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Posted on 09/22/2025 6:57:18 AM PDT by WhiteHatBobby0701
Ron Capps blows the body off his BMW G29-bodied Funny Car with a Toyota badge during the 4-Wide Carolina Nationals drag show in the nitro eliminations.
Scary, but he is safe.
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I admit I just really started watching NHRA when Tony Stewart started racing.
I was there on Saturday. The top fuel starts were unreal. You could feel your organs shake.
When did 4 lane drag racing begin? Dang! I is OLD! LOL
1960’s but the first national event was in 2010 that went four.
WITHOUT “TETHERS” WHERE DOES THE BODY GO?
INTO THE CROWD????
4 lanes? are they also doing 1/8 mile tracks?
tough to compare records over the years when they keep changing the basic race.
She blowed up real good.
3/16 mile 10 feet. (1,000).
Nitro is 3/16 + 10’.
Gas and alcohol are 1/4 mile (1,320).
And the quarter mile is one eighth .
i’ve never heard why they shortened the track.
you have any idea?
SMH
The death of Scott Kalitta during the June 2008 Englishtown event. Mechanical failure, high rate of speed into television boom. On July 2, 2008, the NHRA changed all nitro categories to 1,000 feet. Everything else is still quarter, that includes Pro Stock, Pro Mod, Alcohol, and the works.
Official New Jersey Police Report from 2008.
https://www.nj.gov/njsp/news/pr091708.html
Top speeds exceeding 300mph had a lot to do with it.
i seem to remember there were serious accidents and a couple of deaths in the 70s/80s due to accidents. some on bikes, dragsters, and aafc. of course, some tracks don’t have much room to slow, a grade, or sand to slow the vehicles at the end.
hell, the guardrails they used back then were just insane... steel spikes and a long ribbon of steel. i remember coming back down the return road and at about 100ft one of the cars did a wheelie, got sideways, slammed down on the guardrail, and started rolling / spinning. we had a tire just miss the crew cab of the dually. driver came out without injury (people today are far to gentle for the things going on back then)
reading the report says the chute was hosed due to an explosion and he was bouncing, reducing any stopping from brakes. also seems the engine cutoff didn’t trigger and kept powering the rear, pushing it to the end of the track.
seems shortening the length of the track only succeeds in reducing the top speed attainable. as such, they would need to continue shortening the ‘track’ as the cars get faster. this shows the solution isn’t correct. they should have better track requirements to insure a similar accident doesn’t result in running off the end. maybe possible chute requirements to minimize the chance of losing it with the body could help. and something to insure the engine shutoff happens going thru the lights.
i just saw a very blurry video of the run.
his chute was tangled and spinning. too blurry to understand if it was packed improperly or tangled on deployment with the explosion.
tho the video was insanely poor, as best as i could see, there didn’t seem to be much room at the end. the commentary also mentioned barriers (trucks?) at the end. not what i’d use... i’d go with the type of netting you find on aircraft carriers and only after 50-100 ft of soft sand to sink into. then again, if the wheels were still pushing, not much would stop it gently.
And there was another massive explosion, Paul Lee. Note his escape hatch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vocl1bnPScI
The problem there, is money. In order to have a mile-long runoff, every track would have to have that much more real estate. They can’t do it.
I spent the weekend at Rock Falls Raceway in Wisconsin. A first class track, & getting better.
I took a golf cart ride to the end of the track, past the sand & hay bales. There’s a 60 foot cliff at the end! If you go through the bales, it’s over. I was quite surprised.
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