There are certain things that still amaze me on nearly every trip to the drags. The first is the propensity of a racer with a car that clearly has a mechanical issue refusing to lift on the way down the track. If the car is popping, farting, and otherwise unhappy, it won’t fix itself. The number of times that a poor running gas engine has “cleaned itself up” on the way down the track at WOT is still standing at like nine since the history of organized drag racing. That one is more of an annoyance/something to ponder. The second one is way more serious and dangerous and you’ll see it in the video below.
My wonder is centered around the ability that people (typically crew guys) have to stick their face into the most potentially man eating parts of a race car in the heat of battle with little thought or consideration of anything, That the video below. The blue Nova that is the star of the show has a nitrous combo and it is not running well. In fact, it is running so badly that the car stalls quickly after lunch and barfs a pretty fiery backfire right at the driver. Instead of just pushing the car off the track and continuing with the program, those guys decided that trying to refire the thing was the best idea. As the crewman is under the cowl apparently trying to beat out some flames with a towel, the driver tries to hit it again and BOOM fire everywhere for an instant.
Moral of the story? Keep you head on your shoulders and don’t do something dumb like this guy. He lucked out!
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE A CREW GUY NEARLY HAVE A FIREBALL ALL UP IN HIS GRILL –
It always amazes me that road race, circle track, and desert racers can run for super long times without any assistance, but drag cars now require 3-20 people on the line to make a sub 15 second pass.