Terry Haddock is one of nitro racing’s scrappiest survivors. For years he has been competing with nitro funny cars and top fuel dragsters and doing it on budget fractional to what major teams have. He is the consummate underdog and as a man in that role, he sometimes suffers the consulate underdog problems and boy did he ever at Pomona during the NHRA Auto Club World Finals. As you will see, Haddock’s car was kind of lumbering through a run, crossed the finish line and then all hell broke loose. The reason? The fuel pump.
The car’s mechanical fuel pumps seized which is bad enough on its own but the team believes an errant spark ignited the fuel in the lines which then caused the fuel tank to blow up as well as the adjacent oil tank. This left Haddock with a hot engine that was igniting the oil on the headers, a fuel fire in the nose of the car that was destroying the machine’s electrical and air systems, as well as something that was near impossible to stop because of the slickness of the oil under the tires.
As you’ll see, Terry put it straight into the sand and got out ok. The Safety Safari responded quickly as they always do but this thing was pretty far gone by the time they got to it. The end result is that Haddock’s season ended in this fit of blazing fury. He says he will be back and if history is any guide, don’t doubt him.
