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June 15, 2009

Fireworks at the Dragstrip!

Deputy Editor

First off, am I the only one that thinks the guys fighting this fire should be wearing more than shorts and t-shirts? If there’s a bottle of nitrous in a burning car, nobody knows for sure what’s going to happen, and this situation could have resulted in an explosion. Another thing? Why the hell didn’t the driver shut the motor down before he bailed? That seems like a no-brainer to me. Anyway, while there are some pretty big fireballs—at one point it gets so bright you can barely see anything in the frame—it doesn’t look like anyone got away with anything worse than some singed eyebrows.

Permalink:

Posted at 1:58 pm in accident, Drags, dragstrip, John Coyle, Nitrous, NOS

Comments

kawasaki22106
Jun 18, 2009 at 11:57 am

they must be in red neck ville. suprised they didnt get the hot dogs out and start cooking!

GuyverRacing
Jun 18, 2009 at 10:16 am

Well, nitrous is NOT flammable and the nitrous bottles have an exhaust valve that pops and releases the pressure if it raises above it’s limits so NO, a fire won’t cause a nitrous bottle to explode (unless the exhaust valve fails) and if the nitrous bottle exploded it would most probably extinguish the fire around it (because of the lack of oxygen)

When a nitrous system backfires is the gasoline that gets on fire, not the nitrous. You people have to stop watching F&F…. NAAAWSS!!!

RED_RUM_N_BUD
Jun 18, 2009 at 2:13 am

talk about a bad nitrous backfire tho the carb lmao umm shut down n20 r engine = flame geos out… think n20 = oxidzier

luminathunder01
Jun 17, 2009 at 11:16 pm

new meaning to the phrase burnout!

bluedevilop
Jun 17, 2009 at 9:11 pm

wait, so this wasnt planned!?

dominicks64
Jun 17, 2009 at 8:57 pm

any pics of car now?

GTon18s
Jun 17, 2009 at 7:48 pm

now that would suck

simon_r_gris
Jun 17, 2009 at 5:50 pm

Nice ignite gets good exciting roars.

leojmcca
Jun 17, 2009 at 2:29 pm

Seems like the old days, before rules and procedures were implemented to prevent scences like this from happening. This could have gotten real bad and people hurt.

Next time they need to spring $100 and a case of beer and hire a retired firefighter to be on stand-by.

LedZeppelin
Jun 17, 2009 at 10:37 am

I wonder why there wasn’t a real fire saftey squad on hand. Where was the fire truck. Isn’t every Race Venue required to have saftey personel on hand during events where volitile material is being handled amongst spectating public? A volunteer type of thing, or paid by the venue? Why were they using itty bitty extinguishers once the care started exploding? (unique how it didn’t blow up like a hollywood explosion…!)

I once had a fire in my engine bay at a gas station. My first thought was to move the car away from the pumps and underground tanks before dealing with the fire. Fortunatly, the fan blew out the fire in my haste to move the car. But Yeah. I was thinking first about the people around me, not me or my car…

rejybaby
Jun 17, 2009 at 7:40 am

I wonder why the car wasn’t shut off and the bystanders where litterally standing to watch then the explosion made one guy clap his hands like he was trying to kill a mosquito. I guess they wanted to see what will hapen next huh?

95BlckFirebird
Jun 16, 2009 at 8:04 pm

sounds like someone was makeing popcorn today!!!! lol…..no, but for real. that was not cool, very dangerous.

XTZTwinTurbo
Jun 16, 2009 at 4:40 pm

That was a good example of stupidity. Very unsafe.

palefacetsw
Jun 16, 2009 at 6:22 am

I’ve seen this one before but it’s still rather scary….and expensive….

DJs-zj360
Jun 16, 2009 at 5:11 am

Sorry Johnny, this is a repost http://blog.cardomain.com/2009/05/14/when-nitrous-goes-bad/
Anyways…FIRE BAD!!!!

Lawdog1911
Jun 15, 2009 at 10:59 pm

What if it would have launched the way it was reving, with everyone in front of it, lol. Was a nice show though.

saintmatthew
Jun 15, 2009 at 10:46 pm

and don’t get me started on the stupidity of the people trying to put out the fire. the only smart one was the guy at the bottom left side of the frame trying to wave the morons at the front of the car away from the flames.

saintmatthew
Jun 15, 2009 at 10:42 pm

whether this guy paniced or not, a real drag racer thinks of not only his safety, but the safety of those around him. A professional would have cut his engine off, hit his fuel cutoff switch if he had one and gotten the hell out of the way. This jerkoff bails out, puts himself and everyone around him at risk, and if i watched the video right, walks toward the front of his flaming car. Paniced or not, what he did was stupid and irresponible. Just because you can drive does not mean you belong on a track. Guys like him get people hurt, plain and simple.

Flavorade
Jun 15, 2009 at 7:48 pm

His behavior would suggest this has happened before.

sarahsmile90
Jun 15, 2009 at 6:08 pm

Looks like a comedy of errors…really could have been much worse the way it was handled.

7urtle
Jun 15, 2009 at 6:08 pm

when my carberated car set on fire i cut it off and got out.figure someone who drag races would do it as well

albania_fier
Jun 15, 2009 at 5:35 pm

what tha faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack??? thats a shame though!!

StreetDemonzCC
Jun 15, 2009 at 4:16 pm

But if you noticed, he took his time getting out. Fear or not, turning off the engine as said, is a No-brainer, You don’t think about it, it comes natural when your car’s motor is makeing some fireworks lol.

TOPlamborghini
Jun 15, 2009 at 2:53 pm

John, when in your in that unexpected stage of Fear, Panic, and Adrenaline, you dont think like youre thinking right now. Thats why this situation wasnt “set up” right. From the drivers POV, he was probably only thinking one thing: get the hell out!. The last thing he couldve done was to stop and make sure the car was off, sure it was a dumb thing to do, but i guess he just wanted to get to safety.

Cal26Stang
Jun 15, 2009 at 2:34 pm

ill take that as a dq