Where's the outrage?

Only two in NHRA, Hejira. Don't know about the many smaller levels.

 

The difference between a death in an auto race, particularly an obscure sport like drag racing, and boxing is in auto racing people die in an accident. In boxing/MMA, someone gets bludgeoned to death by another man. Somebody commits legal manslaughter. There will never be the same outrage for auto racing deaths as boxing/MMA because of that.

I didn't get the same sense that people were outraged with Dale Earnhardt's death in the same way they were outraged when Boom Boom Mancini killed Duk Koo Kim.

 

Oh, but they were. Maybe more so. Earnhardt's death was the event that let some people force NASCAR to face up to some things, including the fact that you can order your drivers to use needed safety equipment like full-face helmets and HANS devices. And this was Dale Earnhardt; people knew who he was.

There was probably more outrage over the fact that nothing was done by NASCAR after two lesser-known drivers (one of them Richard Petty's grandson) had died the previous year in separate wrecks at New Hampshire that were similar to the Earnhardt wreck.

 

ok, naive question -- can't they extend the track? looks like plenty of room on the northeast end, although maybe they don't own that land?

 

I don't know if I agree. It was different outrage. There was outrage over the governing of NASCAR. There was outrage over the very existence of boxing. One man bludgeoned another man to death on national TV. That, to me, had a profound societal impact.

Shortly after the fight, the fight's referee committed suicide as did Duk Koo Kim's mother. Mancini was never the same.

 

That's the top end of the dragstrip — those white objects at top right of the track are three-story-tall buildings with media, sponsor, track and sanctioning body facilities. The buildings form an archway which the cars roll under into the staging area. I suspect you're right to assume that property to the northeast belongs to somebody else. Given that the cars roll into the staging area under those buildings, nothing less than a total reconstruction project would be needed to re-do that end of the track.

If you look down at the other end in Google Maps (drag the map down to see the bottom end of the track), there's a long asphalt runoff area (necessary) but a short gravel pit with a grassy stretch behind it; after that there's a concrete barricade/fence combo and some trees at its end. There's a public road called Pension Road behind the pit. The asphalt runoff area is longer than the 1/4-mile track itself, probably close to half a mile, but that's not enough room for an out-of-control 300mph vehicle to slow down. The gravel pit is way too short, from what I'm looking at.

 

I grew up a fanatic drag racing fan. Loved it since I was 4 or 5 years old.

But clearly, this ought to be a wake-up call. Not just two dead, but the sport's biggest star ever nearly killed to boot.

What I don't understand is why they don't simply slow the cars down. Not one fan in 100 could tell the difference between 330 mph and 275 or maybe even 250 mph.

I interviewed Force a couple of weeks ago and he said he was never going to retire. He had this very fatalistic, drive-it-'till-it-kills-me attitude. Frankly, it was creepy.

 

Kalitta's not the biggest drag racer ever.

That's Prudhomme, Garlits, Force or Bernstein.

But I daresay most people never heard of Scott Kalitta until Saturday.

 

Whoops. Meant to say biggest star almost killed - meaning Force.

 

So what is the solution?

That car was flying when it hit that wall. I don't think another 400 yards would have made much of a difference.

I would think 100 yards of soft sand or some type of soft, gradual restraint might do it.

Is there a remote way to kill an engine?

 

Don't drive so fast.

It's tough to have any outrage when people are doing it on purpose and only hurting themselves.

 

I think there's no outrage because thousands of regular people die in car wrecks every year, and they're just driving to work or the grocery store or grandma's house. People can relate to driving and accept that sometimes there are accidents where people will die. We can relate to willingly getting into a car and accepting that risk. Most of us can't relate to willingly getting into a cage with a bloodthirsty fighter.