A fatal crash took place on Saturday at my home track when a newly recreated nostalgia front engine dragster left the track at speed with no signs of slowing. Our track is an eighth mile in the Mtns. with plenty of room for top fuel dragsters to slow down and make the return road. Failing that it's rocks, trees and maybe a ravine. I didn't know Gary Hough too well but since it's such a tight nit community this will be a hard pill to swallow for a long time to come. I was thankfully away this weekend but always loved watching his nitro injected Hemi machine run. Sad times indeed. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. http://www.speedzonemagazine.com/ Check out the Sept. 10 submission.
Yah, sucks pretty bad. There's thoughts that maybe he had a heart attack or something. Autopsy will tell all I suppose.
There was an older guy in our company awhile back who raced cars on road courses. One day his car just drove right through a corner and wrecked big time. Turned out he had a heart attack. At least he went out doing what he enjoyed.
We jst had a event , one of the guys pluged the wall on the big end .........hard 12.0 car full force my concern, that he is ok well car junk, he did fine but one sore puppy....now the best part he broke the wall we had to close down for the rest of the day,for repairs nhra deal well as I went back to staging too tell the boys we were done for the day...now get this some of these newbs....did not ask how he was doin ....they were pissed and said that sucked about lost track time wow that our new racers selfish.....hummmmmmmmm!
A friend of mine, John Shoemaker died under similar circumstances @ Bakersfield....never lifted, no chute, went off the end of the track. All very sad that they went lights out, but they were doing what they loved to do...
RIP Gary, praying for him and his Family. This is the risk we take and its our right to do so, we all know the dangers.
What a terrible loss. I will keep his family, yourself, and all his friends in my thoughts and prayers.
Ronnie Hunter in the Hunter & Hancock fuel altered I asked about on the Drag Cars in Motion thread yesterday, had the little bolt come loose and fall out of the barrel valve and sucked wide open back in 69'. The car sailed under full power, throttle blades closed and the mag grounded, off the end of Union Hill 1/8th mi strip in Nashville cutting down six or so 30/40ft pines in the adjacent camp ground, before he could reach the fuel shutoff and get the chute out, which ultimately got tangled up. There was serious consideration of stopping drag racing entirely in all of Metro Nashville at both 1/4 mi Riverside and returning the Union Hill strip to the camping resort area, but it was successfully sold to local racer and trucking mgr Doug Greenfield out of Clarksville and operated successfully by him for many years, albeit the stipulation that no further nitro cars ever be allowed in the area again, which remains, to my knowledge, in effect as the track still operates today. That incident and others in the Ga region of Div II put the quietus on dragsters and funny cars and especially in the Nashville area for decades. Side note; I understand a settlement was recently reached from the blown alcohol car that hit several spectators in Selma Tn. back in 07'. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/sep/08/around-the-02/ I can't comment about other regions, but around here, carelessness has made it difficult to put on even an antique tractor pull. Tom S. in Tn.
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