Help For An A-Body Racer
First I want to thank each and every person for the well wishes I've received. Somehow I survived this crash,i dont know how but I did. It happened at Fontana during the second round of eliminations. coming up o the lights I went to scrub some speed and the pedal was rock hard. Rod must have come out at the launch. There was a stop to prevent that but obviously it failed. I killed the fuel pump and downshifted the car. I sorta remember going to the left lane to try and scrub speed on the wall. I atempted to make the turn out but was going too fast and the front tires started sliding. My guess is 80 or so mph. I dont remember anything after that except waking in the ER wanting to know if I won. I later found out I broke out by a few thou. My only hope is that this acident is a wake up call to all my fellow racers. Check your cars out on a regular basis. dont assume everything is ok. Inspect your track and have a plan of action in your head in case of emergency. dont go chea on safety. Look at the pictures of my car. Many safety features failed. The rool bar where the belts attached moved 8 to 10" forward. The seat buckled and moved. The car had 2x3 steel fram connectors which helped keep the car from folding up more. If it had a cage with forward bars to the from frame I feel I would have been better protected. I think race seats and better mounts would have held me in place better. The battery was in the stock location per NHRA rules and explded on impact and caused a fire. There is no excuse to have a battery in front anymore. Aftermarket seats arent that expensive. I have kirkey's in my SS car and the fit great. If you are thinking of doing a roll bar,upgrade to a cage for a few hundred bucks. Much cheaper then the 100,000+ in medical bills I am facing. Like I said I hope we can learn from this and make ourselves safer so we can continue to enjoy our sport for years to come. Thank you I'll get off my soap box. Ken Etter