Watched the incident frame-by-frame, from several angles, on my DVR late last night. No question in my mind that Force’s car suffered a catastrophic clutch explosion (very rare these days) that had nothing to do with Kenny Bernstein taking out two of the speed trap timing blocks, which both missed John’s car. Later in the 3 hour NHRA program they showed a tow truck taking away the back part of John’s car. From the close-up camera shot, it was cleanly cut in half right at the bottom of the driver’s roll cage. The left tire was intact but had many metal? fragment punctures in it. Noticed right when the accident began to happen there were chunks of metal destroying the rear left side of the car’s body, then as the clutches were letting go the excess revs blew the supercharger - starting a flash blower fire and the burst panel went flying off the car – then the car’s chassis separated right in front of John with the entire back of the car pitching up in the air from the explosion. Noticed after the front 3/4 of John’s car took out Kenny’s car, and finally slid to a stop at the front of the sand trap, I didn’t see any bell housing-clutch can in the car. Imo, this was nothing more than a freak and very rare type of accident that didn’t have anything to do with TF-FC technology. That’s my 3 cents until something official comes out on the subject. Glad John wasn’t hurt worse that he was and Kenny is alright. Hope next season is better for both of them.
NHRA.com reports the surgery went well. Updates from the Force camp expected midday today.