In a bizarre story that is coming out of Buena Vista, Colorado, we are learning that two men in their seventies have died after what has been claimed as a “test drive” at Central Colorado Regional Airport went wrong. Driver Lynd Fitzgerald, a 71-year-old from Colorado Springs, and Roger Lichtenberger, a 76-year-old from San Marcos, California, had permission to make a pass down the 8,300 foot runway in the B5 Blue Hellcat, but things didn’t end as they should have.
According to The Denver Post:
“The 2016 Challenger Hellcat (…) kept moving off the runway for another 314 feet, sheriff’s investigators found.
Then it went through the air over a ravine before hitting the ground. The car bounced back into the air again, flipped end over end over a second ravine, and landed on its wheels, the investigators determined.”
The Dodge Challenger Hellcat is more than capable of high speeds, with a top speed pushing the 200 MPH envelope. And while it does come equipped with Brembo brakes, no amount of brakes is going to overrule pure physics. According to investigators, skid marks were found near the end of the runway, which could indicate that Fitzgerald was doing everything in his power to scrub speed.
Runways are tricky!
When you are travelling at warp speed and you spot the end of the runway,,, it\’s too late.
Test drive—FAIL
Yeah , I’ve seen people lose track of whete they were and run and or slide off the end .A few were tragic as this one was .
Yeah , I’ve seen people lose track of where they were and run and or slide off the end .A few were tragic as this one was .
I get that you may loose track of the end of the runway. But wouldn’t you go before hand and mark it with some cones or something up stream so to speak. The article you have written is named wrong. The Hellcat didn’t over run the runway. The pilot was at fault not the car. “Drive over runs runway,kills self and friend.And Hellcat was a loss”
How could there be skid marks with an anti-locking braking system?
At least they didn’t pass away in a nursing home or hooked up to machines in a hospital. RIP Lynd and Roger.
The skid marks were not on the run way!
2 cool old Dudes gone to find Thema and Louise…
Legends:
Butch and Sundance, Thelma and Louise, and now Roger and Lynd
Drivers not accustomed to speeds over 100 mph can easily misjudge stopping distances, among other effects, at speeds over 150 mph. When I first began racing a C Sports Racing SCCA car that traveled over 150 on the long straight at Firebird Raceway in AZ I nearly \”ran-over\” a Formula Ford because I couldn\’t believe the closure rate. Sorry for the well-meaning older car enthusiasts who lost their lives in this tragic event.