Drag racing mourns death of Funny Car driver for second straight season

espn ^ | June 22, 2008 | Bill Stephens

[xcamel]

Hate it when this happens...

[Wacka]

Saw it last night. His engine caught on fire and the chute was burnt. He never slowed down. Most horric crash I have seen.

[xcamel]

http://bittenandbound.com/2008/06/21/scott-kalitta-crash-video/

Worst I’ve ever seen.

[McGruff]

I saw the video on FNC this morning. Sad. It look like there wasn’t a pit to slow down the car but a wall. I could be wrong though.

[frankjr]

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSn94ZoLlQ0

First the fire, then the wall, then the car went flying. They may want to put something else at the end of the track that would better absorb an impact.

[saganite]

He apparently crashed into some sort of barrier (it’s hard to tell from the video) and the car exploded. Most drag strips have a long runout at the end and I’m wondering if that would have made a difference here.

[xcamel]

at 317mph, with no chute, I doubt it.

[CodeToad]

I could swear there was nothing but a concrete wall at the end of that strip! No sand runout, or grass area, nothing but a wall.

[RayChuang88]

Alas, Scott Kallita never had a chance because people surmised when the engine exploded the shock of the explosion may have knocked Kallita unconscious, and as such he never did go through the procedures to do things like cut off fuel or even apply the brakes to slow the car down. As such, when the car hit the wall literally head-on the estimated impact speed was around 200 mph, and NOBODY survives a head-on 200 mph impact into a retaining wall even if you had all the latest safety devices installed.

[ridesthemiles]

Bad year for Connie Kalitta.
It was his 747 cargo plane that broke in half on the runway in Belgium.

[xcamel]

Exactly.

[BigCinBigD]

As long as people risk death in pursuit of their need for thrills, tragedy's will always happen. At least he died as he lived.

[Fiji Hill]

Funny Car?

[xcamel]

Not the least bit funny..

[Ann Archy]

I didn’t see the ACCIDENT...I just saw a car going straight and burst into flames. What was the accident?

[xcamel]

links to the video have been posted

[Vaduz]

Sad we have lost a great driver and a good family man.

[svxdave]

I raced at racetracks when Scott’s Father, Connie, raced. My car was in a class below that of the class that Scott and Connie raced and my car was not expected to go as fast as theirs. Still, as we were able to tune my car to make it faster and faster, it got to a point that the only thing I could “see” was the bright colored vehicle next to me.

The light posts that line the track went by so fast that they became a blur and I will admit that sometimes I was scared. There is something that gets in you though that makes it hard to give it up. Scott retired twice. I recall going to the track after I retiring my car and smelling the fuel and hearing the burnouts and to this day I want to try it again.

My heart goes out to the Kalitta Family.

[xcamel]

My last run was in 1978, and I was pushing the 11 second barrier. Life and all it's responsibilities put a swift end to all that... bit God it was fun....

[Focault's Pendulum]

Most drag strips have a long runout at the end and I’m wondering if that would have made a difference here.

The end of that track empties out onto Pension Road. Several years ago someone actually traveled across the road while trying to adjust to a malfunction.

I don't live too far from Raceway Park been there several times. He was way beyond the track when he hit the wall. The crane you see at the wall is the camera to take an oncoming picture.