I read about this accident in the new Car & Driver and because I hadn't heard about it in the main stream media, I did an internet search and found this. It's an incredible and tragic story.
April 12, 2005 at 14:44
[link:shellyhowardracing.com/|Shelly Howard] and her son were killed last night testing her brand new A/Fuel dragster at the Tulsa dragstrip...
[link:shellyhowardracing.com/|Shelly Howard] lived here in Tulsa. Her 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 a week or 2 ago they had a small wreck in their Top Alcohol Dragster, 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 Station wagon, and about 15 feet from the Top Alcohol Dragster 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 past the finish line she ended right side up, and that makes 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 100 feet 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 250 mph 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 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 60-foot 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.
http://members.tccoa.com/lastmrk/Images/lastmrk3.jpg
April 12, 2005 at 14:44
[link:shellyhowardracing.com/|Shelly Howard] and her son were killed last night testing her brand new A/Fuel dragster at the Tulsa dragstrip...
[link:shellyhowardracing.com/|Shelly Howard] lived here in Tulsa. Her 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 a week or 2 ago they had a small wreck in their Top Alcohol Dragster, 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 Station wagon, and about 15 feet from the Top Alcohol Dragster 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 past the finish line she ended right side up, and that makes 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 100 feet 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 250 mph 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 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 60-foot 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.
http://members.tccoa.com/lastmrk/Images/lastmrk3.jpg
