Another sad day in Drag Racing

[turbostang]

Something we all need to think about

Shelly Howard Killed (http://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCStory.asp?ID=91798)

An incredible accident that leaves the drag racing community in shock - My thoughts go to her and her family.

[SSMAN]

Werd up.....................But a repost. :( Talking about a freak accident. Anybody get the vid on that?

[turbostang]

Werd up.....................But a repost. :( Talking about a freak accident. Anybody get the vid on that?

I haven't seen it anywhere ..but oh well.. This is a repost that everyone should see..

[JamesB]

yea that happened this last weekend. Very wild accident

[SNEAKY]

Yeah, That Was Crazy

[SNEAKY]

I haven't seen it anywhere ..but oh well.. This is a repost that everyone should see..


http://www.dfwstangs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=234590&highlight=howard :D

[Lane]

Unbelievable... :(

[Dim Mak]

That is crazy! Sad to see that her son was killed too. :(

[turbostang]

A memorial web page (http://www.shellyhowardracing.com/)

[SSMAN]

Blows my mind that a car could stay running after a 180 :eek: Can't believe some money hungry reporter has not leaked the video yet. :confused:

[Beenfetchedlately]

A memorial web page (http://www.shellyhowardracing.com/)
I believe she was at the Bill Hieschler memorial race this last year at Dale...thats terrible news :(

Mike

[truestreet5.8]

I believe she was at the Bill Hieschler memorial race this last year at Dale...thats terrible news :(

MikeThats what I was telling Brooks. I was standing 5 feet away from her car by the water box when they fired it up. Said hi to her husband and watched that car fly down the track from behind. This is just unbelievable!

[GR8WHITE]

I read about that last weekend too. Terrrible. Puts things into perspective... :( . This could have been any of us.

[Mach1Marauder]

I believe she was at the Bill Hieschler memorial race this last year at Dale...thats terrible news :(

Mike
Yep...............what a shame and what a freak wreck. :(

[truestreet5.8]

You read this and it just seems like it was meant to be by a higher power. :( I read somewhere she always worried about her son being takin care of if something happened to her. (meaning a mothers love)





Shelly Howard lived here in Tulsa. Here husband is a doctor here in town. They haven't been down the Tulsa track in years because the facility was sub par and wouldn't have held the power. But just last year the track was purchased and several million dollars have been put into the track to make it a National Event level track. Mike Edwards, from the Tulsa area, V Gaines and a bunch of Comp Eliminator cars have been renting the track recently and they have proven that the new facility will hold the power. Mike Edwards matched his, I think #2, qualifying spot from Gainesville just a few weeks ago at the Tulsa facility. So the track has now been proven to be a good track for testing of the Pro class cars.

About week or 2 ago they had a small wreck in their TAD, no one was hurt and the car didn't roll or anything but she did brush the wall, I think it was pretty close to the starting line, but it did bend the chassis. The car from this past weekend was a brand new car and the first time it was taken to the track. They just finished putting it together at 4:30pm that day and they came out to do some testing.

First pass she picked the front end of the car up about 5 foot and set is down. The Second pass she made about a 300 foot pass and shut it off. I think she had some serious tire shake and eventually broke the tires loose.

The Third pass, I was in the fenced in area just behind the tower side lane and about 20 feet behind the burn out box. It's a spectator access area that allows the spectators to get close to the cars as they pull into the burn out box or in a Pro car situation to watch them start up the motors. So we were about 10 feet to the side of the crew car, Saturn Stationwagon, and about 15 feet from the TAD as they were starting it.

It was getting real cool so they had the intake and injector lines covered with a blanket. They took it off and handed it to Shelly's son, he pulled it into the back seat of the car and made room for the rest of crew once they were ready to go down track. So he was in the back seat holding the blanket, I can't confirm this and it really doesn't matter but someone told me that he was mentally handicapped but still helped out the crew.

She launched hard and went straight, all the candles lit and looked to be on a low 5 sec, 270mph pass, when somewhere between the 1/8 and 1000 ft mark the front end of the car caught some air and it did a blow over landing on it's top and slid through the finish line. The clocks showed 6.53 at 115mph. So she was on a fast pass.

I wasn't able to tell what happened after she landed on her top because of all the smoke, sparks and flames. I just assumed she was barrel rolling but when she finally stopped her down track movement she was about 500 foot pass the finish line she ended right side up, and that make some sense because the wing and the motor would keep it from landing up side down and the low center of gravity would try to make the car end up right side up.

We could still hear the motor running but it sounded as if it was flooding over and fouling out plugs and was about to die. But then it started clearing up and picking up RPM. At this time most of us just thought that she was in the car on it's side and on fire because we could see fire, a few of her crew actually started to run down the track, they only made it to about the Christmas tree. When all of a sudden we hear the motor go to WOT (wide open throttle) fire coming out of the headers. It was an injection motor not a blower and I think they run like 50% nitro so it was lit up. We still didn't realize that the car was rolling. I actually thought the motor had broken free from the car and was just about to explode (I know that doesn't make any sense but that's what came to my mind).

About that time we could see that something was headed back this way but from the smoke we couldn't tell exactly what was going on (who would ever in their right mind think the the car would be heading back down the track). Everyone just stopped and watched trying to figure out what was going on when all of a sudden everyone realized. It was up right and heading back down the track in the same lane it went down in and was at WOT, nitro flames coming out of header just like they were when she left. We kept thinking that it would hit the wall, go over and stop but it didn't.

We actually don't think it hit the wall until around the 100 foot mark. So it was on a straight on pass WOT. I waited until the car got to the 60 foot mark when everyone started running for their lives, it was just over 100foot from where we were standing. We had started moving behind the tower thinking that would protect us but then we thought otherwise and started running. We could actually see the car through the tower because the front and the side are glass so we were for the most part protected from the car and were still watching it come.

The car still at full throttle brushed off the wall, which just straightened it up and hit their crew car at what had to be 250mph plus, head on. It was on the left side of the tower lane. It and the dragster just disintegrated and went thru the retaining wall which was about 30 foot past where the crew car was parked. Her son was apparently still in the car, but there probably wasn't enough time to get out once everyone knew the car was coming back at us. The dragster and the car ended up about 20 foot past the retaining wall. So the impact of the car and the retaining the wall stopped a 250mph dragster within 50 - 70 feet, that in itself was amazing.

The retaining wall did have about a 10 inch I-beam and it was laid over and the metal siding was gone. It appeared that the pit car flew over the wall and the dragster went threw the wall.

Myself and one other guy ran down into the wreckage and I stopped once I got close to the fires fearing that it was about to explode, many fires were going, but the other guys went another 15 foot looking for the driver compartment.

About that time the officials and the crew got there so I backed off and looked at the wreckage.

It was dark but I couldn't recognize anything, just scrapes of metal everywhere. It was a horrifying experience and I left shortly after.

Out of respect for the family and friends I won't go into any other details.

The odds of all the combined things that happened to end up like this are mind boggling. I can't imagine what the family, friends and crew are going through. Neither my wife or I could sleep that night, it just kept playing over and over and over again in our heads. The fenced in area where I stood and watched it all until the car was about at the 60foot mark was destroyed, that way to close for me and think about how lucky I was and spent the next few days appreciating life...

As we were running from the fenced in area and as the dragster hit the crew car parts were hitting us in the back of the head and then part were falling from the sky, it was crazy.

[XR_1]

thats crazy !!!

[SMOKEY]

Terrible my thoughts are with the family.

[Super Coupe]

That is simply unbelievable how that could happen. Maybe the teams will put in a remote shut off in case of a wreck like that happens again where the driver can't shut the car off.

[Phoenix383]

That is simply unbelievable how that could happen. Maybe the teams will put in a remote shut off in case of a wreck like that happens again where the driver can't shut the car off.

Its sad something like this happened and could not have been forseen. But to think a simple timer on one of these cars that kills the iginition at x time after the brake is released for the run could possibly have saved at least the son and most likely the car. There is no telling if Shelly was even alive before the car headed back.

My prayers and thoughts do certianly go out to the family.

[turbostang]

Its sad something like this happened and could not have been forseen. But to think a simple timer on one of these cars that kills the iginition at x time after the brake is released for the run could possibly have saved at least the son and most likely the car. There is no telling if Shelly was even alive before the car headed back.

My prayers and thoughts do certianly go out to the family.


The problem is that ignition switches won't kill those cars. They are dieseling after the first couple hundred feet according to the show I watched last week :eek:
My million dollar idea would be to have a mercury switch that shut fuel flow off when the car reach a 45* angle (almost blowover point) or maybe even a timer on it so that the fuel shutoff after 6 sec from WOT....
Either way no one could have ever forseen a tragedy as bad as this happening..

[bartman]

My million dollar idea would be to have a mercury switch that shut fuel flow off when the car reach a 45* angle (almost blowover point) or maybe even a timer on it so that the fuel shutoff after 6 sec from WOT....
Either way no one could have ever forseen a tragedy as bad as this happening..

The mercury switch wouldn't work due to g forces from acceleration, but fuel timer from WOT would be a good idea.

[Da Prez]

thats just so unbelievable...and so sad...thoughts and prayers go out to her family...

[Mr. Clean]

That has got to be the saddest thing besides the guys over in Iraq and Aghganistan getting killed...My thoughts and prayers go out to the family...Godspeed Shelly and Brian