GolfHos

Scott Kalitta

Big time racing family, sad to see.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080622/ap_on_sp_au_ra_ne/car_nhra_driver_killed_8

IIRC, Connie was Shirley Muldowney's car owner when she was still 'Cha Cha'.

A father should never have to outlive his son. Very sad.

Among other things.  [sm_naughty]


Indeed, parents should never outlive there children.

Went out doing what he loved to do though, wish we all could say that.

all local people here the kallita's and shirley. sad to see. i actually met scott and connie on several occasions when i was in to drag racing. quality people.

Respectfully I post this link.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=030_1214097117

I have to wonder why there is a concrete barrier at the end of the track instead of a gravel or sandy incline, or nothing at all? While nothing could ensure survival at those speeds, many things would give you a better chance than a wall.

It's a sad video, and you posted it tastefully.

Unfortunately it takes incidents like this to reconfigure things, either to make the cars safer or the tracks safer, the legacy of the Eric Medlen tragedy last year is that the cars are safer now.

You're right about the track it kind of looked like a multi-purpose track to me, the wall you mention looked like the wall for a corner of a road racing track.

Usually there is a big sand box and a safety net before the wall (if there is a wall) and If you look closely at the video you will see sand and a safety net. Again though I am not familiar with the track at Englishtown, NJ. but they've been racing there for ever.

In theory in the event of a parachute/brake malfunction the sand box slows the cars before they hit the net. The fact is these cars have gotten significantly faster since a lot of these tracks were built, and they need more time to slow down in the event of a catastrophic failure.

I hope the legacy of losing Scott Kalitta is safer tracks.

It's actually not a multipurpose track, but they have raced ther forever.

It's easy to start assessing blame after one of these things, but the bottom line is it's a dangerous sport and always will be.

The car actually starts to burn before he's even through the trap at the end, (not normal, but a fairly 'Routine Thermodynamic Event by NHRA standards) and I wonder how far it actually is from there to that wall. TeeVee is 2 dimensional, so it could be alot further than it looks. It's also hard to see if there's an elevation change, like at Sears Point where the run out is uphill all the way.

the problem was the chute which didn't deploy properly. had this happened, he'd still be racing today. this is exactly why the driver usually packs the chute himself.  :sad3:

Chutes not deploying is also a fairly common event, these cars do have brakes, and when the brakes are used you will see the car start to hop a bit, his car didn't do that which leads me to believe he was unconscious from the concussion of the explosion (hopefully) before he hit the wall. It's hard to stop a however heavy they are funny car traveling 330 mph quickly and safely. When the chutes DO deploy it's 3 g's of force, so that's why they have uphill run outs, and/or sand and safety nets.

I know that TV is 2 dimensional but that sand trap looks really small, hopefully I'll be able to have a  better look at it on todays broadcast, and if this isn't a multi-purpose track wtf is a wall doing there? It was an accident waiting to happen and it did.

brakes have no chance of stopping one of these cars, hence the parachutes.

I grew up a stones throw from where the Seattle event is held, and I've been to probably a hundred NHRA events, and I can't tell you how many times I've seen a chute not deploy and the driver walk away in a funny car or a top fueler. I've even seen one or two of these cars come to a complete stop after the half or so mile run out w/o chute, even if not a complete stop just slow the car down enough so that when it hits the sand and the net the g force is lessened significantly, absolutely.

I just google earthed the race track, the run out is a pretty standard almost twice as long as the quarter mile, and the sand looks fairly long, the wall looks like it abuts a wooded area and a county road?

Senseless death in a senseless "sport". If you're not trying to set a land speed record in one of these:

(http://blog.wired.com/cars/images/2007/10/13/thrustssc.jpg)

I don't see the point.

Maybe all the stupid mother*fudge*ers that want street race will now think twice.

Doubt it, that's, at least in part, what makes them stupid mother*fudge*ers.

I don't think finding out who has the fastest car and the best hand eye coordination on any given day is 'Senseless' by any means.

Of course, I'm watching 2 different races at the same time as I type this... ::)

To me, that combination of factors is as arbitrary as trying to find out who can run around a track and complete his IRS Form 1040 the fastest.

Not sure I'm buying 'Arbitrary'.

'Pointless and Silly', maybe.

At the end of the day, aren't all sports pointless and silly? Whether it's who can make 3,000 left hand turns in the shortest possible time or who can get the little white ball in the hole in the ground using the fewest number of strokes, it's all sort of arbitrary and stupid. Personally I'd rather watch grass grow than watch most motorsports, but I love to watch golf. Go figure.

I used google earth to do some measurements. The track runs out 2230 feet, give or take, from the end of the quarter mile, after that it appears that there is only about 125 feet of sand before the wall.

http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.329083,-74.352009&z=17&t=h&hl=en

Obviously the NHRA has never experienced this kind of catastrophic failure on all levels (brakes/chutes/driver) absolute total loss of control of an 8,000 horse power vehicle topping out at 330 mph heading straight into a wall. I still question the wall, but like MFAWG said it's easy to start second guessing so I won't.

I know 125 feet of sand doesn't look or sound like much, but it's also pretty deep, and I'm almost sure there's a safety net after the sand. Up until now if all the current safety precautions are in place everything has been fine (almost 1/2 mile run out/driver conscious/chutes/brakes/sand/net), I've seen a lot of broken collar bones and shoulder and neck injuries from the effect of going 200-300 mph and then hitting the sand and then the net, but quite clearly nothing like this.

Tony Pedregon a Funny car driver and season champion, said they need more room to stop, and he's walked away from some pretty horrific accidents just this year.

Something good will come from this it usually does.

couple of things watching the race.

first, they had all the kallitta team members and friends on the starting line for the race that would have been scotts first round race and his opponent made a solo pass at an idle. literally made the hair stand up on my arms.  :'(

second, sounds like there is going to be a big push to shorten the fuel races to either 1000' or even an 1/8 mile. the nhra is going to evaluate all of the tracks most of which were built in the 50's and 60's to see if they can be updated. 

Update and then I'll drop it.

They just showed the end of the track on ESPN during the final eliminations. There is no wall, he hit a pole, so the safety net was strung along the sand (kinda like a huge volleyball net at ground level), and he must've hit the pole that holds the net in place, freak accident to say the least.

Coolest thing and class act. Kalitta's car qualified for the race today and his opponent in todays eliminations obviously gets a free pass, usually they still run all out as your elapsed time dictates lane choice in the next round, and lane choice can mean a lot. His opponent just ran a pass at about 60 mph with the 40 member teams and crews from Kaliita Air Racings 3 teams standing in the staging area of the opposite lane.

Another veteran driver Jim head (been driving for as long as I can remember) voiced his opinion about these tracks built in the 50's and 60's and how when they were built the nitro cars were going 200 mph and now some of these tracks are becoming obsolete (new golf ball old courses theory). They need more room to slow them down.

Still sounds like it was a freak accident, but aren't the worst ones always that way.

LOL...great minds think alike BM.


Me too.


Watched the Jim head interview I see, I really don't see it happening though, maybe, but I doubt it.

And did you also hear Head say he's buying new brakes for his car today his are getting old?  :)

he can buy all the brakes he wants, without a chute he ain't stoppin.  ;D

Doubting Thomas FTW

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/racing/more/07/13/bc.car.nhra.finals.ap/index.html?
I thought the et's looked a little odd when I surfed through a couple of times.

Next weekend here, I believe.