Respect the speed

[scottycards]

Here's what your car looks like when you pile it up at 175 or so. This car used to be Bill Elliott's #9 Coors Super Speedway NASCAR Winston Cup Car.

Dudes in the car are mostly OK. Pretty long road to recovery.

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u47/scottycards/battle_mountain_crash_07_0061.jpg

[scottycards]

Here is a little view down the road. These are the types of roads Open Road Races are run on.

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u47/scottycards/ORRroadBM.jpg

[Steve]

:eek:

When/where did that happen Scott? What kind of injuries? You know what'll happen if Kathy sees those pics... :shrug:

I'm surprised they sell those cars with all the paint & sponsor stuff intact.

[scottycards]

It happened recently, about 3 weeks ago. It happens every couple of years, pretty much only in the Unlimited or 170 average classes.
All the rollers are sold with logos still on them, and if you look closely, you can see the driver's compartment is still very much intact. That's a hell of a roll cage.

The details are always a bit spotty- perhaps a little moisture on the road, a little driver error, who knows. But somehow a tire just got off the road, and it was unrecoverable. I've raced with these guys for years, and they've never really been that fast- a 180 average would have been high for them. They were in the 200 club, though. Basically they took a turn too fast. Whether it was too fast for the car, or too fast for the driver, or too fast for the conditions, who knows?

Roger Ward, past Indy 500 winner, called Open Road Racing the most dangerous form of motorsports, and he would know. You're out in the desert, and you won't be in an ER for at least an hour or two- the best you can hope for is good first responder care to get you stabilized. I would say that the HANS devices and the first rate safety team that was on scene saved both of these guys.

I didn't put this post up to scare anyone, I put it up to let people know that speed is serious stuff. We joke about it, but a few years ago I saw the car right in front of us do the same thing. Fortunately, we got stopped, pulled the dude out, and he was OK. Another buddy of mine wasn't so lucky at another event in 2000.

This is why safety equipment is so important. Roll cage, 6 points, fire suit, HANS, arm restraints, all of it.

If anyone on this forum street races, please reconsider. A little stoplight to stoplight is fine, but once you get up to any kind of speed, it gets serious real quick. Remember, the energy that has to be dissipated is equal to the square of the velocity. So at 100 MPH, you're crashing with FOUR times as much energy as you would at 50. The curve gets real steep the faster you go.

Christ those roads get narrow at 180 or so. If you're just a hair off, you're done.

Oh, forgot to add, we were clocked at 214 on the same road a few years back...........:D :eek: :D :thumbsup:

[Mike Boyle]

:eek:

When/where did that happen Scott? What kind of injuries? You know what'll happen if Kathy sees those pics... :shrug:

I'm surprised they sell those cars with all the paint & sponsor stuff intact.

Not Scott, but it most likely was one of the open road races held in Nevada. As for the old NASCAR cars, they sell them that way all the time. I've even seen a few on e-bay in the past.

[scottycards]

Mike-
It was an Open Road Race in NV.

[REDLYNER]

Wow! That is scary.

Any idea of what kind of engine in that? You would need some serious power to cruise at 200 with that much wind resistance.

[cheftyler]

Wow! That is scary.

Any idea of what kind of engine in that? You would need some serious power to cruise at 200 with that much wind resistance.

It was an old Winston Cup Car.

[scottycards]

Wow! That is scary.

Any idea of what kind of engine in that? You would need some serious power to cruise at 200 with that much wind resistance.

600-650 horse will get that car to 200. We had around 800-850 (crank) horse in the Camaro, and best we ever saw was 220-222 or so.

He had the old Cup motor in it. About 358ci or so, IIRC. High rever, tho- 9000 on the shifts, with the Jericho 4 speed in it. We ran a SBC bored and stroked to 428, and shifted around 7000-7500. Probably something like a 2.50-ish gear in the rear diff.