(Photos by Ben De La Vega and Denny Parker) – BangShift reader Ben De La Vega is the track announcer at Arroyo Seco Raceway in Deming, New Mexico and sent us an email last week to say that he had some photos of a wild transmission involving racer Denny Parker’s Super Bee. According to Ben, when Denny hammered the throttle on the green light, the transmission exploded in nuclear fashion leaving a trail of fluid, parts, and general badness for the track workers to clean up. The true horror came when everyone looked inside the car.
When the trans blew up, it smashed up the transmission tunnel like an aluminum can, actually breaking it open in a couple of areas. In the areas that the metal was sawed open, parts and boiling hot fluid entered the car and got all over Parker. Luckily, he was not injured, aside from having his foot hit so hard it was knocked off of a gas pedal that had been bent and generally mangled by all of this bad stuff happening.
From the racing perspective, the truly crappy thing is that Parker was making a bye run into the final round! Parker’s car is typical of what lots of bracket cars are, which are totally stripped out muscle cars with minimal (read: NONE) interior and some switch gear and sheet metal panels. It ain’t artsy, but it works. Obviously, the car was not required to have a transmission blanket and blow shield, but instances like this are a reminder that an SFI rated trans case and blanket are pretty good investments. Parker got away lucky with no injuries.
Scroll down to see the photos of the transmission and the interior damage to the car!
