(Photos by Mark Rebilas) – Yesterday we showed you the video of V. Gaines suffering one of the worst wrecks in recent Pro Stock history. The car got loose at the top end of the track, got into the wall and then the wind took over and the thing became a stunt plane. Gaines was OK and literally walked away from the incident but when you watched the video it was looking like curtains for the guy. Thank the great construction practices and standards in professional drag racing for protecting Gaines through the whole mess. Just when you thought the video was the craziest thing you had seen, we have still photos of the whole thing as captured by Mark Rebilas. We’ve been featuring some of Mark’s recent work (with his permission) here at BangShift and for obvious reasons. Like his dad, the guy has a knack for being at the right place at the right time. This time he was in an elevated position to capture the Gaines wreck from front to back.
This sequence is certainly one of the more compelling we have seen in..ohh…FOREVER.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE A COUPLE OF PHOTOS AND THEN HIT THE LINK TO SEE THE ENTIRE SEQUENCE FROM MARK REBILAS!
CLICK HERE to see V. Gaines Pro Stock Wreck Through The Amazing Lens Of Mark Rebilas
This has turned into a major debacle for NHRA.
The gamble to run the event and then cancel after this wreck will haunt them.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall at this week’s NHRA staff meeting and watch the memo’s fly!
It Burns me/Pisses me off that tracks will run cars down a questionable race track, then when someone loses a car they make the decision to call the track unsafe and stop the meeting.
Whether a Pro stock car or not – most racers have a HUGE commitment in their race cars be it money and time.
Seen it plenty of times – guys strapped in in the staging lanes and the tracks gone off for whatever reason and all they want to do is finish the session / meeting.
Enough of my rant – No one ever likes to see someone crash but glad he walked away unhurt.
On more than one occasion at an NHRA event, I witnessed racers come to the tower to make complaints about the racing surface. Those racers were told by the race director, “If at any time you feel this track is unsafe to race on, do not stage your car in the beams.” They were then told the race would go on with or without them.