[Sal Biondo]

Don and Mike

Glad you guys are ok.

But, I am surprised this does not happen more often. I was inches from taking out Arnie years back. We were at Gainesville, I was in the right lane, running about 160, and I did not pull the chute because I really did not have to, and it was very windy. Arnie was in the left lane going about 180, pulls his chute, slows down, and gets waved off the track directly in front of me at the 'earlier' turnoff, but, I was still going about 50 - maybe 60 MPH.

As he begins to make the right turn in front of me, I try to slam the brakes, but going to fast to stop. I had two choices.. take out Arnie, or the official standing there, well I thought Arnie was the better choice since he was in the car with safety equipment on, but I made an attempt at missing both of them...

I took it half way in the grass, and somehow passed between Arnie and the track official. I could not figure out how I did not hit Arnie, until later when Arnie said that he began to turn off, when he noticed the sudden scare on the official's face, and stopped dead!

Since then, I try to plan out the race, and tell my opponent if I am going to run to the last turnoff or not.. These days, NHRA has blocked most or all of the early turn offs this is not a problem at most tracks like it used to be.. but freak things can happen, like to Don and Mike.

Be careful out there.
Sal