Scott Kalitta

[Reverend Cooper]

Died due to injuries caused from fire that engulfed his race car at Englishtown.
rest in piece. we were lucky enough to meet him in Joliet Il. Its too bad, first Eric Medlen from team force now this

[Karps TA]

I heard just a blurb on ESPN about something involving him. Damn that's awful.

[Yooformula]

wow, sucks to hear that, may he rest in peace.

[GRAMPS SS]

R.i.p...............

[GRAMPS SS]

I SEE MORE FIRE ISSUES going into effect...to safen the lives of the drivers of the funny cars....alot more fires this year then years past if you have been watching the races and qualify rounds....Cruz alone has had a number of fires....



again ...R.I.P. SCOTTIE...

[nismodave]

Why arent those cars running a halon system??

RIP.:crying

[70challenger452]

damn, that guy was one hell of a racer

[GRAMPS SS]

Dave i think they are...but it's 2 small tanks i believe....i may be wrong...

maybe they didn't go off....have to wait and see more on it in the news....

[Reverend Cooper]

its all over espn right now

[nismodave]

OMG.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DziJdGwFQjU

[Reverend Cooper]

the crash looks like its what killed him. not the fire or the fire only but time will tell

[lordairgtar]

OMG.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DziJdGwFQjU

That is sad. A sad day in drag racing.

[Karps TA]

That run off area is ridiculous! How the hell can that be safe for cars running 300mph+

[GRAMPS SS]

OMG is right Dave....couldn't stop and exploded at the end of the track....

[HITMAN]

:( How terrible. My heart goes out to his family, friends and fans.

[HITMAN]

Why arent those cars running a halon system??

RIP.:crying

Dave, I don't know how it ultimately panned out, but Halon is a CFC, just like R12, so it may not be legal to use because it could harm the ozone layer if it's deployed... :rolleyes:

Envirofascists would rather let people roast alive than harm the ozone...:chair::punch::chair::punch:

[scaleracer]

OMG is right Dave....couldn't stop and exploded at the end of the track....

That's sad.. Agreed it could've been the fire or crash! R.I.P.... :(

[b4mytm]

just awful....Rest in Peace Scott:(

[Heat Seeker WS6]

Why arent those cars running a halon system??

RIP.:crying

Im guessing that if they were to use halon in that close of proximity to the driver, the driver would have to have his own air supply to not be affixiated by it. I could be wrong though

[Daytonapacecar959]

That run off area is ridiculous! How the hell can that be safe for cars running 300mph+

I agree,how can they put concrete blocks back there.I've never seen that at any other track i've been to or seen on tv.
If there's a public road back there they need to stop traffic when cars are on track and have a longer run off and no concrete blocks like National Trails in Columbus Oh,very year then the powerade series ran there they did a story about back there and show the police stopping traffic when they were running and the old lady that lived in the house next to the run off because she would not sell to the track.

[Alex d]

it is the same way at route 66 with the concrete wall, and the big problem is that there is a 2-4 inch high lip of sand from the track to the sand. so when the cars hit them they flip just like that one accident last year were they funny car flip on its roof in the sand trap.

[Alex d]

I SEE MORE FIRE ISSUES going into effect...to safen the lives of the drivers of the funny cars....alot more fires this year then years past if you have been watching the races and qualify rounds....Cruz alone has had a number of fires....



again ...R.I.P. SCOTTIE...

thats what happens when they give them the nitro back i belive they could run 5% more this year. so now its like when capps's big fires happened. they took the 5% away and now gave it back so the cars could go faster but now they have more fires.

[whistlin six]

It made me sick watching his chutes flopping around back there, I can't help but think they would have saved his life if they had blossomed and slowed the car down some. The brakes were probably useless with the oil on the tires, if he was even concious after that boomer. Man that sucks...:(

[Crawlin]

WOW....

so sad :(

thoughts go out to the family

[Z06 KID]

that video was nuts... R.I.P. Kalitta

[Crawlin]

rumors from the track that a photographer also passed in the accident from the debris.

[GRAMPS SS]

the tv camera guy at the end of the track in the picker chris????????

[GRAMPS SS]

the weird thing here is...he debuted in 1982 at that track at the age of 20....and his life ended at that track......


thoughts and prayers with the whole Kalitta family....

[easytoremember]

this is just a sad sad day :-( rip scott.

[That_Guy]

Im guessing that if they were to use halon in that close of proximity to the driver, the driver would have to have his own air supply to not be affixiated by it. I could be wrong though

no your completely right. halon would suck all the oxygen out of the air surrounding the car.. i had learned about it in one of my required classes for becoming an architect. you can install it inside of a building if the room is not in habited with people. like a server room

[badass88gt]

There is a fire system on board, its mandatory. It is required to be a minumum of a 20# system, with 75% going towards the engine. There is also a nozzle near the driver's feet.

This crash was somewhat reminiscent of Blaine Johnson's, he had an explosion at teh finish line that cut his tires and took out the wing.

RIP Scotty.

[awsomeears]

That run off area is ridiculous! How the hell can that be safe for cars running 300mph+

I was thinking the same thing !!!

Rest In Peace

[domokun]

a guy on another forum that I frequent worked for Kalittas team in 06. he contacted another teammate that still works for Kalittas. supposedly a valve dropped, which cause the supercharger to seize which cause the explosion. the explosion knocked Scott unconscious, so he couldn't apply the breaks. and the flames from the explosion burned up the chutes. apparently englishtown is going to have a big lawsuit after them for having a cement safety net so close to the sand trap ( from what they say )


this is all going off what Im reading. I do know that he worked for him, since I read his post years ago about him getting the job.

[wikked]

who?

[Heat Seeker WS6]

If the concrete blocks and runoff area were/are such an issue, why did the teams/NHRA go ahead and race?

[That_Guy]

If the concrete blocks and runoff area were/are such an issue, why did the teams/NHRA go ahead and race?

things like that only become an issue when people get killed.

[97z2801ss]

Thats crazy i wanted the youtube of it.
RIP

[Karps TA]

If the concrete blocks and runoff area were/are such an issue, why did the teams/NHRA go ahead and race?

Money and tradition speak louder then safety. Some of these old tracks are landlocked and can't be easily expanded. But the NHRA does great business there still, so they keep coming.

[domokun]

the only downfall about the concrete, and safety is NHRA and all the racers sign waivers per race week :(

kinda like we do when we just goto the track to mess around

[shoooo32]

I hope this does for tracks what Eric's death did for car construction. The runoff at englishtown was way too short.

[HAMRHEAD]

R.i.p :(

[70challenger452]

looked like there was maybe 10-20 feet of sand before there was a concrete wall, that has to be changed

[GRAMPS SS]

agreed^^^^^^^^plus take out the wall and put up fence traps....

[GRAMPS SS]

Good Tribute To SCOTT...ROBERT HIGHT just eased it down the track............:thumbsup


R.I.P. SCOTT

[whistlin six]

Good Tribute To SCOTT...ROBERT HIGHT just eased it down the track............:thumbsup


R.I.P. SCOTT


Yep, nicely done...

[b4mytm]

Good Tribute To SCOTT...ROBERT HIGHT just eased it down the track............:thumbsup


R.I.P. SCOTT

That's the way to do it....:thumbsup

[nismodave]

A nice tribute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvcu9ne9zMI

[Heat Seeker WS6]

That was a class act of a tribute he did

[Reverend Cooper]

yup really cool not to many sports that are such a big family as this one is.

[DirtyMax]

Terrible loss. Thumbs up to RH for the class act.

[GRAMPS SS]

did everyone notice...the camera at the end of ther track was not there anymore...

[Reverend Cooper]

yup, i believe they will go to the remote operated cameras due to this on the big end now

[Stangman98]

What Robert and John Force Racing did absolutly pure class. I was welling up watching that.
Godspeed Scott.

[70 cutlass 442]

any word if there was indeed a camera guy that got injured? it sure looked like it from the video, but not %100 sure. But today for the finals, they showed the sand and it looked like there was a pretty long section of it, but the concrete wall still doesnt seem right when you have cars going 300 + MPH at it.

[badass88gt]

There was a racer years ago who blew through the sand and through the woods out on to the highway. They put the wall up to prevent that. As you can see, there isnt much else they can do, especially when talking 300+ mph.

http://www.wisconsinstreetdominators.com/photopost/data/500/track.jpg

[jbiscuit]

Robert Hight's tribute was a real class act. It'll go down in the history books. Rumor has it the Hight team/crew originally wanted to make a full bore pass with the car as the ultimate tribute...to go down fighting as that is how Scott would have wanted it. Scott was a heck of a driver. RIP

[DocDave]

It made me sick watching his chutes flopping around back there, I can't help but think they would have saved his life if they had blossomed and slowed the car down some. The brakes were probably useless with the oil on the tires, if he was even concious after that boomer. Man that sucks...:(

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the chutes did not fully open because of the lack of wind (for lack of a better term) behind the car. A fire like that sucks so much in that there is sort of a void behind the car.

As much as it would suck for tracks around the nation I think NHRA needs to mandate longer shutdown areas and at least 100 yards of sand before any stationary landscape.

R.I.P. Scott. :(

[Crawlin]

:(

only click and look if you can stomach the image that will probably be burned into your memory as what POSSIBLY may have happened. they do not show blood, but there is talk of what happened. SO sad...

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=942375

[whistlin six]

Robert Hight's tribute was a real class act. It'll go down in the history books. Rumor has it the Hight team/crew originally wanted to make a full bore pass with the car as the ultimate tribute...to go down fighting as that is how Scott would have wanted it. Scott was a heck of a driver. RIP


I saw several Kalitta crew guys holding their ears in preparation for a
full throttle pass, then applauding as Robert idled down the track.
It was a great display of respect out there.

Can't really say why the chutes didn't open. I was thinking maybe they
became entangled in the badly damaged body or burned/melted by the
fireball.

[70 cutlass 442]

:(

only click and look if you can stomach the image that will probably be burned into your memory as what POSSIBLY may have happened. they do not show blood, but there is talk of what happened. SO sad...

http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=942375

need xword

[Crawlin]

they moved the thread into the locked thread forum...

here's one pic. you really only need one to understand the severity of the crash

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i147/Jodloe/Scott%20Kalitta/062108072.jpg

if you know what you are looking for/at, you can see how the cage was ripped apart



im not lieing when i say this, he was brought off in pieces. (an arm, a leg, a torso.) i really didnt want to have to say that...


:(

[juicedimpss]

thats very disturbing.

[jbiscuit]

chris are there any more photos you can post here? Its really sad

[Crawlin]

they are all pretty much the same angle and it's kind of hard to look at knowing what transpired

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i147/Jodloe/Scott%20Kalitta/062108087.jpg

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i147/Jodloe/Scott%20Kalitta/062108086.jpg


the thing that really got me is behind the grass is woods and behind that is the main road. the engine out of that car was literally about 10 feet from the road. R.I.P. Scott hes in a better place

[Cryptic]

holy sh!t... that has to be the worst car crash I have ever seen. Why on earth don't they use a sand pit at the end of the track?

[Heat Seeker WS6]

holy sh!t... that has to be the worst car crash I have ever seen. Why on earth don't they use a sand pit at the end of the track?

Like the runoffs at RA and other tracks, it traps the car and brings it to a stop. But if a car is going fast enough and the brakes are not applied (no weight transfer to the front end) it'll literally skip over the initial part of the gravel before it 'bites'. An already decellerating car has its weight transfered to its front and will bleed off speed much more quickly in the sand or kitty litter once entering it.
A few years a go at RA a driver of a prepped camaro had a heart attack while going INTO turn 12 at full speed. He 'passed' before the impact and his foot stayed planted on the throttle and the car stayed straight. The car skimmed over most of the gravel and hit head-on into a barrier on the far side of the gravel pit.
The gravel is definately your freind when it comes to off-track excursions.

[whistlin six]

Initial findings with the crash investigation are at www.nhra.com

[vdub4life]

:wooowow thats a horrible crash,r.i.p