Connie Kalitta's Son Killed At Englishtown

Thoughts and prayers to the Kalitta family, their friends and the drag racing community. RIP Scott.

That is six deaths (and John Force's near-fatal crash) in four years. I think it is well past time the NHRA looks at a safety overhaul similar to F1 in the mid 90's and NASCAR in the past few years.

 

It looked like there was a wall beyond the sandtrap where the big impact happened. No mercy there...RIP
CH

 

Very tragic, we've seen him run several times . . . condolences to the entire family. It's very ironic that his first win was at the same track that claimed his life. There was drag racing coverage from Englishtown on ESPN late this afternoon with interviews from Ron Capps, Gary Selezi and a few others close to Scott - very moving . . the drag racing community is quite close knit. Tony and Cruz were also interviewed and Tony made a comment about the NHRA looking into track improvments in the run-off area - I got the impression that perhaps a longer run off area with the catch fencing was needed there - it looked short but it could have been the camera angle. I really believe in comments made by the drivers in the interviews - they love what they do, they know the inherent dangers, and when the time comes they want to be doing what they love . . . they said they'll dedicate tomorrow's race to Scott. I hope they'll all honor Scott's memory just as they have done with Eric Medlen with very appropriate commerative stickers on their cars.

Carol

A wall at the end of the run-off area is not such a good thing.

 

hey guys just got back from the track, it was horrible, what a terrible thing i hope tonight that we all say some prayers for the family.

 

I just watched it on youtube multiple times - http://youtube.com/watch?v=DziJdGwFQjU

Carol

 

Scott was a great competitor. He had retired from active competition back in the late 90's only to come back in and out a few times. He was always a tough person to beat and to prove it was national champion back to back.

It is unfortunately true about the runoff area of the tracks. Most of them were built when the cars were running in the 5's at around 280-290. Now the cars are in the low 4's at over 325 mph. At those speeds you are covering an awful lot of track runoff before any chutes help slow the car. The difference between space covered in one second attempting to slow from 290 mph and 325 mph is tremendous. Do the math, over 100 yards difference before the chutes even helps and then you are still covering ground from a higher rate of speed so the distance required is increased also. Then if only one chute opens or is burned off by a fire and you get the result like this one.

Connie, my heart goes out to you. I have followed you and your sons since the late 50's. I always admired the competitive nature of your teams over the years. Scott will be sorely missed by all of us in the drag racing family. Our prayers are with you and your extended families. God bless sir...........

 

At most tracks there is usually a sandpit at the end of the track runoff followed by a large net. To have a retaining wall, at least to me, is ludicrous. Another 1000 feet of shutdown would be very helpful. However, having enough land to allow almost a mile of concrete or asphalt in a straight line is becoming increasingly hard to obtain.

 

I'm very sorry to hear about Scott's death.

He was a champion in a dangerous business however this was one of the foreseeable outcomes.

 

That's why most sanctioning bodies specify gravel or sand, I don't understand why they would put a WALL there, hell, I'd rather take my chances on trees than a friggin WALL.

 

Very Sad but IMO the runoff is ridiculous for 300 mph cars.

 

In defense of existing runoff areas, they have usually been adequate if the car has been slowed somewhat either by use of brakes or parachute. In this case, the car's speed seemed to be unabated all the way down the track. Either Scott was incapacitated by the original explosion, or the throttle stuck open, or both. Yes, the runoffs should be better, but this was a very unusual-looking situation.

Considering the power in today's nitro engines, I've always felt that Funny Cars were too dangerous. If I were a nitro drag racer, I'd rather be in a Top Fueler where all that nonsense is going on behind me.

Condolences to Connie, the family, and the team.

 

just awful news...

 

The problem with that track is that there is a well-travelled road right behind the wall that runs perpendicular to the drag strip. They need to completely reconfigure the track, because they can't lenghten it right now where the run off is.
Tragic indeed.......
Kevin S.
Orchard Park, NY

 

That looked really bad...

 

What they should do then is build an overpass that would extend the runoff area over the crossroad. The upslope of the overpass would further help slow the car down. The transition from the flat track to the upslope should be very long and gradual; the same should be true of the downslope on the other side. The sand pit could then be after the runoff levels off again.

 

Don Prudhommes take...

The parachute in Kalitta's Toyota Solara failed to deploy, and the car cruised off the quarter-mile strip at a speed estimated more than 300 m.p.h. during qualifying for the 39th annual Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals.

Don Prudhomme, a legendary figure in drag racing, witnessed the crash and said Kalitta's car "went into a million pieces."

"I haven't witnessed anything like that in a number of years," Prudhomme said. "The car didn't slow up enough, got airborne, and he happened to hit a post that's virtually impossible to do. ... I would've never thought that you could get airborne and hit that guardrail and hit that post."

The concrete post, Prudhomme said, serves as support for the safety net that's designed to catch cars veering off the strip. Because Kalitta's parachute never deployed, Prudhomme said the car "never had a chance" once it hit the post at such high speed.

Link to entire article...http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080622/SPORTS16/806220670/1048/SPORTS

Really is an unfortunate loss to the drag racing community. His wreck seemed like it was one of those that when everything went wrong, everything that could have went wrong, did. I agree that it is time that NHRA takes a look at the Funny Car class and looks for whatever they can to improve safety.

 

Horrible. What a loss. It just looked as though the car kept on going after the 1st explosion. It is a dangerous sport and it's not getting any safer.

 

Very sad. It was disturbing to watch the video, a life ending so quickly.....

 

They mentioned this on Speed this evening and I read more on the NHRA website. What a tribute to a fellow racer. Also Dave Grubnic, Doug Kalitta and Hillary Will didn't race today.

Thank you Robert for your tribute....

"The most poignant tribute of the day came during the opening round of Funny Car eliminations, where Kalitta was scheduled to take on Robert Hight’s Auto Club Ford. As Hight staged in the right lane, members of the Kalitta team, many of them wearing their bright yellow DHL attire, stood silently on the startling line in the left lane while Hight slowly idled down the quarter-mile, receiving a warm ovation from the fans."

Here's the youtube link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=vvcu9ne9zMI
(Hillary Will is the woman in black on the front line.)

Carol

 

As I said in a post earlier in this thread, this track was built during a time when car speeds were 50 mph slower and et's were a second an a half slower. This increase in speed without an improvement in the runoff area is a very bad oversight. I am sure many tracks will be looking at their own facilities now.

Green Valley in Texas used to have a runoff that was slightly uphill, had a sandtrap and a rope stop but also had a road running perpendicular to the racetrack just south of the net. The first time I went there I saw a B/FD in the ropes after going through the sandtrap. And that was at 180 mph. At 300 mph the car would have been through the ropes and into the guardrail running beside the road at the top of the track.

The uphill shutoff area was a great idea if it had been longer with a longer sandtrap and maybe double or triple rope stops.

After reviewing the video of Scotts crash, I see no chutes coming out. If he tried the brakes at 300 mph they would have overheated almost instantly allowing no stopping power. The car seemed to bounce just before the trap and guardrail and this bounce propelled the car into the air. If you are familiar with modern drag slicks you know just how much they grow at speed and then constrict when slowing. This would allow this bounce and even make it more pronounced. With no brakes and the fire the way it was, probably melting the chute attachments, Scott have only a very small chance of making it and the guardrail and wall at the top of the track took that away. And then hitting the net support pole too accentuated the problem even more.

This was a very tragic way of exposing how inadequate many of the tracks are today that were built for the speed of cars 20 years ago. NHRA and IHRA need to take a very close look at each track sanctioned by them and make sure the safety standards are set up that will make each track safe for the speeds of the cars that run there. Not all tracks will have top fuel cars and fuel funny cars running there and can get away with shorter runoff areas. But any track that will host a division, regional or national event will have to meet increased safety requirements. If not, there is always the distinct chance of this tragedy happening again. God forbid............

These are two shots of the old Green Valley track when it was open. The first was probably taken in the very early 1970's and the second just before the track was shut down due to urban sprawl. The whole area now is taken over with cookie cutter houses.
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I was in Enlishtown today and stopped by the track. It was eerie being there, but here are photos of the run-off area, crash site today. (I paid my respects while I was there as well).
NOTE - In the one picture below; before you jump to conclusions; it is transmission fluid or gear oil; not what you think it is. It is where the engine/tranny must have landed, because there is also a blue spark plug cap laying there.
There was speculation regarding whether the wall goes straight across the track or not.....
Kevin S.
Orchard Park, NY
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A few more....
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Wolfgang5150
Thanks for the pics.
Woefully inadequate run off area surrounded by concrete barriers.
Tube frames + 8000HP = Stupidity.
When one is relying completely on a single parachute to properly deploy at 300 mph you are really playing Russian Roulette.