I am thinking Cruz had no issue with racing there.
His widow , on the other hand..............

But as stated , the corporation that sold the track retains liability and the new owners should have no issue.
NHRA will still be involved and will share liability with the former owners , or entity which claimed ownership.
NHRA in my estimation took sanctioning fees from them , like so many other tracks , and then handed off a set of guidelines , rules and requirements that the track should have followed.
Few do.....at least not to the letter of the rules.
Most do a pretty fair job from my experience , but we have all seen lapses in varying degrees of severity.
The insurance carrier for the track 's former ownership will eat the bulk and NHRA will maybe be on the hook for a portion if this plays out according to Hoyle.
This sounds like it was probably avoidable to a certain extent , and that indicates fault.
He may well have still died with a top notch safety crew and equipment that worked , but a jury is going to hear otherwise if it gets that far.
I smell a settlement , and personal responsibility has nothing to do with it......though greed might.
If this does get to a jury , I doubt it would end well for the defendant.

"the ambulance that was owned, operated and maintained by ATCO"

How common is this?
I've been to a dozen tracks and they contracted outside ambulance services.

This will be settled, no question. The insurance company and or bond holders(s) will drag this for years, then settle. Sorry to say, the rescue equipment didn't start and lent no assistance, dispite any waivers signed, and they will mean little. The sale means nothing. They (Atco, et al.)will not want this to go to a jury, they will get killed there.

high 6 fig, but probably low 7.

THE WIDOW OF a drag-racer who died after crashing into a wall at South Jersey's Atco Speedway is suing the raceway, claiming negligence.

Jose Cruz's 1999 Chevy Monte Carlo caught fire after he crashed into a wall during a run on the track on Sept. 15, 2010, according to the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in federal court in Camden.

With the vehicle unable to start, Cruz's son, the Atco owner and other staffers ran to help douse the flames, according to the suit, filed by his widow, Evelyn Cruz of Brooklyn.

Cruz suffered second- and third-degree burns and had both legs amputated; he remained hospitalized until his death, 10 months after the crash, at age 52, his attorney, David Ratner, said.

"When you're inviting people in to engage in what everyone knows is a dangerous activity..."

"Inviting people"? Excuse me, Mr. Crooked Liar, I mean Crooked Lawyer, no one "invited" Cruz, he chose to be there and to "engage in dangerous activity", as you call it, all on his own.

"you owe an obligation to those people who you invite and make money off of to provide the safest possible venue to do that," said Ratner, a New York lawyer. "Atco failed to live up to that obligation."

Evelyn Cruz seeks $50 million in compensatory and punitive damages from Atco and the National Hot Rod Association, the California-based group that promotes amateur and professional drag-racing in the United States and sanctions Atco races.

Jose Cruz, a janitor and a father of two grown children, was a skilled drag-racer who had experience at Atco and other tracks, Ratner said.

Joe Sway Sr., Atco's owner, denied the lawsuit claims.

"The ambulance was on scene; it has to be when we're racing. The ambulance was functional. And we have a fire-suppression system on a pickup truck, which was operational and did respond," Sway said, adding that Cruz was out of the car when the first responder got to him.

The 52-year-old speedway in southern Camden County claims to be the nation's busiest legal drag strip, due in part to crackdowns on illegal drag-racing in Philadelphia and Atlantic City.

Anyone can race, as long as he or she pays the fee, wears a helmet, has a driver's license and drives a street-legal vehicle.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120822_Widow_of_racer_sues_speedway.html?c=r

I never realized that Atco Dragway's ambulance doubled as a fire truck! Am I missing something here? I was under the impression that the ambulance's crew were on the premises to treat crash victims (if treatable on the scene) and/or take them to the hospital but according to this absurd lawsuit, they're supposed to put out fires, too!

Pete