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RIP Scott Kalitta

Red Dawn

Red Dawn

Elite Member
Funny Car Driver Scott Kalitta lost his life today qualifying for the NHRA Races in Englishtown NJ. He was going 300+ MPH when his Nitro Fueled Toyata crashed into a a wall after his cars engine blew up into flames. He wasn't able to pull the chute so he hit the wall going almost full throttle.🙁
 
RIP
rose.gif
 
I've gone a couple NHRA events here in Minnesota with my dad. i remember seeing Kalitta race. That really too bad.
 
Very sad.. I live 1 mile from the track where it happened, big NHRA fan.

Heard the top fuelers running all day today.
 
On June 21, 2008, Scott died after the super-charger on his car backfired, knocking him unconsious the car continued down the track until it was abruptly stopped in the safty nets. The force of the colision with the safty nets ignited the fuel cell of nitro-methane causing an explosion equal to two sticks of dynamite.

Scott Kalitta
 
Originally posted by: bctbct
RIP

Seems odd that there are not better safety barriers at the end of the track.
Click to expand...

Not much you can put for a car traveling over 300 mph.

RIP Scott...I've seen him race, too.
 
I just watched the crash and holy cow I have seen my fair share of NHRA events and this one you could tell wasnt going to end well. This is the second death this year in NHRA events and last year Eric Medlen was killed testing, RIP all.
rose.gif
 
I saw that earlier tonight. I guess Connie was a crew chief.

That's gotta be tough to see.


My condolences to Connie and the rest of the Kalitta family.



 
Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
Originally posted by: bctbct
RIP

Seems odd that there are not better safety barriers at the end of the track.
Click to expand...

Not much you can put for a car traveling over 300 mph.

RIP Scott...I've seen him race, too.
Click to expand...

Hopefully this doesn't sound too ignorant...

But what is the point of the barrier if it has the ability to cause more damage than good?

Being ignorant to racing and the presumed safety measures in place...

Why wouldn't you "attempt" to have an open road per say at the end of the run to allow the vehicle to loose a little more speed...


From the video I saw...he got to the end of the run, the car erupted in flames and like 1/8 of a mile later he smashes into some barrier or net and it was all over after that...

Not sure it would have helped in this case...it looked like the explosion destroyed his chute...but again I am not familiar with racing so I don't know how much that impacted everything.


 
Originally posted by: leeland
Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
Originally posted by: bctbct
RIP

Seems odd that there are not better safety barriers at the end of the track.
Click to expand...

Not much you can put for a car traveling over 300 mph.

RIP Scott...I've seen him race, too.
Click to expand...

Hopefully this doesn't sound too ignorant...

But what is the point of the barrier if it has the ability to cause more damage than good?

Being ignorant to racing and the presumed safety measures in place...

Why wouldn't you "attempt" to have an open road per say at the end of the run to allow the vehicle to loose a little more speed...


From the video I saw...he got to the end of the run, the car erupted in flames and like 1/8 of a mile later he smashes into some barrier or net and it was all over after that...

Not sure it would have helped in this case...it looked like the explosion destroyed his chute...but again I am not familiar with racing so I don't know how much that impacted everything.
Click to expand...
They DID have open road...did you see how far the shut down lane went? It was longer than the track. Takes a long time to slow down from 300+ just by coasting.

Lots of tracks even go slightly uphill after the finish line. Not sure much of anything would have helped here, other than maybe another mile of open track, which obviously isn't feasible.
 
seems like they should be able to portion the fuel better so that there isn't too much left after a run. That secondary explosion was pretty big...
 
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