It had been many years since the NHRA had jet cars at a national event so when the sanctioning body announced that they would have jets at the US Nationals to close the show on Friday and Saturday night people took notice. Well, as the story goes, a guy really kind of lobbied, worked, debated, and stuck his neck out to make this happen inside the company. Imagine his horror when he watched the jet cars perform their smoke and fire show, do burner pops, and then launch down the track to make the last run of the night only to end in disaster.
Aaron Bay’s jet dragster makes a healthy run here and then as it crosses the finish line it gets all kinds of sideways. One that happens, the car with no downforce on it and nothing to hold it straight heads across the track. As all this is happening the parachute has either been deployed or smashed loose and as Bay’s car heads over the wall like a Nike missile, the parachute hooks the nose of the other jet in the opposite lane and prevents the thing from really setting an over the wall distance record by basically stopping it in its tracks.
It still rolls around, sends people scattering and caused at least one guy to think that his career in drag racing ended in a blaze of afterburner pops and flying jet dragsters.
Anything that is raced will eventually crash. People have wrecks in all styles of vehicles. It’s rare in history for these to crash like this but these things happen. Our understanding is that Bay was fully intact after this mess.
I was there that night. I believe Tony Schumacher had just set the T/F track record and I encountered him in the pits, exchanging high fives.
I never cared for jet cars, they don’t seem to prove anything, just a big blow and they roll down the track. Or maybe as a former B-52 crew chief I’m just jaded to the true potential of jet engines. That said, a wreck’s a wreck, and that’s never good.