Video of Biondo's win over Fletcher's close call

[Casey Miles]

Originally Posted by Rich Biebel

Glad to see the young Mr.Fletcher and the car was not hurt.
I think he probably learned a lesson there and fortunately neither car was hurt.


I was at NED in 1977 or 1978.....Sitting up on the hill. A Chevelle stocker spun out and went into the weeds....no guardwall back then. He kind of disappeared in the woods....Don't know what caused the spinout....The car was not really hurt....

He won the race on Sunday....Rich Rann.....It was a WCS race as they were called back then....

I was the racer that he just missed, I had a 1969 green Z28, he skidded into the weeds and they awarded him the win because it was after the finish line. I was just happy that he missed my car

Casey Miles
248H "F" NHRA Stock!

[Bob Don]

The incident made the big time as it was used in ESPN's highlights during the event broadcast on Sunday.

[HR9121]

Originally Posted by Mickey Whaley

Since no one was hurt in the making of this video except 4 flat spotted tires i have to say it . They almost got tangled up at the finish line!

I was patiently waiting for this.

[tim worner]

First time I had after market breaks on my car I got on em hard a Belle Rose and blew out both front tires. I installed a proportioning valve and only blew out one tire the next time. Getting on the brakes is part of racing. Knowing how much is what to learn.

[67 Post GS]

Here's an idea. Watch the video for the hundredth time and watch how Tom got on the brakes too hard. Then learn that you shouldnt hit the brakes that hard! Easy enough? Luckily that him and the car are fine and that's what is important. Changing the rules ain't gonna do anything. Maybe we should just put pegs on these things and run them down a slot car track.

[hookdaddy]

After watching all the pro stockers bouncing around right after the finish line, I got to wonder if all those bumps didn't compound the issue.

[Pete Beau]

Originally Posted by Bob Don

The incident made the big time as it was used in ESPN's highlights during the event broadcast on Sunday.

As they say in oval track racing (especially local short track racing), very few can tell you who won or came in second but everyone knows who stuffed their car in turn 3. If you want press coverage just crash your car :-)

[Wade Mahaffey]

As one who builds his entire car other the mandatory factory portion, I am not in favor of an additional risk to my investment. I have been guilty of excessive braking myself, but that is unfortunately a component of the game we play. Now if it were against the rules, and enforced to the letter....I think that would be a good thing. I love the competition of racing an except the risk involved. I am retired and If I were to get hurt because somebody pushed a little to hard on the brake pedal, I would still get paid....but what about the poor bastard that can't work anymore because someone was over aggressive! What about his family, his house, his livelihood! What about the racer that can't afford a new car....or can't find a ride deal like Peter, Dan, Anthony etc, etc. All because someone got caught up in the moment. Now I understand that the good "finish line racers" may disagree, because this is a card in their hand, but an intentional act that could upset the car at high speed if slightly over done should be removed from the sport. It's funny if you think about....every racer goes on the brakes softly after a run....they do that because it's the safe way to finish the run, and minimizes the risk of upsetting the race car. Let's face it...drag race cars are not designed for maximum braking effectiveness, so why would you take the chance of over braking at over 100 MPH in a vehicle that has no design incorporated to provide a more positive outcome when hard braking. I'm sure that the Fletcher incident has been discussed within the camp, and corrections have been made as well as a review of the equipment, to eliminate further incidents. Hopefully others will use this incident as a wake up call so we all can race and have fun, while bending the bar back toward safety a little bit.

Wade Mahaffey

[Michael Beard]

Most people have stopped hard at some point or another. That being said, if stopping hard is a regular part of a racer's program, the laws of probability demand a much higher chance of having an incident. Just because someone gets away with it a hundred times or a thousand times doesn't mean it's not going to happen; it means it's MORE likely that incident is coming. I've had guys who have consistently driven overly aggressive come into my lane sideways, up on two wheels with smoke rolling of the tires, and I don't appreciate it -- and I can only put it that kindly because I was able to avoid them.

I think Dan's brought the boys up right, very good kids and very talented, and I have no doubt that the lesson has been learned there. My concern is for the ones that don't learn, and that's what makes this an important topic. Some of the guys that have come into my lane sideways have actually gone on to wreck cars.

I am not advocating for any 'no brakes' rules, just self-control and common sense. As Sal pointed out from the Jim Harrington School of Drag Racing, it's rare that I'm not on the brakes -- you're either taking took much stripe, or you're not minimizing your changes of a breakout enough. There's a number of ways to accomplish that mission.

[Jeff Stout]

Originally Posted by Wade Mahaffey

As one who builds his entire car other the mandatory factory portion, I am not in favor of an additional risk to my investment. I have been guilty of excessive braking myself, but that is unfortunately a component of the game we play. Now if it were against the rules, and enforced to the letter....I think that would be a good thing. I love the competition of racing an except the risk involved. I am retired and If I were to get hurt because somebody pushed a little to hard on the brake pedal, I would still get paid....but what about the poor bastard that can't work anymore because someone was over aggressive! What about his family, his house, his livelihood! What about the racer that can't afford a new car....or can't find a ride deal like Peter, Dan, Anthony etc, etc. All because someone got caught up in the moment. Now I understand that the good "finish line racers" may disagree, because this is a card in their hand, but an intentional act that could upset the car at high speed if slightly over done should be removed from the sport. It's funny if you think about....every racer goes on the brakes softly after a run....they do that because it's the safe way to finish the run, and minimizes the risk of upsetting the race car. Let's face it...drag race cars are not designed for maximum braking effectiveness, so why would you take the chance of over braking at over 100 MPH in a vehicle that has no design incorporated to provide a more positive outcome when hard braking. I'm sure that the Fletcher incident has been discussed within the camp, and corrections have been made as well as a review of the equipment, to eliminate further incidents. Hopefully others will use this incident as a wake up call so we all can race and have fun, while bending the bar back toward safety a little bit.

Wade Mahaffey

Great job writing^^^^

Working as race director at Speedworld we had our team races and during them there were a lot of tire smoking top end going on. I brought this up with the team captains and they felt something should be done. So we started one time in a year is a warning, second time your out of the race. Didn't have much teeth because everyone now would do it once and usually when a driver smoked tires the second time then he usually lost , so getting tossed for the day didn't really mean a whole lot.
Now we had two instances of tire smoking and one hit the wall and tore his own car up and messed the wall and timing equipment up. We had some down time and when looking at the car his helmet actually hit the windshield. Had a 5 point harness on and when asked he chose to have belts loose enough to be able to turn around in his seat to be able to see the other racer coming. This time he turned to look and slightly turned the wheel and jammed the brakes. He was tossed for the day and asked to not return for the remainder of the year. The second incident was a fast car smoked the tires and won. Went to pits to let them know they were out for the day. He asked to look at his car as the left caliper was froze ( same side as smoke) and wheel barely turned, I let the driver know if he can swamp caliper out for another and prove to me the car was safe as far as braking I would reinstate him. He did swap it out, showed me the old one, showed me the brake fluid. Everything looked legit and I let him back in.
Not all tires make smoke so its hard to catch, but if they do make smoke or change lanes then it is unsafe stripe driving to others. I don't care what you do to yourself but I cant sit back and have drivers race recklessly and put others in danger for something that can be avoided and really unnecessary. Was this a mistake or bad judgment ? Sure it was. Others have written its a video to learn from. Can you tell me what you learned? I learned that its ok to slide through the lights and put others in danger with out any penalty.
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