Until Kevin McMullin’s wall-riding Mustang crash at Ford Fest 2020, I could not tell you the last time I saw a car rail-slide the concrete crash barrier better than a skateboarder. Lohnes might be able to tell you, but I sure couldn’t. Photographers shoot from that crash barrier. That’s where we’re standing, if you’ve never noticed. Seeing that kind of action makes us a little bit nervous…we know the risks but none of us are ready to play Frogger with a pissed-off race car that is doing it’s best impersonation of a bull that’s sick and tired of being ridden. Now, in less than a week from the last time, we have yet another Ford…okay, a Chevy-powered Pinto, but Ford nontheless…making a break for the grass. This is Chris Pearce’s Pinto and it’s a well-known vertical machine that frequents the wheelstanding competitions at Byron. It’s first pop up, it goes straight to the bumper and if Pearce lifts, I’m hard-pressed to see when. But when he’s hell-bent on running the car down the full quarter-mile on the bumper without bars, that’s when things get very, very hairy. And unlike McMullin’s Mustang, the Pinto does hop over the barrier.

Guys….racers…this isn’t Pampalona! If I didn’t want to run from 4,000 pounds of pissed off raw steak, why would I want to dodge a race car?!