[Land-speed] John Force's Accident

[Glen Barrett]

Just to clarify one thing he center box's are Styrofoam 12" square with a 4" 
reflector on each side, They are soft material not wood or other material..I 
too watched the tape at least 20 times and I don't think either of the 
blocks hit the car or chutes. There was also a top fuel car that had a tire 
coming apart and chunking pieces off. I looked like the right rear went down 
1st. The chassis is designed to brake in half to get rid of weight. Or it 
could have been a chassis failure due to the stresses they put on them. They 
are CM steel and more fragile. I will wait for the experts to determine what 
really happened. The car has load cells and sensors that they were down 
loading last night.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "drmayf" <drmayf at mayfco.com>
To: "LSR" <land-speed at autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 7:33 PM
Subject: [Land-speed] John Force's Accident


>I just rewatched the accident all over again from several different
> vantage points. ANd I am sure that everyone who sees it will have a
> different view and opinion. Right at the finish line, Kenny hit the
> timing light boxes and lights. One box actually went behind John's car
> but other stuff, like maybe the light itself bounced off the far wall
> and came back towards JOhn's car on the driver's side. Both cars were
> past the finish line. And it looked like a clutch explosion or the tires
> shook the car to pieces. Both rear tires were deflated before it came
> apart.  Could the thingy that went across the track and back at John cut
> the tires? Yeah to me it could have.  Then after the chutes were out on
> both cars the Castrol car came apart. The rear continued down track
> while the front moved over and crashed Kenny and knocked his body off as
> well. Then the rear of John's car drifted back to the wall on Kenney'
> side where it came to rest.  When they got John out and the rear section
> was on the transporter, there was no frame pieces remaining from the
> front edge of the seat forward.  Some how I seriously doubt that a
> parachute yank would have separated the car like that. So it was some
> sort of mechanical failure which broke that part: either violent tire
> shake due to flat tires or explosion. Since John is reasonably ok for
> such a wreck, I am sure he will have a pretty fare story of what
> happened from his perspective.
>
>
> No flames, no arguments, just my opinion and that ain't worth much.
>
> mayf.
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