Just a simple reminder even the littlest things can have a catastophic result.
http://www.dragracingonline.com/race...orlando-5.html

 

They didn't say what the "little thing" was.

Do you know something not stated on the website?

 

Damn ! funny, with all that fire, id assume part of the front end would have melted ..

 

I wish I did. They mentioned something about transmission related, but that's a pretty braod statement to say the least.

I can attest to what a little tranny fluid coupled with headers can do. I was into second round pitted against an old HS buddy. I was in the S-10 he was running his duster 11.0? dial so I had to spot him. Shortly after the 1/8 I noticed a breif puff of smoke under the bottom of his car, then a little flame, split second later the entire undercarriage was engulfed, more fire than smoke at that point. Luckily whatever it was slowed him down so I was still abel to take the stripe and win but I was hanging the door open trying to motion him over while slowly crossing towards the center line to get his attention. I stopped near by and was running over with the extinguisher just as he got out-he did'nt have a clue wtf was going on, but what little fire was left I was able to squirt out with no damage to anything under the hood or the car.

What happened was a tranny line fitting came loose and soaked his tranny blanket with tranny fluid that just happens to be right near the collector outlet which obviously set it off. Very scarey and gets your attention in a hurry.

I've seen only a few fires at our track, one was the story from above, other time guy did not have his lid for his cell on tight enough (alcohol car with 3 gallon tank up front) so it douched the entire motor compartment and the headers set-it off. Luckily he only fried a couple wires-everything else was untouched-really. Kinda came to the conclusion the alcohol was buring on top of the parts and did'nt get hot enough to start insinerating important stuff yet-kinda like lighting your hand on fire with lighter fluid...not that I've ever done that

Both cases racers/pit crews were there before the safety safaris, so thankfully calm minded people actually watch the races sometimes LOL!! I understand where NHRA/IHRA come from suspending racers for helping with a wreck trying to keep casualtie to a minimum, but you better believe I'd take a suspension over wathcing a buddy burn up if there's something I could to help!!

 

Since I regularly go to the DRO sight, I was contemplating posting a link to those very same pics a while back. Take notice in the first pic how the fire is actually inside the car! Luckily, it was only a flash fire, and even though the guy had the proper SFI rated suit/gloves/shoes, he's lucky to get away with only some minor burns to his wrists. Although, it does look like he's missing some facial hair in the pic on the second page.

I too have witnessed first hand quite a few horrific car fires at various tracks throughout the years. A few years ago at a local track, they landed a medi-vac chopper right in the shutdown area to fly some guy off directly to the trauma/burn center. After seeing a few crashes and/or fires, you begin to realize why most tracks are so stringent with their safety policies, and can fully understand and appreciate why they won't allow you to run if you don't comply with them.

Not at all meant to steal your thread here IHI, but since it is fire related and I just thought you guys might be interested, here's a link to a vid that shows a really bad nitrous oxide fed fire on the starting line at Piedmont dragway from a few months ago:
http://206.61.16.155/_vid/piedmont/2...dmont-fire.mpg

 

i heard it was a tranny fire...thats about all i know.


edit: guess i should read all the replys..

 

glad the driver did not get burned badly,that is definately a scary site...

 

Thought Stekman would post his link he found, but I'm jumping on it instead. Link to that blue camaro before pics and fire pics. Great link btw, and beautifully crafted car to say the least!!

The ooops pic are of the fire, scroll down to the turbo part for pics of the car.
http://www.dzhezkov.com/OSW

You thread stealer!!
I could'nt get that link to work, but I think it's the one I have on the computer I could'nt figure out how to get a quick link from my computer to here...computer illiterate

I assume its the red pro-stock chasis cavalier? Hopefully it's just my computer not wanting to open your link, so everybody can check that one out. Held my breath the second it let loss first time I watched it, just waiting for the poor guy to come blasting outta that inferno!! Bad deal indeed.

Soo muchstuff can go wrong in our sport, luckily it does'nt happen as often as you'd think, but I agree the safety rules are in place for a reason...many others have paid the price with injuries/death to get us to where we're at today as it only takes a split second to get in serious trouble Watched a guy get all outta shape at Nats 2 yrs ago when his brake line somehow leaked fluid and the slicks lost traction on the big end.He was sawing the heck ouotta the wheel and used both lanes but kept it off the rails away from the other car.

Then the classic pics I put up from Nats the next yr when the guys sterring linkage came off so he could no longer steer his car at 120+mph

Multiple motor windowings and parts spewed everywhere, driveshafts, starters falling off, multiple hoods going air borne cuz they forgot to zues or pin 'em Cordova had a seriouos bump bout mid track a few yrs ago in the far lane, seen a few pro mods get mixed up after the rear slicks lost contact with the track. How many guys going into our cornfeild at our local track with either no brakes because of weird faliure, or guys that built the fastest car possible and thought "factory" brakes were enought to slow down 3000 lbs going 150-160mph were suffcient. (Not bracket racers btw-just guys wanting a fast car with maybe a trip once a yr to the track) I'm sure there's some other really good stories out there

 

Yep, that's the one - the thing just explodes right at the hit of the throttle. It took him a while to get the door open (more than likely to get his belts off and window net down), but he bolted out right after that! I tried two seperate computers and the link worked fine on both of 'em.

To help contribute to IHI's thread (), here's a link to a series of more pics of the blue Camaro incident (2433 through 2456) that also show the aftermath: LINK

 

I didn't realize it was a turbo car when I first looked at the pics. After seeing the "before" pics, I can't believe they have all that plumbing inside the driver's compartment.

 

Wonder how warm it gets in there in the staging lanes during our nice hot summers?! I dont think those guys really warm up there motors/trannies like us though so it probably is'nt as bad. Plus most of those guys usually have a nice lookin gal fanning them or damping the sweat off with a papertowel...I gotta build one of those...gotta go