According to another source, she was driving on a “created” one eighth mile strip out of their main straight as it is really an oval track, (undersized from the normal quarter mile), and when her primary chute didn’t deploy, and may have partially deployed, she veered into the traps, which were not needed as she was not going to hit top speed due to the short track, and after going through them now out of control hit the only wall down there. This makes the second time this year a fatal crash involving a jet dragster and an exhibition on a converted oval track straight has occurred. Jet car legend Doug Rose crashed his Green Mamba into a barrier while performing at Norway Speedway, a paved oval track, in August.
When you stretch the capacities of these machines capable of such great power into a semi-controlled status by changing the normal car designed strategy, you create a danger. This exhibition is not safe on undersized converted oval tracks. And as they cannot reach top speeds due to the size problem, it is more show and the run should not have been finished. She should have shut down shortly after leaving the line.
rwood
When I was a kid, a regional quarter-mile drag strip ended up becoming an eighth-mile strip because the cars were getting too fast to safely shut down on what was left past the traps. A few years later they had some big-name funny cars out there and almost all of them said that the situation was becoming marginal again. A jet dragster without a hell of a lot of pavement and more nice open space beyond would be a scary ride.