Just read this on DRO

[SSTRACER323]

found it

Martindale suffers fatal accident at Atlanta


Bobby Martindale, 65, of Glen Allen, Va. was killed Saturday, Oct. 4, during round 1 qualifying in Top Alcohol Funny Car at the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, Southeast Division, event at Atlanta Dragway.
Martindale was on and off the throttle several times during his run and his engine quit with a bang at the finish line. His chutes did not deploy and his car hit the left retaining wall in the shutdown area. The body came off and the car continued on through the sand trap and the catch fence and into the wooded area beyond, where a small fire started, but was quickly put out.
DRO offers out heartfelt condolences to the Martindale family. [10/06/08]

[S/G 386N]

Originally Posted by SSTRACER323

The body came off and the car continued on through the sand trap and the catch fence and into the wooded area beyond, where a small fire started, but was quickly put out.

Sounds like it's time to update the catch fence. Looking at his run, he crossed the finish line at only 180mph. Plenty of time to coast to a slower speed. There shouldn't have been any reason the catch fence did not stop the car.

[Jason Oldfield]

Originally Posted by S/G 386N

Sounds like it's time to update the catch fence. Looking at his run, he crossed the finish line at only 180mph. Plenty of time to coast to a slower speed. There shouldn't have been any reason the catch fence did not stop the car.

Agreed. Any big surprise this was at an NHRA owned track? Anyone care to bet that the catch fence at Atlanta has not been updated yet like at Indy where they spent probably 30 minutes of broadcasting time telling how great of a job NHRA did with the new sand trap and catch fence? Would anybody be surprised if this hadn't been done since the Pros don't race at Atlanta again until next spring???

63corvette - I totally agree with you about the braking, I just have no idea how you enforce it, and when it has been brought up here in the past the competitors general reaction has been, "If you don't like it, or are too scared to race where hard braking is part of the game, then go race someplace else." So, I'm not sure you'd get the type of support you'd need on this issue to make a difference.

I don't know what caused Doug McRobie's crash, but again, I agree with you that the vast majority of the bracket racing (and that includes the .90 classes) crashes that I have witnessed have been due to excessive braking. Unfortunately, most of the drivers that I know that have had close calls, eventually go back to stabbing the brakes hard at the finish line. Some do it slowly over time, some it doesn't phase them at all and they go right back to doing in. IMHO, they're playing with fire, and eventually will get burned, hopefully just not to the extent that it will cause somebody's death.

That said, I don't believe your statement about one or two .90 racers being killed every year since 1990. I'm not saying that it's not true, but I'd have to see actual data before I believed that statement. Again, before McRobie, I can't remember the last .90 driver to be killed, particularly at a national or divisional event. And if that statement is true, I guess I'll have to stop bitching about my life insurance being so high compared to the normal everyday Joe.

There is a couple of ways you can look at this though:

1. There will always be deaths involved, as racing automobiles is a dangerous sport, and comes with inherent risks.

2. The sanctioning bodies need to do more to improve the safety of the competitors through upgrades to the facilities, and the creation of new rules and enforcement of existing rules, including those that would force some to either make significant changes to their cars or not be allowed to race.

For the sake of not making this post any longer (if any of you are still reading) I won't go into great detail, but I can't tell you how many times I've looked at a car in the staging lanes and said to myself, "Wow, I can't believe they're going to let that death trap go down the track." This happens MOSTLY at the local tracks, not the big races (heck, at most NHRA races, I'm usually saying, "Wow, that's a nice piece.") However, tech inspection could still be more thorough than it currently is, but my guess is that its not just due to time constraints (NHRA or IHRA can't spend an hour plus teching each car like NASCAR does because if they did tech inspection would last for days).

Let the hate mail begin...