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This was Tommy's E TICKET - ride of his life, and he didn't get a scratch out of it. He says if he could only make one run in drag racing, this would've been the one. Yee Gods, what an adrenaline rush...!!!
The engine exploded so violently, that the ball of fire enveloped the wing and stopped the down force from being in effect - and over she went. Yahoo..!!! Riding a bucking bronco, would be easy by comparison...
What caused it was this: when he took his foot off the throttle, the torque of the engine (changing direction of rotation) with no down force on the wing just rolled it over . Notice the finish line in the background.
The car crossed the finish line upside down and backwards at well over 200 mph. Can you imagine what he was thinking about this time - upside down and backward - AT SPEED. Talk about having a bad day!!!
When the car hit the steel guardrail, it ate the car alive (unlike the concrete ones now days where they mostly just bounce off). That dragster came apart like a two dollar watch, but (remarkably) the cockpit stayed intact.
This was going to take more than a can of polish to fix! The insides were eaten up from the explosion and the outside was killed in the crash. The engine ended up 600 feet up track from where the chassis stopped.
The only thing that upset Tommy was that it scared him so bad, he closed his eyes and missed the whole show! It was only the 4th run on a brand new car, but worth every penny of the price of admission!!!
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