We have not idea how we missed this video for more than a year and it seems that most everyone else has missed it, too. In this clip you’ll see driver Ron Deedy commence a burnout in a Firebird bodied funny car only to find himself in a rapidly disintegrating race car after it slides sideways into the tree. Deedy commented on the video and said that he ended up with a pretty bad concussion from the crash and we can see why. The car seems to crash with the crown of the cage taking the brunt of the impact. Adding to the dramatic nature of the wreck, the body completely comes apart as though it were made of bone China. The clip strops before we can get a decent look at the aftermath, but the impact is front and center.
We’re not going to get cute with comments about the crash or anything else because frankly, we haven’t driven one of those cars before so we’re not exactly experts as to what protocol is when the car decides is wants to change lanes on the burnout almost the second after you wail the throttle. When Deedy comes through the water and gets the tires spinning the rear of the car kicks out towards the left side. He apparently counter steered to combat that but the spinning slicks turned his correction into a pendulum swing and all of a sudden the back of the car was headed toward the right with authority. That sent the car on a collision course with the concrete center divider at the track and ultimately the tree. The sliding hit had to have thrown Deedy hard into the roll cage.
The car looks like it had an injected engine in it and from the glimpse we get of it rolling to the water, a four link style rear suspension. We have no idea what has happened to the car since then or if it was able to be repaired. Driving funny cars isn’t easy and this is some pretty dramatic proof of that.
PRESS PLAY TO SEE A FIREBIRD FUNNY CAR GET COMPLETELY DESTROYED WHILE CRASHING ON THE BURNOUT –
Always loved Lebanon Valley! Always had a high % of Mopars there; them country boys knew what worked! I still have many Lebanon Valley trophies on display in my home office and basement here in Morgantown, Ky from 1964-65.
Damn that sucks! Nice looking ‘Bird too. Raced there a few times. It’s funny racing on Saturday cause they close early so the roundy-round boys next door can use the parking lot for the night race.
Piss poor burnout !! Should have shut it off at the first hop !!!
This was at our 2012 Dover Drag Strip Nostalgia Drags…See Jim Knights video of it.
I know it was uploaded in 2012, but I’m pretty sure this was at the 2011 Dover Drag Reunion event @ LVD. We were the car before this accident, doing a lic pass with our own funny car. This accident was a lic run also, maybe the first pass for the driver in that car if I remember correctly.