Tragedy In Tennesse
 

I guess by now most of us have heard what happened at the Charity event in Tennesee. It's a terrible loss of life and my thoughts go out to all the people there. It also portrays a bad image for the sport. It's a shame that more thought and precautions were not implemented. Today I had to explain to several people that it was "not a drag race ", and that NHRA & IHRA have always been extremly safety conscienceous.
I would only hope that the press conveys that information to the public.
I'm sure the whole racing community is equally upset and I know thier thoughts are with the families and individuals who lost their lives.

Pat Iannone
SG1809

Jeff Burke from DRO was on CBS Morning show and they had video of the crash. Jeff really did a good job telling what happened and it was not a race.
He also said the police had backed off everyone and set the limits on where people had to stand. Jeff's main comment that caught my ear was" It looks like to me on the tape when the car got out of control, Troy headed for the poll to stop the car." he went on to say the car only hit people after bouncing off the poll.
It is a real bad deal and my thoughts and prayers go out to the families and racers involved in this whole deal. You can not make Troy out to be the bad guy. It was a freak accident.

Troy did not get up that morning and say i think i will drive into the crowd today.
It was a accident and you can not put blame on any one thing or person.

Just my opinion
The Doughboy
Lee Lones[:-unhappy-:]

Now AOL is bringing up a past DWI conviction and trying to connect the two events. Anything for news...

Eric Saydlowski
2003 NESSA Champion
1973 Dodge Dart Sport
superst169@aol.com

iI is amazing what the news will say about somebody even if it is 7 years ago and have nothing to do with what happened..

A Texas-based drag-racer whose car crashed into a crowd of spectators during a charity car show parade, killing six young people, was convicted of drunken driving in Virginia in 2000. (June 20)

Man, my heart goes out to both the victims and the driver. I've done similar events and the spectators egg you on pretty hard to do burn outs and such. At one event, I was actually booed for NOT doing a burn out when several others had.
The coverage I saw had some of the spectators and main stream media wanting to throw Troy and the promoters under the bus because something went wrong. Everyone loses here. Again, my sympathies are with the victims, their familys and with Troy.