There’s nothing more sickening than watching a person you know and respect pile up a race car at high speeds. Add in a lot of fire and you have a recipe for something really stunning and not in the good way. That’s the case in this video where you will see Drag Week veteran and hardcore drag racer Nick Plewniak suffer a horrendous crash at Edgewater Motor Sports Park in Ohio. As we understand it, this was a very small event with less than a dozen cars. Again, as we understand, the cars were being run on a non-prep or unprepared surface. Nick has done plenty of that style racing and when he built the Dirty 30 he definitely designed it to work in a figurative car wash. We have seen this thing pull legit wheelies on the street before.
It looks like the car got out of whatever groove there was to work with and the results, especially at these speeds became negative. The car washed out sideways and like virtually all drag race cars in this situation, the weight transfer onto the leading edge of the car made things all that much worse. Adding in the fact that the 1930 Dodge does not have the lowest apparently center of gravity and it was all over but for the impending wreck.
The crash itself is bad with the car skidding to a stop passenger side down. This is when things really get bad. During the crash it seems that the fuel tank was broken open. The car in the other lane which appears to have spun and suffered damage in an effort to avoid Nick stops in the fuel and it’s a major league fire instantly. Nick thankfully rockets out of the car and as best we know, his only injury were burns on his hands. We’re not minimizing that. The guy is a mechanic and he needs those things to be in good working order.
Nick built this car himself. It was the follow up to his popular Stretchy Truck S10 which had the same turbocharged big block Chevy that powered the Dirty 30 behind the cab.
This is a really tough break but we are glad the guys is in one piece.
Private event. Edgewater has new concrete in both lanes. Track prep is due to start today (the 4th). The track was submerged in a flood just a few weeks ago. The no-prep folks wanted to run on the virgin concrete so they started at the 1/8th mi. Nick’s escape from the fire is nothing short of miraculous.
Costly, high-risk business.
Fans and patrons of this track are expecting some great things this year…if regular racing will ever be allowed to resume.
that’s heartbreaking. Hope Nick is OK and bounces back soon. Knowing how hard working that guy is, he will have it fixed, or something else built again in no time.
Obviously weren’t worried the slightest on the starting line/staging area either about “social distancing” or groups less than 10 in close proximity. Sheesh, even our private test sessions have been way better than this…
Sadly stupid is, stupid does and pretty fitting in the world of “no prep” racing…
Video appears to have been removed…
If you work with your hands and you race anything invest in some racing gloves!
would like your mag
no video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ8J-iowHN0&feature=emb_rel_end
Hope the driver isn’t too badly burned.
Seen this happen at EW more than once. Flooding, not enough cleanup, someone crashes.