Texan Steve Torrance walked away from a horrendous NHRA top fuel wreck in Dallas on Sunday when his car cut down a rear tire and smashed into the wall going more then 300mph. The current NHRA top fuel championship points leader was racing at his home track in front of legions of fans when things went horribly awry for the CAPCO top fuel dragster.
As you will see in the video the car makes a violent left turn at speed, hammers the wall, sheds the front end, and then becomes an unguided missile, sliding down track with its driver as a helpless passenger. The car worked exactly as designed with the nose breaking away to both dissipate energy and get the fuel tank away from the driver. The driver’s area remained completely intact and Torrance literally leapt out of the car once it came to a stop. Amazingly he raced again that day!
The NHRA made a rule change that on a race day, if a team’s car is damaged beyond repair they can introduce a backup car that has not been run in competition. The car Steve returned was NOT the car his dad raced but the machine that was “in the rafters” of the hauler. The thrash to complete that car and get it to the starting line will live on in Fall Nationals lore forever. The guys did it and while they fell short the next round, they put in an effort for the ages and did manage to hold onto their points lead heading into the next event in Las Vegas.
Regarding the tire, Goodyear engineers collected the tire and every loose shard of it they could find. The tire has been send back to Akron, Ohio for analysis at the company’s forensic lab. This was a crazy one and we’re glad Steve was OK!
Oooo, what a lucky man he was.
Emmerson, Lake & Palmer.
If you crash and survive, unharmed, you’re lucky.
If you don’t crash, you are ????
Glad he’s o.k. Could be a lot worse
A unicorn
Can’t imagine Steve not having a helluva headache on Monday, given the way that car bitch-slapped the wall.
Since I started driving a dragster this year, I’ll not tag my wife with this particular video.