The accident that changed the world of drag racing forever

Accidents have always been an essential attribute of any motorsport discipline. The higher the speed, the more serious the consequences. Racing has always been very risky, but this is the fee for victory, records and outstanding results.

Today we tell about a number of crucial incidents that changed the world forever stays at the quarter-mile, at the same time making drag racing one of the safest forms of motorsport today.

Don Garlitts. AHRA Grand American. 1970 

«Swamp Rat XIII truth was a great car, won the 69 m Smokers US Fuel and Gas Championship in New York. It was there that I decided to put a two-stage gearbox. The box worked perfectly, we have won a lot of races with it, but soon it became a problem, and it „- says Don 40 years.

March 8, 1970 at 17:30 Garlitts led his perednemotorny dregster to the starting line. Immediately after he drowned the right pedal to the floor, transmission, located directly between the legs of the pilot, scattered in the dust, literally tearing the car in two. The new transmission is simply not withstood the giant moment of 2000 horsepower engine. The consequences were terrible: half of his right leg was almost severed, and the left was broken in five places. Six weeks Garlitts spent in the hospital, where doctors literally often gathered illustrious rider.
A similar incident would be knocked out of the rut many pilots, however, the future three-time NHRA champion is already in a hospital bed began to develop Swamp Rat XIV — dregster radically new rear-engined layout, which he subsequently built a while in a wheelchair. Two years later, vehicles with front-mounted power plant completely disappeared from professional sports, and thanks to the engineering genius of Don Garlittsa class Top Fuel race cars today have all the usual, much more secure configuration.

Doug Herbert. NHRA Winternationals. 1999 

Absolutely everything from pilots and ending with the fans, agree that it was the biggest explosion in the history of drag racing. At the start of Herbert exploded engine, which turned into a huge ball of burning nitromethane and a hot metal chips.

Fortunately, the explosion did not lead to a subsequent car fire and the pilot was not injured, though the strength of the shock wave was enough to injector valve reached the spectator who watched the races, sitting opposite the 1000-foot mark. Miraculously, given the power of the explosion, only 14 people were slightly injured.

After the incident, NHRA has collected a special commission to investigate the causes of the incident, but the investigation was stalled almost immediately because the main «evidence», ie the engine is left absolutely nothing but mangled wreckage, including one of the largest proved just that valve. Anyway, NHRA bosses decided to advance it safe and made ​​an amendment to the regulations, to reduce the maximum permissible content of nitromethane in the fuel up to 90%. Similar scale incidents since then has not happened, however, and to this day the destructive fireworks occur at almost every stage of NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

Clay Millican. IHRA Motor City Nationals. 2005 

«We have signed a contract with Warner Bros for one race on the promotion of the film Dukes of Hazzard. Our car had to go to a strip in black and orange color with the logo „01“ on the board. The irony is that it is on that event is what happened „- Millikan recalls with a smile that incident a few years later.

Around the middle of the strip front part of the car began to rise, and eventually working just overturned the laws of aerodynamics dregster wheels up to speed fast 200 mph. Glass-plastic casing from the frame ripped like autumn leaves from a tree, and the rear wing struts and pipes rollcage 8,000,000th monster has come to the finish line. The pilot had not received any injuries and got off stress. Later, Clay will share in an interview with a popular online resource: «I understood what all could end, but I was until recently did not release the gas pedal, he told himself,» Yes, you're macho, you will do it ", but after a few hundredths of a second, to do something it was too late. "

It is noteworthy that the first, so-called, blowover in the class Top Fuel Don Garlitts experienced in 1986, and despite the fact that the cause of the incident was clear, before the incident with the General Lee story has a couple of dozen such accidents. And only after the event in 2005, the presence of Willie bars became mandatory for all categories of professional drag racing.

Scott Kalitta. Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals. 2008 

The accident, of course, is one of the most terrible and the darkest chapters in the modern drag racing. Dregster Scott caught fire almost at the finish mark at a speed of over 300 mph, the car body has been destroyed, and none of the braking parachute failed to open. As a result, Funny Car crashed into a concrete bump at a speed of 125 mph and exploded. Have a chance to survive the double champion NHRA simply did not exist. After investigation, it became clear that the pilot tried to brake using standard disc brakes, but was not enough to stop the dregster engine which, in spite of the fire, continued to work with a fully closed clutch.

After this tragic incident in the NHRA safety standards have been radically revised. Distance races for nitromethane classes (Top Fuel and Funny Car) was reduced to a quarter of a mile (1,320 feet) to 1,000 feet, and the cars equipped with additional security and firefighting. For example, since 2009, has been introduced without fail mechanism which in case of fire, the engine automatically shuts off the fuel and «shoots» parachutes. In addition, many strips have undergone reorganization, as one of the main causes of death of Scott Kalitty became infamous concrete bump at the end of the track section allotted for braking. Extensive sand trap and a mesh fence could easily save the life of the pilot.

It is not always the engine of progress are the theoretical base of engineers and technical surveys, born during test runs. Sometimes the impetus for change are similar incidents. And, despite the fact that the security level increases from year to year, motor racing will always carry risks and injuries.