This video is of Funny Car owner Dale Harsins of Boise Idaho being ran over by his car at Woodburn Dragstrip at the 1st annual night of fire races in Woodburn Oregon on july 30th 2011.
If you watch the video frame by frame you will see the cars laft rear tire run over the crew member and the owner of the car is hit and dragged along till the driver gets car stopped.
Russ Parker Funny Car wall slapper.
This Video is from the rose festival races at woodburn dragstrip In the first round of the BB/FC race Russ Parker in the high bucks IV nostalgia funny car has a close encounter with the wall after his steering brakes about 800ft down track. There is a great incar footage of this happening on here too.
Eyewitness-1971 Jet Car Crash Dallas International Motor Speedway
For full version of story go to my blog at:
http://tvnewsphotogoneeyeclosed.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-jet-car-crash.html
My memories of the day: There had been showers that morning and the sky was still a dull gray when I arrived at the Dallas International Motor Speedway. I was working part time for KTVT Channel 11 in Ft. Worth and had been assigned to shoot Art Arfons' 280-mph jet-powered dragster as he tried to better the world quarter mile land speed record. His new two seat "Super Cyclops" was scheduled to make 3 runs, the first, with a WFAA-TV news man.
As the car approached the line I pressed the shutter release. The ground was shaking and the sound was painful but even after hearing the incredible roar from the roll up I wasn't prepared when the Super Cyclops blasted into that quarter mile run. It parted my hair! The first thought in my mind was, there's no way I'd get in that car... My God, it could go straight up as easily as forward. I stayed with the shot, following the jet down the asphalt for the 6.01 seconds it took to reach the finish line and then beyond. The jet shut down and immediately there was the blue smoke of skidding rubber and wreckage flying. Then, farther down the strip, a column of smoke. I jumped through a break in the guardrail, and ran toward the crash.
As I got nearer I rolled film on a man who was crying and I asked if he was OK? He couldn't speak but gestured to a pile of debris down the track. As I ran closer I began to see it was a human torso scattered among several other body parts. After reaching a little over 183 MPH the dragster had blown a tire, spun 180 degrees and slammed through the guardrail on Thomas' side, striking a track worker with such force that it propelled him into another worker killing him as well. The carnage was overwhelming but I shot the scene as best as I could playing down the grim details I knew would never air anyway. I had shot all 100 feet of film but had another tin in my pocket as I and a young still photographer started to run the several hundred feet farther down the track to the burning jet car wreckage.
As we ran a car pulled in front of us, blocking our way, and several large security guys jumped out and backed us into a retaining wall. One of the men demanded we give him our cameras and to my surprise the young still photographer complied. The man immediately opened the back, pulled out the film and exposed it to the light. Although I was out of film I had pretended to shoot the man as soon as he got out of the car and was still doing so when he turned to me. The Bell and Howell's handy leather strap made it a pretty good club as I backed against the wall and raised the camera above my head. "I'm dropping the first guy that touches me", I warned. I wasn't the biggest guy in that group but I sure wasn't the littlest either. I was going to be a lot more trouble than that young guy with the still camera. They didn't come any closer and I agreed to stop taking pictures of them as more people arrived on the scene to see what was going on. A truce of sorts was worked out when the security man contacted the control tower about the situation. He talked in front of me on the radio to a supervisor who told them not to touch me or the camera and politely asked me to return to the tower with them. I agreed.
In the office I was met by Mike Landess who was working part time at WFAA and freelancing as PR for the track. There were several other people in the room who seemed to be speedway officials. They didn't demand the film but wanted to talk to my boss at Channel 11 and I gave them the number. I heard the conversation as they threatened to sue the station if we showed anything inappropriate. After several minutes they handed the phone to me and I was told to get shots of the wrecked car and then get back to the station with the film as quick as possible. The security people took me back to the crash site and I got my final shots. The story aired that night and the station never was sued.
Not long after the crash I was filming an interview with Harry Reasoner, then of ABC, at the Dallas Press Club when I ran into Travis Lynn, the news director at WFAA-TV. I'd been making the rounds of all the TV stations that summer trying to move up the news ladder, so Travis knew who I was. He complimented my work on the jet car crash and offered me a job at channel 8. This after telling me just a few weeks earlier that I needed more experience. I worked there for three years often with Mike Landess who I met at the track office and later worked with at KBTV. He's now an anchorman at KMGH in Denver.
So that's how it happened, my first TV news job in a major market. Although I took his picture, I never met, Ch 8's, Gene Thomas but his career ended the day mine really began. Life and death... My, how we blunder along. In the news business you're confronted with that over and over. After awhile you begin to see it's just part of the story.
An Expensive and Emotional Day for John Force Racing
Ashley Force climbs out uninjured after hitting the wall head-on. She was trying to throttle, or "pedal", her funny car in a second round race against Kenny Bernstein at Pacific Raceways on July 22, 2007.
Drag Racing Nitro Nostalgia Funny Cars March Meet 2009
http://www.DragRacingTV.com/blog/ Drag racing video from the 2009 March Meet, Nitro Nostalgia Funny Car class. This is the second round of qualifying, from the first event on the NHRA Heritage Series drag racing tour.
This video was shot in high definition, with surround sound audio that you can hear even on Youtube, as long as your computer is hooked up to a Dolby receiver.
Here are drag racing videos of all of the rounds. Because there were so many funny cars in attendance, there were two seperate eight-car fields in the elimination rounds:
NOSTALGIA FUNNY CAR ELIMINATIONS:
http://www.dragracingtv.com/blog/2009/nostalgia-funny-car-finals-drag-racing-video-2009-march-meet-a-class
http://www.dragracingtv.com/blog/2009/nitromethane-funny-car-video-1st-round-elims-march-meet-2009
NOSTALGIA FUNNY CAR ELIMS, CONSOLATION BRACKET:
http://www.dragracingtv.com/blog/2009/aa-fc-final-rounds-march-meet-2009-famoso-raceway-b-clas
http://www.dragracingtv.com/blog/2009/funny-car-video-elims-first-round-consolation-bracket
NITRO NOSTALGIA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING:
http://www.dragracingtv.com/blog/2009/nostalgia-funny-car-videos-march-meet-2009-final-round-qualifying
http://www.dragracingtv.com/blog/2009/funny-car-videos-march-meet-2009-qualifying-2nd-round
http://www.dragracingtv.com/blog/2009/march-meet-2009-funny-car-video-first-round-qualifying
INSANE DRAG RACING CRASHES AND WHEELSTANDS
Taken from Carnage Fest 2 DVD, Check out http://www.urbanhillbilly.com for the best in Heads Up Drag Racing video and DVDs. Urban Hillbilly Action Videos Drag racing, wheelstand, crash, and saves. Pro Mod, Outlaw 10.5 Drag radial.
Drag Racing 2010 - Nightshow Top Fuel Funny Car - NitrOlympX Hockenheim
"Flash Gordon" Smith and John Spuffard opened the Nightshow of the 25th NitrOlympX in Hockenheim in a very decent manner.
Spuffard going strong on the Rico Anthes Quartermile with a 5.12 (another new track record for AA/FC), Smith 5.54.
Well, that was an Opener for nice Nightshow to come.
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John Force Crash at Dallas -- Part 2 of 3
Coverage of the 09-23-07 Dallas race and John Force's crash. This segment has an interview with Kenny Brenstien, who was in the other lane for the race and accident.
