History Drag cars in motion.......picture thread.

Pink described Mulligans fire/accident in American Nitro.

And for Mike Sorokin,Don Prudhomme was suited up ready to run but couldn't really see the whole thing...just a noisy flash & a bunch of sparks & stuff when it happened.
Prudhomme freaked out & tried to get out of the car & a crewguy or someone grabbed him & said "you dont want to see any of this"---really sad deal.

 

Were were at OCIR that night in 67 with our 67 Blue Hell vette and were the first to run down the track after the accident. People became motionless and the air was silent. Although the announcer Paul Culley said Mike was Ok and was just being taken to El Toro Marine Base, we all knew. It was like the crashes of Harrell, Scott Kalitta and many more. He ran in the spectators lane and when iyt came apart it was like nothing I had ever or since withnessed. When the engine departed, it sailed at full throttle over the dirt embankment and explooded at its peak. I had heard that many drivers thought about hanging it up. These guys and more have made the sport safer. God Bless them.

 

Here's one of the views I had on Flickr to break the ice. Willy Redford was a NHRA Div 4 tech guy and he'd get me press passes if I mowed his lawn-no fun task in the blazing Texas sun. Anyway, a pass got me trackside at Amarillo for this run by Leroy Goldstein at Amarillo Texas in 1967.

 

Drag racing to me has always seemed like a very close knit group. When someone dies in the sport it affects all of the sport. A local racer was killed recently and while looking for information on what caused his accident I stumbled on this site, www.dragstripdeaths.webs.com
It is not distasteful and it is respectfully put together to remeber most of the people who have lost their lives at the dragstip. In some cases it also includes some insight of their personnal lives. It is a humbling reminder of how dangerous dragracing can be.
Bob

 

You'll re-think your priorities........ or should.
Looking back, it hurts thinking about the guys who survived being blown up in SE Asia who came home and got killed in a car or on a bike.
Tom S. in Tn.

 

Thanks for posting the link, but i'm not sure why we need such a site or why the site exists?

At the very least they should get into more detail about the actual accident; For example there seem to be many rollovers----was there a rollbar/cage installed?

 

I have ventured to the site on occassion. In so doing I was suprised to learn that so many fatalities occurred in the early days of stock class racing. Poor seat belts or none at all attributed to a lot of drivers being flung from their vehicles in much the same fashion as one would find on public highways. Suprisingly not as many fatalities resulted from fire. In the hotter classes (basically anything that required a parachute, say 140 MPH and up) again loss of control was the culprit. Early jet cars were notorias for this.

 

Texas had its own pro-fuel circuit and one for jr fuelers too. Some excellent cars emanated from my birth state.

 

I am a member of drag racing deaths...it is just a memorialization of those who perished ... with as much information as is available...the reason that there are so few details is that many early accidents were not reported to the press because bad publicity could and did shut down drag strips...I have researched some of the deaths I knew about and it is very hard to find reliable information...the site does a great job doing its mission

 

I have a number of pictures to post of the Div 4 fuel cars from the '60's. I was going to do them as attachments like the Goldstein view but I see a lot of larger views loaded right into the thread. How's that work? Thanks in advance.

 

Got any of Floyd Heads 1970 entry? The cowl art work was simply gorgeous. Right up there with Jesse Perkins Cow Palace Shell of the same year.

 

Here's some more Div 4 action at Tulsa. No idea who these guys are. Maybe John Wiebe on the far side? If anyone recognizes these guys sing out. Bob Gibson has my original Kodachrome so I guess I need to borrow them back to make better scans. Gotta love the action tho.

 

What year in the shot above? ^^^^^
Great ! Tom S.

 

I don't have the original Kodachromes at the moment so can't answer with absolute certainty. The tag in my file says 4-1967. Could be a Div 4 points race or a fuel car meet - just don't remember. I do have more views of this particular race so maybe somebody can ID this stuff for us.


Chuck

 

I see.

After reading the site myself, it seems alot(vast majority) of the bad accidents involve hitting the guardrail/barriers and/or striking concrete/trees/objects at the end of the strip. Could better design help remedy this situation? We should probably start a new thread if we want to continue this discussion.

 

Think Drag Racing is dangerous? Go to an air show.
I'll let Reno 11' speak for itself. 70 injured plus 9 deaths.

This I can tell you from my own personal observations, spectators and people were the major victims of drag racing accidents prior to the institution of guard rails and barriers.
I see final settlements beginning to appear in the media from the Selmer Tn. tragedy that occurred in 07'.
See also: Yellow River Ga., Dallas Ga. & 43 jr.

Yes, since the sanctioning bodies are not going to maintain records, the site Drag Racing Deaths is a very important site.


I so enjoy the amateur candid photo's of drag racing that post here. It brings back such positive and pleasant memories for me as a way to recall it. Tom S. in Tn.

 

Yellow River was not a sight I will ever forget, I was right across the track from where the car went into the crowd. Rough to stand there and see something like that and nothing you can do.

 

Sometimes even guard rails aren't enough. Ask the guy who got his arm sawed off in the tower side stands at LIONS when Garlits clutch exploded in '72.

 

It was March 8, 1970 at Lions and it was the Transmission that exploded when the sprag failed and spun the drum up over 25,000 r.pm., not the clutch. The kid's arm was successfully reattached and he later worked for Big Daddy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1a8ZQxq8EE

 

Here's the reunion of Larry Sutton, on the left, and Tim Ditt just a few years ago. Ditt was the 16 year-old who was injured in the Lions accident. Sutton, the Lions starter, is credited with saving Ditt's life, applying pressure to Ditt's artery until he got to the hospital. The same hospital that Garlits went to that day.

 

I had the year wrong. Still a tough way to get a job.

 

This is my first try at linking photos so I hope it works. This shot is of Don Prudhomme making a time trial run at the '67 Nationals. Hope you enjoy it.

 

Uh oh. Technical difficulties. Will try again later.

 

Hang in there, we all went through the same thing at one time

 

Keep your fingers crossed!


A few seconds later-damn!

 

Got this off the internet from Alans Kodak gallery. Sanford Me. circa 63

http://crosleykook.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html<!-- m --> then click on

Kodak picture-sharing site

Pat

 

OK, been researching this and hope I have it now. Here goes.






Well if you click on the small icon, and open as a seperate tab it works. Still not clear how others images seen here are downloaded. Any ideas appreciated. Hope you enjoy the view.

 

I have been slacking I will try to find some photos to post this weekend. Rev it up and burn some rubber guys.

 

Some early funny car action at Tulsa in 1966.

 

This view of Tom Hoover is no prize winner but I though somebody might be intersted.