[The Dark]

Seeing the Kallitta crash reminds me of the strangest set of circumstances I've ever encountered in over 30 years of following motor-sport.

This is the story of Shelly Howard, a respected 2 time champion who took a brand new dragster to Tulsa in 2005 and fired it up in anticipation of a great run down the strip.

Somehow down the run the dragster got destabilized, air got under it and whipped it up & over, as it landed on it's wheels the impact is presumed to have knocked Howard out. The vehicle was now facing back down the track, back towards the start gantry, Howard still had her foot planted on the throttle.

Surely not? Oh yes it did..... it powered back up the track, towards the crews & pits at the back of the start. Somehow it made it all the way back beyond the start, and smashed into a team tow-truck, at an estimated speed of 250mph.

It was the very truck that belonged to her & her team.

In the truck sat her son, Brian. He would become the 2nd fatality along with his mom in the most ridiculous crash you could ever see or hear about.

Almost sounds implausible? That's what I thought....then I read this story: http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?id=2032999

[The Dark]

Re: Hamilton & Conway.

Both massive crashes, and testimony to the sort of damage that must surely have occurred to Dan Wheldon in his fatal crash.

Prior to this seasons final Indycar race, Mike Conway withdrew from his ride, saying he no longer felt comfortable in oval racing. A brave decision as his career is now surely destined to be contested at a lower level.

Davey Hamilton raced in the Vegas race that claimed Wheldon, interviewed afterwards he admitted that his heart was going out of the sport and that he wished to move towards team ownership. Even though the news had yet to be official, he knew what the outcome was going to be.

IRL/Indycar was entertaining over the years, but they were always risking it all with the pack races at 220mph, it was only a matter of time before someone died.... the amazing thing is that crash only claimed 1, it could have claimed 4.

Having said that, if anyone saw the Nascar at Talladega this weekend you'll know that a 20+ car stack can happen at anytime there as well.... just they're a little slower and a little more solid, but they're pushing their luck a lot as well.

[AlvinKarpis]

Dale Emery: Drag Race at Indy 1977

[AlvinKarpis]

And of course to go along with the video is one of the best crash photo sequences of all time

Dale Emery 1977

[AlvinKarpis]

Don Renfro is ejected from his amazingly clean and well oiled 1955 Chevy

What is really amazing is how after he is ejected he stands up and shakes his fist in anger at what was seconds ago a beautiful car and is now a heap of twisted metal

This comes from "The Ultimate Shoebox Nightmare" mondo style documentary clips that my dad ate up and loved back in the day

[AlvinKarpis]

Originally Posted by The Dark ↗

This is the story of Shelly Howard

I know her story well

I also know that I would cut off my left pinky finger to have that crash video

Seriously that has to be the most tragic crash of all times

And the husband/father watched the entire thing unfold!

Horrifying

[AlvinKarpis]

Originally Posted by windowlicker ↗

“I didn’t realise it was such a big impact,

I find that hard to believe because the first time I saw a clip of his crash I felt the impact!

What an amazing crash

How would you like to be the guy that takes cover behind that little crotch rocket motorcycle and prays he is not pummeled with debris?

[windowlicker]

Another massive Le Mans crash, again during the 2012 race and again involving a Ferrari backmarker.

On this occasion its British driver Anthony Davidson in the Toyota becoming airbourne after contact.
Davidson suffered two broken vertebrae in the impact.

[windowlicker]

Hideki Noda destroying his Lola during practice for the 2008 Le Mans 24 hours.

Noda was the first Japanesse driver to win an F3 race ouside of his country when he won a British F3 race in 1991. He went to the US and won an Indy Lights race in '97 and took part in three GP's for the Larrousse team during 1994.

[windowlicker]

The late great Jim Clark and a very rare sight of the Scotsman crashing out of a race. This is the Race of Champions 1965 at the Brands Hatch curcuit in the UK. Jim had won the first heat but wiped out during heat 2 which allowed his team mate Mike Spence to win.

Both Clark and Spence would die in crashes during 1968, Spence in practice for the Indy 500 exactly one month after Clark had perished during an F2 race in Germany.