With all the money and prestige on the line, there is not doubt that the guys and gals racing in the No Prep Kings series are going after it on every single run. Unfortunately for our dude Mike Murillo, his famed Mustang named LaFawnDuh didn’t fare so well in Norwalk two weekends ago. While racing Ryan Martin the intake blew off LaFawnDuh and caused a huge fire. Mike is okay, the car is salvageable, and the team will be back out racing in 2023. But man is this one a big scary fire. Check out the great video that Mike and the team put together. You’ll be shocked.
Video Description:
Mike was taking on current points leader Ryan Martin in the 2nd rd of invitational when disaster struck and the car blew the intake cover and resulted in a massive fire, We are thankful Mike is doing just fine. LaFawnDuh will be back and stronger than ever in 23′.
Mike, lot a lot of racers, did not remove the pins from his fire system bottle prior to making his run. Mike has already said he will be pulling the pin every time from now on. I am really hoping that Mikes’s unfortunate incident leads other racers to follow suit. I get racers not wanting to deal with a huge mess from an accidental system discharge but…
I pull my fire bottle pins when I unload my car and put them back in before loading it back in the trailer. The couple of seconds it would take to pull them in a fire situation could be the difference between safely getting out and getting burned or worse.
Why is fire rescue guys parked a 1/4 mile away from where they need to be . Safety guys need to be on each end of track .
Mike was in the car way too long for a non-collision situation. If there were any reasons outside the direct actions of the top blowing off the engine, or the resulting fire that contributed to that, they need to be addressed and corrected before he or the car make another run. (Outsider’s opinion)
From a reliable source, the reason for Mike being in the car way too long was because his HANS device got caught up inside and he was having trouble getting out.
Not practicing emergency egress is on the team!! Shame on them. Lucky he’s okay. Also, being too heavy and not being able to egress played a role. If it’s difficult for him to get in the car – which I’m sure it is – why think it will be easy to get out? Complacency kills!
I’ve heard to many people say it’s a waste of time using fire suppresion in a race car because the car will still burn to the ground. They forget that fire suppresion is NOT intended to save the car, but to allow the occupants time to get out safely.
As for the car getting back on the track, that car is done for. Even though it didn’t actually hit anything the heat from the fire would have dameged everthing in that car, including the chassis and rollcage.