txtom Posted June 21, 2008 Report Share Posted June 21, 2008 Scott Kallitta passed away after a bad qualifying accident in his Funny Car at Old Bridge Town Ship Raceway Park in New Jersey. Thoughts and Prayers to his Family and the NHRA Community. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelracewriter Posted June 21, 2008 Report Share Posted June 21, 2008 It was reported by AP and now confirmed by NHRA via ESPN2 that Scott Kalitta was pronounced dead on arrival at a local hospital. Having seen the replay of the crash......it would have been a miracle for anyone to survive. RIP Scott Kalitta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelracewriter Posted June 21, 2008 Report Share Posted June 21, 2008 Brief excerpt from foxsports.com http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/8269208?MSNHPHMA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Budman Posted June 22, 2008 Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 Thoughts and prayers for sure Tom. Perhaps this is not the appropriate time or place, but questions are going to arise. I just now saw the video. His car appeared to hit something down past the end of the strip that was very hard. Couldn't really tell exactly what he hit, but why would there be ANYTHING hard down there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted June 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 When you were watching the video, you noticed a tree line in the background. On the other side of that tree line is a public highway. There is an angled barrier to keep the cars in the place. That street is an issue with the track. As the cars get faster, they need more shut-down room, and that road is an obstacle for the track to be able to do the expansion. As sad as it is for Kalitta, we all know the potential implications if the car had ended up on the road in a collision with a street car. Something I noticed is the chute never fully deployed, and the car did not seem to have any brake input. That was about as hard as I have ever seen a fuel car hit the sand trap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robwhite Posted June 22, 2008 Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 I totally agree TxTOM that's as hard of a hit as I've ever seen as well , horrific crash, my prayers go to the family Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KISS_Racing Posted June 22, 2008 Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 TxTom, key to it is chutes were out, maybe not fully. Makes me believe his injuries were from the impact to what i would think was the barriers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chipmunk Posted June 22, 2008 Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 Sad day yesterday for sure.When i thought i was one of the best days of my life getting to hang and work on a race car with a friend i havent seen in 33 years and kinda following our fathers (my dad worked on his dads car and now i work on his). I get home and see the news about scott kallita. Im devestated i just saw him in april here in houston.This is a terrible loss not just to drag racing but to all racing. Honestly it reaches out further to our military also. For the Kallita Flying Service flys the fallen soldiers to their home towns.Truly a great loss to a great family my prayers our out to Scotts wife,kids,family,and extended family all over the world... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted June 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 TxTom, key to it is chutes were out, maybe not fully. Makes me believe his injuries were from the impact to what i would think was the barriers. Yes, the chute(s) were out; but they did not fully bloom. If the lines were tangled, or a few of them burned through, they will not bloom properly. The thing that sticks out is the speed at which the car hit the sand trap. It is possible for a car to skim over the sandy surface, much like hydroplaning on water. Take a look at this link; it is the far end of the dragstrip in question, and you can see the sand trap, barrier, tree line, and the road. Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KISS_Racing Posted June 22, 2008 Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 TxTom, Im in agreement... My point was he had to have deployed the chutes, I dont think the explosion killed him. I have red and heard conflicting reports that he died at the track, he died in route to hospital and he died at hospital... One note that I hope NHRA takes is from Cruz's comments... I hope they visit the need for longer shut downs... I remember at Columbus Ohio before they moved that Farm Road, they would shut it down and barricade the road so they could run 1/4 mile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rebelracewriter Posted June 22, 2008 Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 During interviews after the crash on ESPN2, one of the Pedregon brothers mentioned lack of sufficient shut down room at some tracks. You're right Tom at the speed he was still going, the sand trap was meaningless. The only thing that stopped him was the concrete barriers. Mark, in a lot of cases like this, even if the person has passed at the track they try to get him transported for various reasons... Same case scenario as Dale Earnhardt sr. It' is possible the explosion ripping off the body deployed the chutes from the cable being stretched. In that ball of rolling fire I would think it would be nearly impossible for a driver, conscious or not, to even find the handle. There's a video on foxsports.....but I can't get it to load.....I'm sure someone else can get it or it will end up pirated over on youtube soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txtom Posted June 22, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2008 My point was he had to have deployed the chutes Another thing about the chutes, the chute packs are mounted on the back of the body. In an explosion like that suffered in the lights by Kalitta, when the body deforms or detaches from the chassis, the chute bags go with the body, the chute pins pull out, and they automatically deploy. I don't know if NHRA mandates the mounting, but it definitely is a margin of safety. We may never know if Kalitta pulled the chute handle; but, in that kind of explosion, the chutes were at least deployed when the body deformed and pulled away from the chassis. On another note, Jim Head was interviewed this morning, and he talked about the shut down areas of a lot of the tracks. He also stated that a lot of his fellow competitors, not all, would be happy with a shorter distance, to include 1/8th mile racing. Part the speeds, part the costs. If you notice where most of the catastrophic explosions occur in fuel racing, it is basically at the lights or just before. IHRA is already experimenting with this in their national events, as both sanctions in their weekly racing. I am not saying I like or dislike that idea, merely throwing it out there that 1/8th is a distinct future possibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SASPEEDRACER24 Posted June 25, 2008 Report Share Posted June 25, 2008 I had read somewhere that when his car hit the sand it nosed in kinda like the pole of a polevaulter... the other thing that I saw from the video is that the car was kept relatively straight while it was on fire so like most others I think he conscious untill what happened in/after the sand. In all honesty though no matter what barrier they have at the end of the run off, at 300+mph nothing is going to be soft. Everything went wrong at the same time and personally I dont think another 500-1000ft. would have saved him with they way the car was disabled. RIP Scott... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProTree Posted June 26, 2008 Report Share Posted June 26, 2008 r.i.p brother,we'll meet again some day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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