Another Racer Killed at E-Town

[W J]

Just wondering if possibly Neal suffered a heart attack or some sort of consiousness loss to not pull his chute....maybe we'll find out, maybe not....Dave C., did you ever feel close to running out of real estate after a pass at Lebanon Valley?.....although shutdown is listed as 2600 feet, after seeing more than a few close calls there over the years, it always concerned me just a little.....WJ

[Jim Wahl]

Originally Posted by W J

Just wondering if possibly Neal suffered a heart attack or some sort of consiousness loss to not pull his chute....maybe we'll find out, maybe not....Dave C., did you ever feel close to running out of real estate after a pass at Lebanon Valley?.....although shutdown is listed as 2600 feet, after seeing more than a few close calls there over the years, it always concerned me just a little.....WJ

This is the first thing I thought of when I heard of this terrible accident. Jim

[Dinsdale]

Originally Posted by W J

Just wondering if possibly Neal suffered a heart attack or some sort of consiousness loss to not pull his chute....maybe we'll find out, maybe not.......WJ

I agree. There is a difference on "being killed" and dying. The first implies that someone or something was at fault but the latter would mean the person had other issues. Either way, it is a tradegdy and the family should be the first concern, not who is to blame. Hopefully the facts will eventually come out and a fix implimented.

[Bobby DiDomenico]

Originally Posted by Rusty2211

Skydivers have backup chutes. How much trouble would it be to outfit these cars with additional, backup chutes? I also do not think it'd be hard to build more fire protection around the chute container either. I think some of the accidents that have happened may be caused by unconcious drivers. How about a system that automatically deploys past a certain point? I know the gentlemen that passed away at Commerce 2 years ago never lifted and even though the blower poped at the stripe, he still hit the trees hard enough to be thrown from the car.

I noticed several TAFC teams at Chicago letting kids pack the chutes on the cars. That just seems crazy. If I was driving one of these cars, I'd have to pack and inspect my own chutes.

Rusty

Didn't it say in the Dragster a few issues back the Fuel teams didn't like the automatic deployment/engine kill systems and they were removed?

Is the second chute the back up? (Having 3 chutes open up at once may be damaging to the individual as well.) Wasn't there an alcohol car there last year that had both chutes fall off right after blossoming? How is that possible that two chutes fall off a car at the same exact time? Any math majors to tell us the odds? When nothing happens with the chutes or braking, it does make you think something had happened to the driver.

[jim powers]

from what i was told at the track sunday ,the driver was actually killed when the supercharger was torn off by the second catch net and hit him in the head,the medical examiner will have to determine whether he in fact had a heart attack or other medical issue before he hit the catch nets, in any event my heart goes out to the family,

[BKSG1198]

I really don't think we should be throwing E-Town under the bus and ready to write it off the schedule. I mean there are a few other National Event Tracks out there that are very short at the end (Pomona which has a Golf Course behind it's sand trap) but, even long shutdown tracks have issues. Last week at Chicago Burl Brown lost his chutes in his TA/FC and went into the sand and destroyed his car, A few years back good Friend Dan Pomponio had his chutes tangle in his brakes at Atlanta and he went through the safety fences destroying his car. The sad part about E-Town is there has been life lost at this track in the shutdown area so the black eye has been cast and the neighboring town already wants the track gone. I know the TA/FC guy in Atlanta a few years back died but, it was determined he had a massive heart attack while going down the track and he never lifted. I mean the only thing I can see them doing at E-Town if it would ever be allowed and I doubt it would be similar to what they did at Maple Grove. The Grove has the road that runs behind the track and the railroad crossing that come down when a car gets too the end. They expanded it last year and the run-off actually goes over the road so just wondering if they can do something since there is an open field next to Pension Road. I know Pension Road is a busy road but maybe bring in another by-pass road to cut down on some of the conjestion.
After watching the coverage from this weekend and what some TA/FC racers had to say I think NHRA should look at the cars first and some sort of "Kill Switch". On one of the sites they talked to Bob Tasca and he said this about TA/FC

Two weeks ago Tasca sat in his old alcohol car and he shuddered at the thought he used to race to the quarter-mile with it.

“I wouldn’t ever drive it again,” Tasca said. “I will tell you why. I would have to make so many changes – a three rail chassis, I won’t ever drive a car without one. Number two - auto shut off devices. They weren’t even invented when I raced in the alcohol classes. They have air parachutes, we didn’t even have those back then. If you have an air parachute and with two hands on the wheel, the parachute opens and hit the brake. As opposed to go on the steering wheel at 1,000 feet, hit the lever and then grab the brake. There are things in fuel racing today that make it safer than in an Alcohol Funny Car.

“These cars [Alcohol Funny Cars] need to have the same technology as that on a nitro car,” Tasca said sternly. “They are harder to stop at 260 than I am at 300. They couldn’t run a fuel car at some of these divisional events and yet they run these alcohol cars.

You guys talk about Leb Valley....have you been to the end of Cecil County...It amazes me they run Alky Cars there.

Last but not least I did see this new thing they are coming out with for run-away aircraft at Laguardia Airport in New York which sits on the Hudson so not much run-off there if the plane overshoots the runway . It's like a Concrete type foam that when at any type of speed the foam compresses when the plane runs into it. It doesn't cause alot of damage and the foam can be replaced easily so maybe instead of water barrels have that at the end of tracks after the nets.

[Bret Kepner]

NHRA National Event Facility Shutdown lengths:

http://www.dragracingonline.com/agen...20-x_6-55.html

[Tony Janes]

BSKG1198: There is no golf course at the end of the Pomona sandtrap. The golf course is on the other side of McKinley Ave and up the hill!

[BKSG1198]

Sorry Tony... A good friend took a picture a couple years back from the golf course and I could see the sand-trap from one of the holes.

[jim powers]

years ago when vinnie and richard napp were still alive they proposed closing off pension road during professional catagories,supposedly the town did not go along with the idea,why only god knows