Over the years, I've become quite jaded about the Sunday test and tune as it has become famous for the Drag Week ending engine and/or transmission failures that it has produced. Most memorable, but much less frequent are the wall slapping incidents that really put the screws to the unlucky participant's vacation plans!
2016's opening session was no different, with one very bad crash from a very unlikely source.

Jeff Pagano was bringing his 70 El-Camino back for it's third Drag Week. The big tire, ladder bar car has always ran Pro Street N/A, completing 2014 with a 12.54 average, and improved to a 12.03 average in 2015 with a best run of 11.73. He had stepped up his engine program for 2016, and was hoping to move into the tens. Still when you think of the cars most likely to get out of control on the big end, a high ten second, N/A, big tire car isn't the usual suspect.

While I was not even remotely focused on the test and tune cars, when you've spent as many days at the races as I have, you become accustomed to the sounds of sets going down the track. When that sound is interrupted by relative silence for a few minutes, the spidey sense goes off and you start looking around to see what has happened. Worst case is when you see emergency vehicles converging from both directions towards the finish line.

Reports circulated later in the evening that the diagonal link had failed or came loose as the car approached the finish line, causing him to lose control and contact both walls. Jeff was taken to a local hospital for observation, but was later released. As the owner of a ladder bar street car, I can attest that those parts take a ton of abuse, and I have been guilty of not checking mine over as often as I should, so this incident served as a grim reminder of what can happen.