

I saw that on the news last night. I love to see a good wreck but don't want to see someone pay with it with their life.

[ravenmetal]

yeah..thats really sad that it happened. i watch nhra when i can. always been a fan. especially the prostock bikes. been to a couple of events also. its amazing the power and speed all of those dragsters have these days.

[RavenNeverMore]

After watching the NHRA Today show, Jim Head (also a driver and pretty smart guy) probably explained the situation the best. He said that most of the tracks that they race on were built when the cars were 'only' doing a little more than 200mph. These cars are pushing 330+mph now and when there is a catastrophic failure, most of these tracks are inadequately prepared to deal with the consequences. Most of the drivers now are "scared" to keep the cars running after the 1000' mark because of the pressures they are placing on the engines and other critical components of the cars and after 1000', they just become too unpredictable.
I'm not pointing any fingers at anyone as far as placing blame for this tragedy, but it seems to me that it should be incumbent upon the NHRA to take a serious look at these older tracks and either lengthen the shut down lanes, or find (build) other venues that can handle the speeds that these machines are now travelling.

[don143]

After watching the NHRA Today show, Jim Head (also a driver and pretty smart guy) probably explained the situation the best. He said that most of the tracks that they race on were built when the cars were 'only' doing a little more than 200mph. These cars are pushing 330+mph now and when there is a catastrophic failure, most of these tracks are inadequately prepared to deal with the consequences. Most of the drivers now are "scared" to keep the cars running after the 1000' mark because of the pressures they are placing on the engines and other critical components of the cars and after 1000', they just become too unpredictable.
I'm not pointing any fingers at anyone as far as placing blame for this tragedy, but it seems to me that it should be incumbent upon the NHRA to take a serious look at these older tracks and either lengthen the shut down lanes, or find (build) other venues that can handle the speeds that these machines are now travelling.

I agree, there will probably be changes made because of a tragedy like this. It's just too bad that they are reactionary instead of being proactive and it takes the death of a human being to get anyone to make changes to protect them.

[carolinafan]

I'm gonna have to search for this, cause the vid is saying it's been removed. Doesn't sound good though