(Story by Greg Rourke) Baylands Raceway, which was originally named Fremont Dragstrip, and shall remain so in the minds of most who raced there, was a place that on the 3rd Sunday of November in 1988 would become magical, surreal, or biblical depending on your viewpoint. It was on this day that Don Renfrow would forever become known as “The Luckiest Man Alive”. The video from that day has made it’s rounds on the web, usually on non-car sites. “The Luckiest Man Alive” the headlines would scream. But have you ever wondered what happened to Don? Here’s the story.
The first runs have Junior banging the gears. The car sashays down the track, bouncing like a 64 Impala in the barrio. He didn’t feel it was performing as well as he would like, and asked ol’ Dad to make a pass. Junior may have been written out of the will after this.
Don does the burnout. The car bouncing, the front end going through changes. He launches the car hard, wheel hopping and bouncing. Don grabs Second, the car swaps lanes and gets sideways. For whatever reason Don stabs the throttle and the carnage begins. As the car barrel rolls Don is ejected, his seat flying at least 30 feet over the car. He’s a dead man for sure, right? Not so fast…Don stands up and watches the car cartwheel over the guardrail, shedding parts like scrap metal on a Frisbee.
Now we have video of the aftermath and clean up. The seat looks like some random HonDatsoyota item sourced from Pick A Part. Looks like a Ford 9 inch with ladder bars laying in the weeds. I don’t see any sort of roll bar, likely not required for a 12 second car. Then we have a short interview with Don, who was in the hospital overnight for observation. This ended his racing career, and hopefully Junior chose something other than race car builder for a job. I’d love to be a fly on the wall at the Renfrow house on Thanksgiving…”Junior, pass the mashed potatoes if you can do it without almost killing me.”
Watch the videos below, they are amazing.
Chad Note: I grew up and Fremont Dragstrip. Literally. And watching this video brings back memories for sure. I did my first burnout there at 7 or something. There are too many stories to even mention right here, but the important thing to note with regards to these videos of Don Renfrow is the fact that Porky the Pirate is apparently the guy who shot the videos and stuff, or at least owns the footage, from back in the day. If you don’t know who Porky the Pirate is, I’ll give you the incredibly short version. He was a one legged guy who was a fuel tank and fabrication guy who had a hollow aluminum leg that he built. It was a tank that held beer or rum or whatever. I’m not sure what it was, but he walked around with a tube connected to it drinking all the time. He had a whacky helmet, was a total riot, and always had stuff animals. The kids loved him, and everyone else either loved or hated him based on the time of day and amount of booze he’d had. Of course I was a kid when Porky was most memorable, so while I remember him being weird, I remember digging him. It’s cool that he’s the guy with these videos.
Whether or not they forgot to hook up the rear shocks (I didn’t even see any) will forever be a mystery. I am sure a track as nice as that one was would have proper tech.
Where were the tech inspectors? Or any other track official? A car bouncing like that is unsafe and should have been taken off the strip until it was fixed.
And why did the stupid idiot try running with it bouncing like that?
I’m glad he the nut wasn’t killed but he can count his blessings on that.
The guy in the dark red shirt is Jack Williams. He was everything. Jack was the track operator. He ran the track, tech, inspection, vendors, tower, payout, etc.
He must not have been very good at his job to let a POS like that make a pass.
was there, my friends and I bring it up everytime we see a ratty, unsafe looking 55 at the drags, everyone who saw it will new forget the guy standing there watching his car crash, just plain nutso
meant never not new before forget, DOH
watching the video makes me miss the fun Wed. nites were there, good memories
While not as spectaular I had a 62? Falcon wagon loose it and flip over the Gard rail at the Original Irwindale Raceway in the lane next to me
i used to race at Fremont Dragstrip /Baylands dragstrip from the mid 70’s until 1981 and like mentioned Jack did almost everything there
If you notice the track you’ve got a 20′ wide grass area just off the racing surface and anyone that got out of shape went for a fun ride into the grass . Watched many fuel altereds or front engine fuel cars have some wild runs
Watched a bad crash around 1977-78 involving a 69 dodge charger called the silver bullet when it rear ended a race car that stopped in the traps and never cleared the track surface . both drivers survived but it was a huge fire that was seen from the starting line
The car couldn’t have been put together very well . Can’t say anything about the Tech. inspection , or quality there – of , because I wasn’t there , But ….. What kind of harness ? – How was the seat fastened in ? – Both the driver &seat were ejected !
No insult intended , but …… If you put a ” race car ” together with glue
& screws , …… You just might end up in Emergency getting put back together ……. ” With glue & screws “