Ron Capps (left lane) and Robert Hight (right lane). Note the accident on starting line when Hight’s car lurched forward and hit the crewman. Robert Hight 3.861 329.28 mph (winner), Ron Capps 3.882 333.82 - great drag race!
It used to be much bigger, they are flunking Business 101 and the concept of supply and demand, seeing completely empty stands on one side tells me (a no college fella) that they're overcharging for their product, I'm assuming that's the spectator side and if I was that track owner I would charge as low as $1 for seating on that side, not only would that be an extra $3-5,000 (or whatever number of seats are there) but the revenue from concessions also and possibly the most important thing would be the gains in growing the fan base.
Enjoy it while you can , HALF the drags strips have been sold to developers to build apartments and condos , More to fall this year . Cooperate greed wins everytime 👎
My first and only time going to the Nationals was over 20+ years ago. I can say without a doubt it was the 2nd most incredible display of power, torque and engineering I've ever seen. Next to only watching an F-16 vapor coning to supersonic.🙏🏻
I just went a month ago to see top fuel for the first time. I knew it would be loud but, I had no idea really. I wish I could see a fast jet up close going supersonic, that would be amazing as were the Top fuel cars. I was lucky, the track was a new venue (for top fuel) and many of us got just few feet from the track. So the fist time I ever experienced it I was about 5 yard from the start line. I did not expect that.
Check out Jet Cars at New England dragway. They have an event called Jet Cars Under The Stars. AMAZING, BTW, living in the next town over means I can hear the jet cars from my front porch, and I love it!
Jets "cone" at subsonic speeds too. Seen it at many airshows, and none of the aircraft were breaking the sound barrier. More like 600-650 mph. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uO4FckCAZtU.html
A similar thing happened years ago with Tony Pedregon. When the crewman lifted the body, it hit the throttle on the side of the scoop. The blast from the exhaust blew the pants off of the crew chief and knocked down the crewman. Nobody was hurt. I suspect the same might have happened when he lowered the body.
@@carlwilliams6977 100%. Brakes only work when the engine is at idle or shut off. Have you tried to figure out what it takes to hold back even a few thousand horsepower when the engine blips above idle? Not even the whole 11,000+hp when it's wide open.
You can see that the hood caught the side of the blower for a second apparently pulling on the throttle as he was latching the top down. That could have gone a lot worse!
Those Funny cars are definitely scary to be around. Glad the crew member didn't get hurt, but anything can happen around those vehicles. Thanks for the video.
According to the comment section, this seems to be a recurring thing that has happened at races. You'd think they'd give that part of the car a better safeguard or just not have someone stand directly in front of tons of nitro filled metal! 🤷♀️🤷♂️
"Tons of nitro filled metal?" LOL ... The "metal" portion of a Funny Car, ie, the chassis tubing, weighs about 125lbs. total. The entire car around 2600 lbs. Barely over a ton for the entire thing. While blurps do happen every now and then, this is not a "common thing" and rarely does a crewmember get hurt.
I have quit watching motosports, Too safe, The driver doesn't have any fear anymore....The car or vehicle wins the race....The driver is only a passenger. They can say what they want but it's easier to go 300 miles per hour with a 5 point harness, rollcage and strapped in a safe cocoon than it is with only a lap belt.
yeah, you open and close that lid a million times and then just ONCE it catches the throttle link .... accident, the nice word for shit happens. Robert will feel bad about this no matter what, that is sad. Such a great sportsman, well Ron and him both. Thanks for the whole vid 👍👍👊
The guy on the far side of Hight's car was standing right beside the header when it "burped". He got a pretty good burn out of it, and burned his shirt. If you watch it closely, it also blow his sunglasses off of his head and they land out in front of the car. Almost at the same spot where Trevor's glasses landed. It's a good thing Trevor's shoes slid instead of sticking to the track. Something similar happened years ago. A crewman near the headers had his pants ripped and blown completely off, and burned his legs pretty bad. If I find the vid, I'll post a link here.
If you watch close he actually gets hit by the car in his right elbow. I think it’s a walkie talkie or temp gun etc that gets knocked out of his hand and goes flying
Here's a mishap from Byron raceway back in 2013. I was not out there that weekend, but was the week before. In this video, it shows a dragster doing it's burnout, & than while backing up, veers off to one side & than lurches forward into the wall at full throttle. The driver was stuck in the dragster while the dragster continues running & smashing itself into the retaining wall. They said this driver passed out during his burnout due to the hot humid weather. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-czuG0zgcK4Q.html
@@chauvinemmons It was fun watching them though. Nostalgia funny cars actually looked different too. Today's cars same body just painted in with Ford, Dodge, or Chevy markings and lights. Nostalgia obviously has much less power but still 1/4 mile races.
Blue collar diesel.."but it looked like he jumped out of the way from my view point"???....oh right...by smashing his head into the body of the car cause his feet were pushed back so quickly when the splitter hit his legs....oh right that's how ''he jumped out of the way'' is described to you?.....lolololololol....Oh did you vote for Biden as well?,,,,,lololololol
@@bluecollardiesel Well I can never drink too much...and I'm fully settled down....Now...I'm sure that there millions if not billions of things that you don't understand what people are '' talking about''....Please do not list them all as noone will live long enough to read them all...In your defense I'm sure that in your ''grown up mind'' it ''looked like he jumped out of the way'' but the fact remains that the splitter hit his legs and then his head and face hit the hood of the car before he bounced of the car....and nothing will change those facts....and not even for you and all the other senile grown ups....You have a great day at the old folks home....
@@mark006868 You are special. I was saying from my point of view sitting on the grandstand it “looked” like he jumped out of the way. It “looked.” Now why is this upsetting you.
@@bluecollardiesel In fact...nothing is ''upsetting'' me...and I'm not ''special'' at all...but...you must have me confused with some one who cares what you may or may not think...and I'm sorry if the facts offend you...oh who am I kidding?...I'm not sorry at all...Just go have you pudding with the rest of the grown ups but don't forget your dentures cause it makes you look like Granpa Simpson as well as acting just like him....lolololololol
Hope All were ok after that mishap I'm searching forward after the putting the body down. Did the body catch the throttle? Or was it a flinch of his foot?
☑️☑️ Thanks for NOT zooming into the cars as they blow down the track. So many of the "top" drag racing RU-vidrs do that, and it defeats the whole purpose of watching a drag race, because it prevents the viewer from seeing how fast these cars get down the track. There's plenty of time before and after the races to zoom in on the cars so that viewers can see what they look like up close. So there's no reason to do it when they are actually racing.
I remember in the middle 80’s Kenny Bernstein did something similar and knocked down two crew members at Brainerd MN… no one was injured. The next race was Indy and the whole crew wore white shirts with tire treads on them. 😆😂🤣
Almost seems like the hood caught the throttle rod on the way down, note that it happens right as the hood passes the intake!! Glad it slipped past and didn't go any longer!!
@@saysflushable Yea, someone said they had a sell out crowd (Some COVID-Restrictions still in place). They only allowed spectators on one side of the track.
@@philsmidwestclassiccars150: That's BS! NHRA is definitely dying. Most fans favorite class was the factory wars Pro Stock class. Ford vs GM vs Chrysler. NHRA's favoritism towards GM has killed the Pro Stock class.
@@MGB18 So you don't think NHRA Bracket Racing draws a crowd? This was the bring what you want Division where all you had to do is give them an ET & they would send you down the track next to anything else that showed up & claimed an ET & adjust the lights accordingly. I don't think this type of NHRA Racing is dying, maybe it's just not meeting your expectations.
@@philsmidwestclassiccars150: You don't think the NHRA is dying? Explain why the NHRA has been slowly losing it's fans year by year since 1998? They sure aren't attracting new fans. It sure isn't only my expectations that the NHRA isn't meeting. I'm just one of thousands of fans that feel the same. NHRA's bread and butter had always been "Heads Up" factory war Pro Stock drag racing. Ford vs GM vs Chrysler. It's well known that was the fans favorite class.
I worked on top fuel back in the 90s and the thing I have noticed in the last 10 years is these crew guys are always looking around at the spectators making dure they are being noticed rather than paying attention to the job at hand , we were told if you get caught not being aware of your surroundings that you were not meant to do this job and we never had an accident , to much bullshit going on at the start line that is just a matter of time before something awful happens
That's exactly what happened, the opposite happened to Tony Pedregon a number of years back, but they knew they had a clearance issue and when the crew chief told the guy to lift the body, hit the throttle and blew/burnt the crew chiefs pants off and burned his legs and beat the other guy up pretty bad as well....aaaand Tony swerved to try and miss and drove straight into the Christmas Tree (lol) -- never thought I'd see one w/ the body going down, especially not that team..
@@muimasmacho its centripetal (like a weed-eater, chainsaw, etc. Regardless of where the clutch timers are at, if ya walk the throttle, it'll move the car. :) Hope that kinds helps answer your question w/o getting overly technical. Take care!
Lesson learned!! No matter how professional you are at your job , mistakes happen and with common sense don't stand in front of a car with over 1000 horses under the hood
This happens a lot more than people think. If you don't drop that body straight down without twisting it, it will catch the linkage on the top hat of the blower and *BAM* you have a 10,000 horsepower bunny hop!!!😱💨🤸♂️
Good catch. If you watch it frame by frame that appears to be exactly what happened. I'm gong to guess that next year's NHRA rules will add a shroud or something to prevent that from happening in the future. Glad he was okay.
They say they are Focused!!! I say.... Yeah Buddy!!! "Everything" is Moving So Fast!!! And Then after what he'd just seen, He went on to Win the Run! I'm sure we know who he Dedicated that Run to....(whew, close one!) I can only Imagine for the few Agonizing Seconds it took for the Crew Chief or Whoever, to signal to him all was OK, it must have felt like a lifetime.. Even though it wasn't His fault at all. He must have been feeling "Sick" for those few seconds until he was told all was fine. But you sure couldn't tell by his Reaction to that Christmas Tree...lol.
We've all seen street racing videos where the starter stands twenty feet in front of the cars with a flashlight. Has nobody ever been killed doing that shit? ?
Okay, here's my problem. Because I worked for an airline around jet engines, I can't half hear. So I couldn't understand what the announcer was saying. Because the finish line was a thousand feet away, I couldn't see the end of the race. So, if anyone knows, who won the race and what ET and speed did they run? PLEASE. Gotta admit this is one of the few funny car races I've seen in which BOTH cars made it to the finish without at least one wrecking or blowing up.
@@bcjake5491 Thanks! I'll admit I've never seen funny cars or any cars racing that are this fast. I know the sound was muted when they took off, which made it kind of ethereal. They made a droning, buzzing sound and just took off. Wonder what kind of g's they supposedly experience on these kinds of launches? And how much horsepower do these put out?
@@bcjake5491 Ohhhhhhh, sahhhhhweeeeeeeeettttt! You know, I've repeatedly watched the launch and run at least 5 times in a row, and I'm simply not comprehending what I'm seeing. First, the departure from the line is weird, it's a bang noise. And, even though the sound is muted it's clear the drone is pretty consistent down the track, which is unusual for any typical vehicle accelerating from a stop and going through gears. Honestly, if I were there I'd definitely get "the whole experience," but I think it would happen so fast I'd be left gob-smacked and almost disappointed. Like, DON'T BLINK!
Great video. I don't know if you filmed this yourself, but if you did, one thing I would suggest, is don't pan the camera when not necessary. I'm not sure why it happens, but the picture gets blurry when panning, and then clears up a few seconds after the camera stops panning. I don't think most people give that any thought when they film stuff. I noticed that recently when watching a video of somebody showing an old sailing ship that had been preserved in a museum. They were constantly panning, which made it impossible to see any details.
Thanks for your comment Leroy. I did film this myself with my phone and I’m quite happy with the result. Except, as you say, the panning was way too fast….too much action on the starting line.
@@bcjake5491 thanks for the reply, your info is interesting and a couple of questions immediately came to mind, did it look like a construction site to you?, I watched on my phone and it didn't resemble a construction site. Secondly, what kind of business does renovations during the biggest event of the year?
Just image the disaster it would have been if that happened just a few seconds earlier when all the crew people were under the body. Glad everybody walks away.
The NHRA has picked favorite tracks based on Television, not fans. Standing room only at Commerce last year. They then sold the track to someone wanting to build more apartments.
@@jamesd548 no tickets were sold for the west bleachers. Apparently, they’re renovating the stands to include luxury boxes, etc. Not sure when they’ll be finished.