We never like seeing someone crash at the track. And normally if we described a run that included flipping over, climbing the wall, and tearing up the front end, we are pretty sure you’d think there had to be some crazy high speed action going on. Luckily that was not the case for Jim Fissel when he lined up in the water at Tulsa Raceway Park for the Throwdown in T-Town this past weekend. I was announcing the race and had just started talking about Jim and his Anglia when it all went horribly wrong. On the burnout Jim got just a TINY bit sideways. I’m telling you this was the most tame burnout he’d done all weekend! And yet coming off the throttle it turned left hard, tried to flip over, did a bad job of it thanks to the wall, then flipped on its side before spinning around and rolling towards the starting line. This video shows the awesome job that the track personnel did to get to Jim, and Jim was totally fine afterwards. Having a celebratory drink with him later that night he said the only thing hurt was his wallet and some car parts that can be replaced.
He’s got another Anglia, the black car, and his wife Kim said to Jim nearly immediately after finding out he was okay “You only have a few weeks to get it ready for Funny Car Chaos, so you better get to work.” Thankfully she let him have the night off to do some drinking with us.
Glad you are okay brother!
Thanks to Urban Hillbilly for getting all the action. The video rules. Watch
Spools. You can’t correct with spools.
A heard Chad, who was announcing at the time, ask everyone in the crowd there not to broadcast this incident on their cell phones because it was morally wrong and a detriment to the sport. Which I agree.
But what I still find amazing is what racecars can do going in a simple straight line! It’s like watching a train wreck,you can’t take your eyes off it.
Gladly no one was hurt, but I think the emergency shut off on the car should have been an little more visible to the track personnel.
I seen it happen & could’ve sworn it was a stuck throttle the way it skipped around in the air before it stopped
it stopped & took off again & you can see the brake lights on while its trying to move – glad all is well!
” not to broadcast it” — but then posts it on BangShift ? What am I missing here?
The difference between making sure the driver is alright and uninjured and just randomly posting a photo to FaceTweet sixteen seconds after the car has slid to a stop. We talked with Fissel and made sure that the only injuries he suffered were to the car and his pride before that story was written…which is far better than someone hoping to post a gory pic to the web.
I was there. And it happened quick. Glad Jim was OK and the car can be fixed.