You have to wait for the advert to finish but it actually shows the crash. It looks like he ran into a concrete wall they have across the end of the strip.
I think there is a sand trap in front of it but at 300mph it didn't make any difference.
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 08 10:09 am
by Dave-R
Correction. There is no sand trap as described in another report. Just a few feet of grass and then a wall and fence. He had no chance.
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 08 10:16 am
by latil
Very sad,it looks like he didn't survive the initial fireball mid track.
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 08 10:20 am
by Dave-R
Pretty sure it will be the wall that did it. the front of the chassis looks badly damaged from the explosion. Hitting the wall full-on like that would have smacked what was left of the Hemi right into him.
He did manage to pull the chute. But it didn't open correctly. The heat in there must have been terrible.
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 08 10:56 am
by Anonymous
Looks like Scott hit the concrete post which holds the safety net up at 300mph ............. with the chute burnt off there is no way to slow the car down..............
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 08 11:11 am
by JustinMFox
I don't understand why there isn't a long gravel track at the end, it's insane to think that there's a concrete wall not far from the end with cars doing 320mph, I would say it was definitely the wall that did it as those kind of fireballs happen reguarly and the drivers come off without a scratch, looking at this video of a top fuel car it's scary the type of speed they go
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 08 3:02 pm
by Steve Chapman
Sent a shiver down my spine watching that, quite chilling with the presenters commentary. RIP Scott. Apparantley they don,t have much of a run off at that track as a county road run along the bottom of it, it was ok for the speeds cars were running when the track was built but not now. Agree with Dave it was the wall that did it finally for poor Scott.
Posted: Sun Jun 22, 08 5:41 pm
by Anonymous
R I P Scott, that is real bad news
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 08 11:50 am
by MrNorm
Wow, that is really sad, it is always a shock when a well known racer is killed like that, despite the speeds it is still a very rare occurence.
Agree it was the crash at the end, and also agree it's the older tracks that have less runoff. However - I have NEVER seen a crash like that, I don't know how it can be possible for that to happen - even at a track with a short runoff there should be arrangements to slow the car with catch fences, water filled barriers, etc, whatever it takes. These days it should be possible to do that.
Of course at 300mph anything is going to have a limited effect, but usually even with failed chutes the brakes will drop a lot of speed, don't know why that didn't happen this time - maybe Scott was unconcious after the explosion.
Anyway, a great tragedy, he was 46. Bet Connie did not think he would outlast his son, very sad.
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 08 9:02 pm
by Anonymous
Just seen the video from the ForABodiesonly forum. Christ, what a terrifying spectacle. Still think about the Medlen loss, now Scott Kalitta.
God Bless those nearest and dearest to him. He'll be sadly missed.
............. with the chute burnt off there is no way to slow the car down..............