Uknow what really bites on this deal. This track does an awesome job prepping the track. They seem to be one of the better facilities. I fealt that they were on top of things. Man, a desperate hope of a fire truck. No one there. Hey I can start it and use it myself. Nope don't run. Probably no water on it either.

This track has taken collections up for people in bad accidents. I'm sure no collections for blowed motors or trannies. But, there is no question the damage could have been minimized if the track had been better prepared. Something failed on this car. It is part of racing but, like said, if there is not going to be anyone to aid in your personal safety why have belts cages or anything. Screw it just take the chance. Looks like the track did.

Everyone talks fire extinguisher or fire system. Halon would have cut the blaze. Providing there was no heat and gas to fire up again that is a fix. A fire extinguisher if found and used quick enough may have saved some material. Once that glass hood was on fire neither would have put it out. Just too hot. Nothing would have beat a man in a working fire truck to meet you at the turn and very possibly save your life.

Donald is furious as everyone would be. The first thing he did was thank God for saving his life and helping him keep his cool and not killing anyone that was trying to film his car burning. I always liked Donald from the first time I met him in 94' when he towed my wifes car for us early one morning. I'm sure he will get through this. Mike also had a lot in this car. These guys really took a hard blow. We all suffer with racing from time to time. Sure hope they can get through this one.

Leon

Man, that was hard to watch. That's a tough deal, for sure. Glad he's alright.

Donald I'am truly sorry about the Dart.Mike I know we dont see eye to eye but man that is really a bad deal.If you guys need anything let me know! I have some Dart parts that I will gladly give to the rebuild.Watching that made me want to never run my Dart again!!!!

That really sucks to see. I've always carried an extinguisher in the car, but i doubt halon would have put it out.
Here's the original thread on yb, there were people talking about setting up a paypal or something of that nature.
http://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=408145&page=9

Thanks for all of the sympathy and well wishes.

I don't want to say to much as we don't where this may go legally.

As I said in my post on YB, yes we should have had a fire system on the car and there WILL be one on the Dart or any other guy I have anything to do with in the future. However I do not think a 5 pound Halon nor a small extinguisher mounted somewhere in the car would have done any good. A 10-15 pound foam system maybe.

Also, Donald killed the power to everything on the overhead switch panel as he went across the finish line. He was out of the throttle at 4.82 seconds according to the Racepak and then killed the master cutoff switch at the back of the car when he got out.

With all of the damage we may never know what started the fire. I will tell you it got hot enough to melt the front bowl off of the carb as well as the boosters & squirters out of the carb.

Mike Gray

I can't recall any of the tracks I raced at when living in the Dakotas that had ANYONE at the top end of the track. Most of the time we were lucky to have any emt/fire personell at all. Now running Vegas is a different story. They have dressed safety crews at the line, and top end ready to go. I'm sure the car is too far gone to know what failed, but please tell me it didn't run one of these:

Thanks for all the kind words and support, Mike and myself appreciate it. The car made a move toward the center line just before the mph cone and I had to lift, as I took my eyes off the tach I noticed the flames at the carb. I lifted at 4.8 sec into the run and shut off everything at approx 5.5 that included ignition, fuel pump, fan and water pump. I cranked the starter trying to suck out the flames, I then noticed it looked like the flames were coming over the front of the carb instead. I slowed the car and turned toward the fire truck while reaching for the fastener tool to remove the hood. As I came to a stop the flames immediately came up over the windshield and roof blacking the windshield, at this time the smoke became unbearable and I abandoned the thought of removing the hood and got out as fast as possible. I agree I should have had a extingsher although I probably would not have had time to remove it and I don't think it would have done any good unless the hood was off and I could have gotten to the source of the blaze. The 25lb NOS bottle is empty and that I feel was fueling the blaze.

Donald

First off, glad you are ok...how bad is the car hurt?

That is just terrible! Yet another reason NOT to have a cowl induction hood though...

Donald, Mike, I'm terribly sorry to see this happen, really does make me sick to watch that video. If we can help in any way please don't hesitate to ask.

wow, this is horrible man...I can't imagine how it must have felt to be helpless and not be able to do anything, and have the track do nothing too...Hopefully you get it all sorted out and get some sort of reimbursement from the track

this video also just confirms my already burning hate for all the stupid useless lazy people riding golf carts and pit vehicles..if you aint towing a car, get lost!

Pretty much everything under the hood wiring, plumbing, carb, windshield, vinyl top and melted the headliner. The interior is full of extinguisher residue.
If not for the cowl hood I probably would not have seen the flames in time and might have been a different story. JMO

Donald

This sickens me. Mike and Donald, I feel for you, and wish there was some way I could help. Hopefully the loss doesn't keep you down long.
Andrew

Sorry to see that happen. FWIW I have seen the same thing happen at Infineon Raceway so it is not just small tracks that have issues like this, even the big corporate tracks do.

That s a shame, one of my favorite cars

omg! what and why the he-- is a track like that still open?thank god he,s ok.sorry about your awesome car gearjammer...

I hate seeing fires like that... I used to part of the saftey crew for the UDRA before it shut down, we ran pro mod, alcohol funny cars, and alcohol dragsters. I was part of the crew on the top end, and we had to pull a couple of guys out of some pretty bad fires over the years. I'm glad the driver is ok, but I agree with everyone here, there is no excuse for the track to not have AT LEAST a couple of people, one with a fire suit and a couple of extinguishers on the top end...

That is such a shame! The track should have been better prepared for this. Everytime ive raced @ RT66 there was a fully loaded and occupied firetruck at the top end.

Oh-- that makes me sick.