Just a shade more than two decades ago eventual 2012 NHRA pro stock world champion Allen Johnson suffered the most violent and incredible pro stock crash of all time. This video stands as irrefutable evidence of the insanity of this wreck and the dozen-ish times his car rolled during it. The carnage came during the 1999 NHRA Gatornationals, held traditionally each March at Gainesville Raceway. This weekend the race is being contested after having been postponed at the very beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in America. It’s a long time coming and will be interesting to see how teams adapt to the facility in conditions they have never really seen before.
As you’ll see in the video, this run was not good from the jump with Johnson’s pro stocker pushing left early in the run and him fighting it the whole way down. The thing that makes this particular crash so wild is how the car goes into a pretty gentle slide before yawing back and forth and ultimately starting to roll.
These are not your normal barrel rolls though. The way the car starts going over, it kind of manages to kick flip itself off the tires and that adds a sickening amount of snap to the rolls and the added energy definitely propels the car over and over again in a way no one has seen before or since.
Yes, Glidden’s crash at the 1986 Southern Nationals was awful but this one takes it up a few notches.
Press play below to se this all-timer of a pro stock crash from the Gators –
#NitroTimeMachine: @AJMoparProStock’s frightening Pro Stock crash at the Gatornationals.
Amalie Oil #Gatornats 🎟 https://t.co/TD00qZvmhN pic.twitter.com/1N9miDinuu
— #NHRA (@NHRA) September 21, 2020
Have to think his chute malfunctioned as any experienced pro driver would have pulled the chutes when the car got light and started its long lateral slide. Especially Pro Stock cars which are notorious for their lack of wing/downforce. That was one ugly sequence for sure.
“The Worst Pro Stock Crash Of All Time”
David Reher may beg to differ.