Wreck almost 10 years ago

Seeing a race car that totally burnt to the ground today it made me reflect back to 2010 when I put my Daytona on its roof. Being unable to get out of the car upside down I of course had the fuel pumps off but gasoline has a habit of continuing to drain out of upside down carbs. I had my hand on my Halon fire system but working with Halon in the mill I know it works so well because it takes oxygen out of the air. Suffocate or burn to death I knew my options if needed and my mind was made up. Luckily it didn’t come to that. If you race small tire or short wheelbase cars long enough probably something bad will happen. But most of the time we live to race again. Life is good


wrecked daytona 001 by John Cadamore, on Flickr


wrecked daytona 004 by John Cadamore, on Flickr

I tagged the wall once when a freeze plug let go,damage the fender,headlight bezel and grille. Put me out of service for a while.Found a pair of 63 fenders in Tyler Texas,,,,,,Thanks Jamie!!

It stinks but we lived to race again.

Looks like it got a little out of shape.
Short wheel base and power sometimes does what it wants. no matter how much you try to reign it in.
glad you didn't mess up your mind or body and still enjoy racing.

HEMI-ITIS said:

I tagged the wall once when a freeze plug let go,damage the fender,headlight bezel and grille. Put me out of service for a while.Found a pair of 63 fenders in Tyler Texas,,,,,,Thanks Jamie!!

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The tire looks suspect as hell...

fishmens67 said:

Looks like it got a little out of shape.
Short wheel base and power sometimes does what it wants. no matter how much you try to reign it in.
glad you didn't mess up your mind or body and still enjoy racing.

Click to expand...

Very short wheelbase and a broken oil line running to my remote oil filter. Almost had it till the rear panel touched the guardrail and drove a body strut rod through a rear slick. Not a bad ride for me but my 21 year old son was watching on the starting line.

That's why I ditched that remote oil filter I used to have it just seems like more places for something to go wrong. I've used the shorty oil filter and had no problems...

Back in '86 I ripped the center out of a right rear wheel on one of my outlaw dirt late models. When the barrel rolls were over it was on it's roof and there was only one tire/wheel left on the car. They ended up dragging the car back into the pits on it's roof, took two trucks to haul all my stuff back home.

Back in '87 or '88 I went down and ran one of my DLM's at a POSSE event at Cottage Grove OR. Qualifying rained out so we drew for heat races. First time I had been to Cottage Grove, didn't do well at first, but I did do well enough to eventually transfer out of the B and into the 100 lap feature. The racing was pretty wild, POSSE was one of those groups that allowed sprint car RR tires and 6' high sideboards from the front tire all the way to the back. Engines were pretty much unlimited at the time. At one point in the feature I remember someone's right front tire in my window ripping the net loose. Anyway about 50 laps in I started feeling my crotch strap tugging my belts from time to time, sometimes pretty hard. The strap was pretty long but anchored just in front of the seat. The excess tail on the strap I had rolled up and secured with a zip tie down by the anchor bolt. I figured the tail of the strap had come loose, maybe the car was bottoming out once in a while causing the strap to pull on my belts. No time to think about it much as the racing was pretty intense. Ended up bring home 10th place money, I think Dane Smith took home the winner's share. Anyway after the race we pulled a side panel and saw that the tail of the crotch strap was WRAPPED AROUND THE DRIVESHAFT!!! After that I always trim the excess off my belts

Both the cars mentioned above had backwards mounted BBM 440's.

Grant

This doesn't involve a wreck, but very easily could have.

On a Grudge Nite at Atco several years ago, a young guy left the line in his beautiful 427, 4 spd, 67 Chevelle. Running street tires, and without a hope of finding traction, and no apparent desire to find traction, he was in 4th gear probably before the 330' mark, spinning furiously. It began to spin out, and with the wheel speed he had generated, he didn't stand a chance of correcting it. Luckily, the car in the other lane was long gone, and the Chevelle managed to miss the wall.

Anyhow, all this reminds me of when someone in a 17 second car is ridiculed for having a bar or cage. Well, when you're approaching the stripe at a scalding 78 mph, the car in the other lane could go by at 160. If he loses it and hits you, that cage will prove to be a good investment.

Be safe, y'all!