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Scott Kalitta Dead :(

Lunatikk

By Lunatikk,
in Motorsport

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Mr. Keets Grand Master

Mr. Keets

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Eric Medlen last year and now Scott Kalitta. After the death of Medlan I remember John Force withdrawing his car until he could make it safer against slapping the wall, but there are no mods to make a Funny Car safe from the impact that Scotty took. Longer run off is the key. It looked like a good pass too...RIP Scott

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2rismo Grand Master

2rismo

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How horrible. Just watched the accident and there are a lot of questions to be asked. How horrible for his wife and two boys.

Re: the chutes, it appears that they tangled. They didn't burn up by the looks of it. It takes a lot of fire to burn them. When the body blows off it deploys the chutes automatically but they can still tangle.

:)

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madbung Grand Master

madbung

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^^^ yeah could be right re: shute, it's possible when the body came off he was knocked out...didn't seem to get off it at all after that moment. Damn shame.

Edited by madbung
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Lunatikk Rising Star

Lunatikk

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I've got mates that either crew for or drive/own Nitro cars, a background in drag-bikes myself & this has been a concern of mine for a long time. Speeds have been getting faster, times have been getting quicker but nothing by & large has been happening to the braking area's at most tracks.

When Senna died, it forced the FIA to address run-off areas for hi-speed circuits, when Earnhardt died at Daytona NASCAR mandated HANS devices & finally implemented soft-walls on the Super-Speedways. When Darrell Russell was killed in Joe Amato's dragster a few yrs ago NHRA mandated shields around the rear of the cage around the drivers head along with tyre changes in conjunction with Goodyrear & when Eric Medlin died testing his Funny Car last yr, John Force Racing took it upon itself to design a safer cockpit which in turn is being mandated by the NHRA as well.

It makes me f**ken angry that has taken the death of yet another racer, but maybe Scott Kalitta's legacy will be the updating of emergency provisions at the end of drag-strips the world over. I know that sometimes there's nothing that can be done if a vehicle is carrying enough speed & energy off the end of the strip & Scott looked like he went into the sand pretty hard, but a lot of sand-traps are so ineffectul they may as well not even be there, incl in my opinion the one at E-town.

We as a species have developed the engineering knowledge & ability to achieve damn near anything, but ONLY when the cost of NOT DOING SO out-strips the cost of actually fixing the problem. How many more lives is it going to cost before this is addressed???

Yes we all die & yes Scott went out doing what he loved, but his death is still a pointless, needless & maybe even a preventable one. :D

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