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Winternationals cackle fest turns into demo derby #616091
02/17/10 08:06 PM
02/17/10 08:06 PM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 34,830
S.E. South Dakota !
bigdad Offline OP
Still Posting A Lot
bigdad  Offline OP
Still Posting A Lot

Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 34,830
S.E. South Dakota !
Yikes !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu78Gz5r7xo


Bet this puts an end to that activity


The lips of fools bring them strife, and their mouths invite a beating.Proverbs 18:6
Re: Winternationals cackle fest turns into demo derby [Re: bigdad] #616092
02/17/10 08:10 PM
02/17/10 08:10 PM
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 34,830
S.E. South Dakota !
bigdad Offline OP
Still Posting A Lot
bigdad  Offline OP
Still Posting A Lot

Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 34,830
S.E. South Dakota !


The lips of fools bring them strife, and their mouths invite a beating.Proverbs 18:6
Re: Winternationals cackle fest turns into demo derby [Re: bigdad] #616093
02/17/10 08:27 PM
02/17/10 08:27 PM
Joined: Feb 2005
Posts: 5,207
Menomonee Falls
DemonDust Offline
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DemonDust  Offline
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Posts: 5,207
Menomonee Falls
The first video, No one in the stands really seems to care. They just look around like nothing really happenned.. Did the throttle stick??


EDIT

I guess if I would have watched the second video before posting I could have answered my throttle question

Last edited by R5P7Duster; 02/17/10 08:36 PM.

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Re: Winternationals cackle fest turns into demo derby [Re: bigdad] #616094
02/17/10 08:33 PM
02/17/10 08:33 PM
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 2,485
PA
moparacer Online content
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moparacer  Online Content
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Posts: 2,485
PA
Wow really screwed things up between the lady, truck,station wagon, altered and the dragster.



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414 cid SB Dragster 7.65-174
Re: Winternationals cackle fest turns into demo derby [Re: bigdad] #616095
02/17/10 08:39 PM
02/17/10 08:39 PM
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 657
B.C.
M
mk_ Offline
mopar
mk_  Offline
mopar
M

Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 657
B.C.
Yup.....I saw it first hand.
Garlits was the last one to get fired up in the swamp rat 111 at about half track coming towards the starting line when he was shut off immediately.......that's what alot of the crowd was looking forward too.
Needless to say he sounded a little disappointed when they interviewed him while he was waiting on the return road for the carnage to clear.

Re: Winternationals cackle fest turns into demo derby [Re: DemonDust] #616096
02/17/10 08:44 PM
02/17/10 08:44 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,104
Wheels up, MO
N
nhramark Offline
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Posts: 3,104
Wheels up, MO
Similar deal happened in Bowling Green a few years ago at the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion. One of the cacklefest cars went haywire and actually hit a few people including an older guy in a wheelchair. There must have been a dozen people trying to get the motor shut down, but it kept running for a long, long time with the wheelchair guy trapped between the car and the wall.

For all NHRA's safety concerns, (seatbelt dates, window net dates, etc.) they sure do allow an awful lot of people to wander around those cacklefest cars.......


[image]http://s1126.photobucket.com/user/nhramark1/library/Racing[/image] 9.100 @ 150 mph 5.780 @ 120 mph
Re: Winternationals cackle fest turns into demo derby [Re: nhramark] #616097
02/17/10 09:47 PM
02/17/10 09:47 PM
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,206
Minn
S
SportF Offline
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SportF  Offline
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Minn
NHRAmark, yeah, I was there at Bowling Green. That was ugly. We were almost at the top of the stands and when it happened it seemed like forever before someone reacted. My son and I stood up to run down and help when someone finally responded. That ruined my day seening that. I did hear though, that the guy in the wheel chair was not hurt at all....but boy that looked bad. Should require a shutoff, eh?

Re: Winternationals cackle fest turns into demo derby [Re: SportF] #616098
02/18/10 10:51 AM
02/18/10 10:51 AM
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 406
Oregon,USA
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RAT PATROL Offline
mopar
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Posts: 406
Oregon,USA
Get em in the shop, get em fixed, and let em run. They let the nostalgia sprinters run and it is something to behold. Nobody Lives Forever!

5814333-Dorothy.jpg (262 downloads)
Re: Winternationals cackle fest turns into demo derby [Re: RAT PATROL] #616099
02/18/10 06:37 PM
02/18/10 06:37 PM
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 202
CA
6
62SAVOY Offline
enthusiast
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CA
Youtube

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by nhra.


Looks like they stepped in already. Worried about lawsuit or something or bad publicity in general?

Re: Winternationals cackle fest turns into demo derby [Re: 62SAVOY] #616100
02/18/10 07:10 PM
02/18/10 07:10 PM
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 1,572
wisconSIN
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Blown61 Offline
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wisconSIN
Why is the motor coupled to the rear?

Re: Winternationals cackle fest turns into demo derby [Re: bigdad] #616101
02/18/10 07:18 PM
02/18/10 07:18 PM
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,094
Byron, NY
W.I.N. Racing Offline
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Byron, NY
Here's an open letter from the driver of the car...


To all Cacklefest participants, Steve Gibbs and NHRA,

I am sorry I have not been able to respond until now. Lots of things going with this, mainly phone calls and my stomach. Before I proceed to the causes and actions I took I have to apologize to Derek Bowers, Pete Eastwood and his girl-friend Monique, Leon and Darlene Fitzgerald and their crew, Bob Nylander, Roger Lee and his crew, Steve Gibbs, Greg Sharp, the entire museum staff and NHRA. Along with all Cackle participants: I AM SO VERY SORRY. I don't know what else to say. I have gone over this in my mind so many times since it happened and I would still do the things I did in this situation. Here is how this all transpired. To those of you who e-mail me after this - DON'T - I will be deleting them as I have way too many backed up and I am sure that a lot of them are going to be from 'armchair drivers' who have their own idea of how the situation should have been handled no matter what I inform them of that I won't listen to anything but CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, not hear-say crap. If you want to talk to me I will be at the March Meet on Saturday and those of you who know my phone number may call to blast me if you deem it necessary.

Let me preface this by telling you all that I have been going to the races since I was about 6 months old, so that means 57 years. More than a lot of you have been racing. I have been directly involved in running or driving various cars since 1973. I HAVE SEEN A LOT OF THINGS HAPPEN. And I am going to start this by answering the question of why I didn't use the mag switch(?). Numerous times through all the years I have been going to the races I have seen the mag switch used in an emergency to attempt to shut off a 'run-away' engine and it did NOT work. The engine, if hot, would lift the blower and continue on running, spraying fuel and catching on fire. That possibility was not an option seeing as how if the car still pulled through the clutch and motored on down there it would have sprayed fuel and fire all along the return road and right into whatever was the final stop. If there was something wrong with that thinking you may let me know, but I KNOW what state the engine was getting to when the car took off.

Now to the facts: After we warmed the car up for the actual Cackle I went over all the throttle and fuel shut-off clips to make sure they were in the proper position and I OPERATED the fuel shut-off from the cockpit to make sure there were no problems. Just a thing I do to be as safe as possible knowing that there are cars and people around during these things. Everything was GOOD. The cable is a Morse cable and the fuel shut-off is a -8 Enderle 3-way valve. The clutch during the push-out onto the track and the start-up was fine. [By the way the clutch is a 3-disc Crower PEDAL clutch. Rocky had replaced the 'Glide when he decided to do push-starts instead of short exhibition runs the year before I started doing the cackles in the car, 5 years ago. (Dwights' wheelstand scared him off a little and after getting a good half-pass in the next year he didn't want to chance blowing anything up on a run.) The clutch was a new at the time unit so it only has the time on it since then with no runs. I had checked the air-gap with the pedal dis-engaging the clutch January 30th when we were getting the car ready for the Palm Springs car show, even though we were only going to do static start-ups. It had .060" clearance.] After the engine started and I went to make the turn I could not get the car to make the right so it had to be hand pushed back. Still no problems. I started down the return road and the line funneling down past the finish line was backing up. I had to sit and wait for cars to move probably about 8-10 seconds. As soon as the line started to move a little I moved the car forward and then we had to stop again. When I depressed the pedal I could feel the clutch pull through just a little but enough to tell me to pull the fuel shut-off. So I pulled on the handle. IT DID NOT MOVE AN IOTA, let alone an inch. The clutch started to grab more so I then moved to the right side and sideswiped a speaker box as I was using the brake, steering, and pulling for all I was worth on the fuel shut-off. Nothing going with the shut-off. I started waving for a track person about 200' down on the guard-wall that I wanted him to shut the engine off. My crew thought I was initially waving to the crowd and thought nothing of what was going on, as did this track person as he only started to WALK towards me. I did not know or see a crew-member attempt to come up on my right as he only just got to the right-rear tire before the car started to lurch forward. (We have a video of this shot from inside our push-truck.) I KNEW I was in deep [Edited by Moparts - Family Friendly Site - Keep it clean]. I had to hurriedly make a decision and there was only one option, Derek Bowers' truck. I KNEW that the crowd was jamming the fence on the left and that there were all sorts of personnel on the fire-up road side of the guard-wall on the right. I told myself in my mind in that moment that NOBODY ELSE is supposed to take the hit in this but me, I am the one who WANTS his ass strapped in this thing and it is ME who WILL DIE today and hopefully no other. I was on the clutch pedal as hard as I could to try to slip it on out and pushing on the brake for all it was worth, so hard in fact that it either blew through a wheel cylinder or the master cylinder. I NEVER ONCE TOUCHED THE THROTTLE TO WHACK IT DURING THE ENTIRE SEQUENCE. I don't even touch the throttle to prime the injector as we spray a little gas down the blower before pushing off and the engine has no problem starting. The bottom line is that I AIMED AT THE TRUCK FULLY BELIEVING THAT I WAS GOING FOR THE LAST RIDE OF MY LIFE. END OF STORY. I WAS NOT GOING TO TAKE ANYONE ELSE OUT WITH ME. PERIOD. And luckily for me Monique and I came out of it with what only amounts to bruising. I THANK GOD THAT IT WORKED OUT THIS WAY AS THERE WAS 'DIVINE INTERVENTION' during the final sequence. I am sorry about the bent up vehicles. But that is all that is really hurt. Except for what is going on in my head knowing that I was expecting to not be here. How many of you would make the choice(s) I made? I hope we never know. And hopefully NHRA after reading this will have MERCY on the cacklefest program understanding that I knew full well what I was doing and why. I will tell you all that I would have used the mag switch IF we had been going DOWN the drag strip and not the return road as I, hopefully, would have been the only one motoring on down to the sand with the engine 'stuck' on.

As soon as we start pulling the car apart I will keep Steve updated with all we find. One thing I can tell you is that right after the car was placed on the trailer I grabbed the bent fuel shut-off cable out by the shut-off valve itself and while holding on tight I was able to close it about 3/8". The cable is too bent to go more but when I get down to take the car apart I will cut the bad end off and see if it will move using the inside-the-cockpit handle.

Steve, would you please forward this to the tech department? And we WILL put an IN & OUT BOX in the car as an extra safety measure.

Thank you for listening.
Sincerely,

Rod Hynes


'01 P1500, Blown/Inj BAE,/Veney ,Bruno/CS2,Dana 60
'01 Dodge 3500 S Cummins Auto, Fresh air kit, 4" Exhaust,
'05 Dodge Magnum R/T - Too Much to list
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