History Dragstrip deaths

I was flagger at the Golden Triangle dragstrip in Oldsmar, Florida and flagged off a young veteran in a dragster and he crashed in the traps and was killed. I shall always remember standing looking down the track at the cloud of dust.
Also Marvin Swartz from Florida who never lifted, even if it killed him. Don & Pat Garlits made sure he got home and buried.
R.I.P.

 

Shelly Howard..that one still makes me shake my head

 

A distant cousin.

 

We were at the US Nats when John Mulligan crashed after the explosion. A few days later we heard he had passed away from the burns. Still my ALL TIME favorite driver and one of the prettiest FEDs ever!

I have only one of the 1:24 scale 'Fuelers' and it sits in a case in my living room.

The Zookeeper and the Fighting Irish T/F

 

John wasnt the driver of the car but a member of the crew that was sitting in the car when it took off. The force of the car taking off struck his head into the roll bar which knocked him out. I remember hearing his story growing up... RIP John


John Ledford <!-- ParagraphTitleEnd -->
<!-- ParagraphBodyStart -->Born: ca. 1941
Died: April 22, 1971
Age: 30
Full Name: John M. Ledford

Nickname:
Drag Strip: Ellington Airport, Connecticut
Event: test
Accident Date: April 22, 1971
Car: dragster

Biographical: He was testing a new fuel injection system and had switched off the engine after making a test run. It apparently restarted and flipped over. He banged his head against the roll cage. He lived in East Hartford, Connecticut, at 550 Burnside Avenue. He was a co-owner of the car with John Dusten and John Rumney.
Sources

 

Where did you get THAT information?
Thanks,
Troy Cagle

 

John Hagen at Brainerd MN. I was in the pits working on our M/Stocker.

 

My bad, just found this.

http://www.wediditforlove.com/Cagle.html

I had always thought he died racing. Sorry Troy.

 

In October of 1971 at Dallas International Motor Speedway, a Dallas TV news reporter named Gene Thomas was at DIMS doing a story on drag racing. Art Arfons was there with his two-seat "Super Cyclops" 280-mph jet-powered dragster, and Thomas strapped in for ride. At the end of the pass, the dragster apparently blew a tire and went into and then through the guardrail on Thomas' side. The crash killed Thomas and two spectators, Robert Kelsey and Sean Panse. Arfons retired after the tragic incident.

That high-profile tragedy pretty much spelled the end for the DIMS track. Saturday I'm going to the dedication of a historical plaque for the Texas International Pop Festival that was held at the DIMS track. Sadly the event will be held in what's now a DART rail parking lot.

 

Hey no worries at all man.
That article about my dad also is incorrect,as my dad never "lost a leg" to a gunshot wound,,wtf?--lol

 

I remember reading that Lee Shepherd was killed while doing practice launches in a new car as opposed to being in a racing accident. He apparently wasn't using his harness because he was launching the car and then shutting it off. I never heard the entire story on what caused the crash, but the story was that he would have easily survived if he'd only had his belts on. Sad way to go for such a talented driver.

 

I was at a match race at Greer Dragstrip back in '67 that featured Jimmy Nix and Pete Robinson. They were two of the fastest Fuel Dragster drivers at the time. Nix crashed at 214 MPH and absolutely destroyed his car. I was at the top end when it happened and ran to the wreckage. When I got there Pete was getting there at the same time. Jimmy's roll cage and rear end/tires was all that was left and it was turned upside down. Pete asked us to help him turn it over and as we were flipping it over I turned and looked away. I just knew he was dead. But much to my surprise as I was walking away Jimmy started talking to Pete.

Four years later Pete Robinson lost his life at the '71 NHRA Winternationals and Jimmy, who should have died in the '67 crash, died in 1994 in his T/F dragster at Dallas.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Liberman i saw this thead and thought of jungle jim ,knowing it was off the track but ..

 

http://www.motorsportmemorial.org/index.php
Racing memorial site

 

My wife and I were at the drags that day. We were standing at the start line about 15-20 feet from the car. The driver got in the car was strapped in and the roof was then held down with wing nuts. They were pushing the car to the start line and it caught fire at the start line. One of the race officials grabbed the stanchion holding the ropes to keep people back. He hit the driver side door until it popped open. We could see clearly inside the car. The driver was motionless and had one hand on the steering wheel and one hand on the gear shift and was facing forward. I believe he died from the fumes. The official then shut the door with the stanchion. When the fire was out they pushed the car back from the start line. We left at that point. I lived and worked in Fresno at the time. The next day I was in the break room and was relating what had happened. One of the women then added other info about the tragedy. The car belonged to a friend of the driver and the driver had never been in the car. He was also supposed to be married the next weekend. My wife and I have never been to a drag race since

 

Wayne Isaacs, 1982 National Trail Raceway. His super gas Corvette crashed on the big end, I will never forget that sight or his wife's scream, both still bring a tear to my eye.

Lee Shepard will always leave a void. I still have a model of the RMS Camaro that I've never had the heart to put together.

Ron

 

John was an institution in California racing.Always there running hard.
I was sitting at 1000 feet, when he came by I could very clearly see his head was bowed, looking straight down going fast, not slowing. My heart sank, no way was that normal.I'll never forget that crash, a pall over the March Meet. Truly, a racers racer.

 

Mulligan hit me hard, he was my teenager hero driver.
Nix..Howard..Trett, Eric, Gene Coleman,Darrell Russell, all of them.
Drag racing is dangerous, respect the car, those things will kill you.
This is bumming me out, God Bless them all. R.I.P.

 

A couple of friends and I were at that meet. Very sad day.

 

Fortunately I did not see it, but vividly remember reading about it in Drag News in 1960 (55 years ago, funny how some things you never forget)...Drag News did not often publicize fatal accidents, but they did with this one, with an editorial excoriating the drag strip management for not even having a fire extinguisher on the starting line, (the photo does show extinguishers but they were apparently not on the starting line when the fire started) and for allowing a car with no working doors to run there (according to the story, one door was welded shut and the other rarely worked, not sure if this was accurate or not...the article had a picture similar to that above but from a slightly different angle (the rear had an oval cut in it to access the quick change cover), and you could seen the black smoke pouring out of it.....From that point on photos of the starting line for most drag strips showed a fire extinguisher -- sometimes several - and a lot of tracks stepped up their safety inspections to insure that drivers could have a chance to escape a burning car......It is impossible to say whether any of this made a real difference, but one hopes that it did and that the driver did not at least die in vain.....(terrible way to learn a lesson, though!)

 

I hate the saying, "They died doing what they loved." …..
I know it sometimes comforts loved ones during a time of need but damn.
Racers want to win, or at least walk away....
Much better to be old and gray telling crazy stories to grandchildren.

 

Unfortunately just about every rule change regarding safety has blood on it. Scott Kalitta at Englishtown Sumernationals 2008.

 

It seems the web site has met a 404 death too.

 

I was there, bad times for sure.

 

Roger Garten at Fomosa

 

Jeff Krug lost his life at Bakersfield also

 

When Chrysler was at odds with NASCAR over the hemi engine in 1965, Petty Enterprises built a Plymouth Barracuda dragstrip car, and Richard Petty went drag racing. At Southeastern Dragway in the New Hope community near Dallas GA on 2/28/1965, something broke in the front end of the Barracuda just after Petty came off the line and shifted from first to second, causing him to lose control. Only a chain link fence separated spectators from the dragstrip. Petty was not hurt, but a front wheel that came off the car killed an 8 year old boy, and many other spectators were injured.