There was a time that steel guardrails were the cutting edge in vehicle retention devices at drag strips across the country and world. That time has long since passed and the newest standard are poured concrete walls with flat-faced, linked, Jersey barriers coming in a close second. You can see the reasons pretty clearly in the photo below.
We got tipped off to this photo, which was posted over on YellowBullet. It was taken at Speedworld Dragway in Arizona. The Speedworld track has concrete barriers all the way down the racing surface, but transitions into steel guardrails past the finish line. From what we have read, the car in question apparently hit the steel guardrail right at the transition point, which sent the rail through the car like a skewer. In the thread where the photo is shown, one poster, who was at the track the night of the wreck claims that the rail missed the driver by inches. The dude is way lucky to be alive.
All racing is risky business, but there are certainly factors out there that increase that risk. Steel gaurdrails have proven themselves to be one of those factors. Race safe and be careful out there!
(YellowBullet thread on guardrail skewer)
