(Video credit: National No Prep Racing Association and Texas Drag Racing Videos) – Larry Larson has one rule when it comes to where he races. No guardrails. We mention that because when you watch this wreck involving Jason Cantu in the La Vicktoria S10 truck you will see another example of why Larry won’t go anywhere with a steel guardrail. If Cantu had blasted into a flat faced cement wall his truck would have been torn up and required repair but none of the craziness that defines this wreck would have happened. The truck gets into the guardrail, climbs it, and then ends up tearing itself to shreds on the way to ending up on its roof.
We have no doubt that Cantu will repair the machine and make it better but this one was worse than it had to be. The Edinburg track has eaten up some cars over the last couple of years. Mike Murillo’s Mustang among them.
Before anyone gets up on their high hog about this being a no-prep race, make sure you check out the entirety of today’s front page before throwing rocks. Wrecks happen everywhere. The reality is that their frequency is likely not much higher than at “prep” style events. The reason people think that there are so many crashes is because there’s video from all of these races bring posted with great frequency so when stuff does happen it gets amplified quickly.
This wreck did not have to be as bad as it was. Steel guardrail at a drag strip is the devil and the videos below prove it time and time again. A wall quickly turns into a ski jump and that is a scary thing.
Ive had the same rule about guardrail tracks for a very long time. Every track needs concrete walls with how fast these cars are getting nowadays.
With concrete walls having little to no give I’m really surprised not seeing any track w energy absorbing walls like circle tracks. not saying these knife edges or can openners are safe, but they do give.