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Old 05-03-2008, 12:05 AM   #4
Chuck Norton
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Covina, CA
Posts: 474
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Default Re: DeFrank involved with crash with TS car in Fontana

The situation looked a little odd from my perspective. There were only three cars in the Test 'n Tune lanes assigned to cars using a three-amber, .500 tree. The four possible categories were, of course, Stock, Super Stock, TS and TD. One of the cars in the lanes was a GT/IA Super Stocker, the second was Jimmy D., and the third was the TS car. They were run in the order that they had arrived in the lanes. It could have been a different pairing but it wasn't. Jimmy left, wheels up, in the right lane, and as I recall, with a nearly perfect light. The TS sat until Jimmy was well past the tree but when he did launch, the run looked shaky right from the beginning. At about the time that the TS car pulled past the Stocker, it appeared to get out of shape, crossing in front of the Camaro and smacking the K-rail really hard in Jimmy's lane. Jimmy had very little time and very little room to avoid t-boning the wreck that was scattered across his lane. I saw pictures taken by a spectator that showed Jimmy's car with smoke coming off the right-side tires as it slid across the centerline. The left tires were both off the ground. It appeared to me that he might miss the wall altogether but after swapping ends and sliding backward, generally facing in the direction of the starting line, it swung back and smacked the wall on the right front corner after a good deal of the speed had been scrubbed off. There appeared to be significant sheet metal damage although the front wheel seemed to be in the right place and the frame damage was hopefully minimal. Of course, there may be more damage than I could see.

My reactions:
1. It doesn't seem to be a good idea to mismatch cars that have such a disparity in performance, especially when there is plenty of time, the lanes are sparsely populated, and more suitable match-ups are present.

2. Jimmy did a good job of dealing with a really bad set of circumstances. Had he not completed the spin in the way he did, he would likely have center-punched the wreck with a high level of probability that someone would have been SERIOUSLY hurt.

3. I was really glad it wasn't me! (in either lane).

c
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