Ouch is right. I think I have a fairly good idea for the tubing in his garage: Build a cage for him and don't let him out unless he's on a leash. :)
The chance of something happening at that venue in Florida might go like this: One of the cars that hasn't been teched closely (or maybe even one that has...it happens) loses something like a sheet metal screw or other sharp object. Too small to be easily seen, but not too small to go through a tire. Then one of the cars in the middle of that 5-wide drag race runs over it at about a buck-fifty. That leads...at the very least...to a severe swerve and a collision with at least one of the other cars. The real bad scenario would be the swerve turning into a pencil or barrel roll taking out several other cars with fire involved. Multiple fatalities aren't inconceivable in that case. And that's the end of "Land Speed Racing" in Florida and possibly other areas...probably for the foreseeable future unless it's at venues with a good safety record (which is a relative thing. There was "only" one fatality at Bonneville and one at Maxton, NC; none at El Mirage nor the Texas Mile...both motorcycles...one a motorcycle liner, the other a partially-streamlined sit-on bike.) But aside from the human tragedy, the amount of work that SCTA-BNI and USAFRA (and ECTA at Maxton) puts into safety and a "safe racing image" will be virtually wasted for God-knows-how-long.
I hope someone like ECTA can come in there and take over the sanctioning of the venue. Btw, did you notice the advice given to the drivers to take the corner at 60-70 and then they should be able to hit 200? That perpendicular start to a supposedly straight line race (admittedly, most of the cars there were capable of it) is one reason that numerous motorcycle riders don't run at the BUB meet on the salt. That and the "Run What Ya Brung" class...that allows pretty much anything to race. Check out this photo: http://www.chevyasylum.com/lsr/bsf2009/bub/pix/20090830_0475r8a_jpg.html and the whole "quick pix" section...I haven't gotten thru with editing the Speed Week photos...and all the others...and this eyeball thing has set me back. Nonetheless, the shot of Mark Assen of New Zealand leaning into the turn around the mile marker is basically the same thing. Fortunately nobody laid a bike down at that point (a couple of them did further down the course, but injuries were minimal...if ya count a compound fracture as minimal.)
RtR At 07:35 PM 11/19/2009, you wrote:
That was pretty cool. You're right about the chances of something happening. More money than brains I would suspect.This is what happened to one of those weekend warriors with a ton of money shortly after we got off the track in the Noble. See pic. The owner was laughing about having half a mile of tubing in his garage he was wanting to do something with. Now he'll take the parts from the wasted GT and build a project.JC --- John Christensen Saint Charles, ILOn Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 3:48 PM, <<mailto:humminboid@xxxxxxxxxxx>humminboid@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:O wow! Cool sounds, and the photo opportunities! Thanx, Ray.Lemmesee...240 mph; the angle of the dangle times the focal length divided by the square of the f/stop...hmmmmm...Bright sunlight...should be~ f/11@ 1/500th sec. to give really nice wheel blur with panning. My Bogen tripod with video head would be just right. But, carrying that beast; Bombsville! C.----- Original Message ----- From: "Ray Buck" <<mailto:rbuck@xxxxxxxxxxxx>rbuck@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <mailto:ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>ratpack@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 2:17:19 PM GMT -07:00 US/Canada Mountain Subject: [ratpack] A totally insane "LSR" event in Florida <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NAvWbv5-Vs&NR=1>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NAvWbv5-Vs&NR=1 This has been an item of "discussion" (condemnation would be a better word for it) on <http://www.landracing.com>www.landracing.com ( http://www.landracing.com/forum/index.php/topic,6902.0.html ) and I finally watched the long video with my blurry eyes. Yeah, I prolly otta be doing other stuff, but what the hell, huh? I'm assuming that the orange/green critters are Lamborghini Murcielagos...but I'm not all that familiar with the supercar thing. But running 4 or 5 cars abreast from a standing start is...well, only a matter of time before someone blows a tire or a motor and then..... Wacked, man. RtR Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="IMG_4679.jpg" Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="IMG_4679.jpg" X-Attachment-Id: f_g28c76j60
