The most nightmarish accident scenario at the drag strip is a so-called “comebacker” or a car that is involved in a wreck, remains under power, and the driver is unable to stop it as it speeds back up the track towards the starting line.
There have been few examples of this scenario played out over the years, but when it happens the results are often tragic. Noted alcohol dragster racer Shelly Howard was killed along with her husband and son when her dragster came back up the track and struck the tow vehicle (with her son and husband inside) a couple of years ago.
I have never seen this situation come to fruition, but I came damn close once and it scared the life out of me.
It happened during a Ford-themed day at the track. A girl and her boyfriend came up to the tower the morning of the race asking some typical newbie racing questions about the starting line, where to stop, what the rules are, etc. As it turned out, the girl was to be racing the late-model Ford Lightning she had recently purchased and her boyfriend was up for moral support. He was also the “technical advisor” to this adventure, and he was, to say the least, under qualified.
As the morning went on and I was announcing the race, I noticed the girl in the Lightning coming up to the starting line, helmet on, ready for battle. As we would later find out, her boyfriend told her to floor it and leave it on the wood when the light turned green. That advice flew completely in the face of what I had told her about taking it easy on the first lap, but hey, what the hell do I know right?
So the light turns green and immediately the short-sidewall, rock hard rubber on the rear of the truck goes up in smoke. Not just hazing smoke, but full-blown John Force smoke. Following the expert advice of her boyfriend, she never lifted. I shut the microphone and told the track manager something bad was about to happen. The problem was that she didn’t loop the truck at low speed. Instead the thing was smoking the tires and gaining speed in a straight line. About 200 feet down the track with the truck really making some headway, the rear started to step out.
Undaunted, the pedal still touching carpet, the driver made an over correction and the truck began to make a slow arcing loop from the right lane to the left lane. As it was nearly facing directly back towards the starting line, the truck struck the wall hard in a near broadside on the passenger side.
By this time I was already on a scooter making tracks to the truck. When I got there, the girl was knocked out, the truck was bouncing off the rev limiter, and thankfully the rear universal joint had broken on impact with the wall. The door was locked and the window was up so the starter of the track took the liberty of opening the window with a center punch as the rescue people were arriving from the top end of the track.
Had the rear universal joint not broken, that truck would have careened into a massive line of cars and people, creating a scene of horror that still makes me shiver when I think about it today.
The girl was obviously very broken up about the whole affair, especially about the truck she destroyed after having owned it for less than a week. I’m not sure how the boyfriend faired after the fact, but one would suspect the answer is not good.
No one has come up with a good way to combat the possible carnage from a come backer on the drag strip. Ignition interrupters have been suggested, but not implemented. Scarily enough, all we can really do is hope it never happens, or at least hope to be out of the way when it does.
