E-Town TAFC Semi-Finals...Alexis vs. Marty

http://www.competitionplus.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10438&Itemid=6

Did anyone see this?????

 

Yea those sand traps work too well,..I am glad Alexis was able to
walk away from this horrific sudden inpact of barrels full of, god knows
how many tons of sand that are in the barrels,..VERY VERY LUCKY to be ok.
That report failed to mention that when marty went into the sand and into the first net it spun the car up rolled and rightsided it back onto 4 wheels,
and then the very next pair same lane was Alexis parachute failure when the chutes ripped away from their mounts at the rear end as they blossomed.

They need to put water in them barrels,..NOT SAND .
I would guess she went into the sand at 125-130 mph

Here is a pic of whats left of Alexis Chassis..

http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/100/l_4a9c5d37e6654cf09197dcefc669b2fe.jpg



Vic


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For those who say 'what has been done since Scott's passing'..... The proof is in the puddin'!

This new sand-safety system did it's job! Kudos to those who designed it-implemented it-made it work.

I agree...h20 in the barrells the next logical step to make it just that much safer.

 

when they played both of those clips, it looked like the sand trap was like concrete. did anyone else see this, or is it just me? it looked like the cars just skipped right across the traps, and hit the nets. i remember seeing old footage of cars going into the sand and the car stopped....pretty quick. what has changed? how can we make these sand traps work better? if there would have been no nets, both drivers would have been in trouble yesterday, especially Alexis. I, as a racer would rather the sand did its job, and not rely on the net as much. i saw alot of bad accidents that resulted from nets. i just think there has to be a better way.....maybe it's just me.
Darren

 

Darren:

Sorry, I meant to respond but hit the wrong button and accidently edited your post... I fixed it though... my bad...

What I was going to say is the Current trap seems to be much better than years past.....it's a great improvement. The sand may have been damp from the weekend rain and thus more 'PACKED' than if it was dry all weekend.

Seen the same thing at Pomona for many years. Most of the time- after some 'quality rain' the Safety Safari will RAKE the top end pits just like a golf sand trap. Wonder if they did this at E-Town?

 

Yes the new improved traps are better than they were before,.BUT
I think the Saftey Safari failed at making the SAND in the trap do its job by not tilling or turning it around after the rains,..not one car nor the pro stock motorcycle dug into the sand as a car is suppose to do when it goes into a sand trap, they just skipped right across it, the Prostock bike made to the
1st catch net and hit it at about 10 mph then fell over, id say the bike was going 30-35 mph and went across it, and should have just buried itself within the first 15-20 feet of going into the sand..THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED.
Also, I think they need to redisign the catch net, such as they use on
aircraft carriers that lets it expand then retract a little then reals it back in at a certain tension,..obviously rope catch nets fail if cars or hitting plastic barrels full of sand,..just my opinion....


Vic, <<<<< All for the Saftey of drivers.


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Vic....for certain...the Barrels are full of Sand? You checked this? TV was reporting they were H2O?

 

Yes asolute for certain SAND,..no H2O,..
If you watch the tape,..sand explodes out of the barrels,..not water
anybody can tell the difference,..and if you listen to Paul Page,..well
I am sorry.

Even the barrels that sit at the turnouts are full of sand,
just like at Pomoma.

 

I like that idea for the catch nets. I think one of the issues with the sand was just the pure amount of moisture it saw all weekend. It may as well be pavement if it's moist and I don't think you can fault anything but the weather for that, and maybe NHRA for continuing to run knowing this could've been the case. Even if you're constantly turning it over, with all the rain they got and the humidity every day, there had to be a considerable amount of moisture getting sucked into the sand. If you look on Alexis' car you can see what look like sand splatters, just like she drove it on a wet gravel road.

***sorry for the repetitiveness of what Tim said, I must've been typing at the same time he was.***

 

sand!

helped clean and dismantle the remains lots of sand stuck to everything..the trap it self is pea stone.

 

cover it?

When it rains they cover a baseball field to keep it dry, couldn't they cover the sand traps then uncover and till them up on race days. Seems too simple to me.

 

Couldn't agree more Clint!

 

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Any word on if either racer or team will have a new chassis and be out later this summer or fall?

 

Scott is correct the trap is not sand but pea stone about the size of marbles, The headers on Marty's car were full of pea stone, but he never made it to the barrels. I also helped strip Alexis's car and actually pulled a folded over piece of barrel out from between the frame and oil pan and it was still full of sand.

 

Video

Where is the video

 

Cudos to both drivers!!

Just want to say great job by both drivers. to keep there heads and do all that was in there controll to try and get them stopped. Alexis's rotors were blue she was hard on the breaks right away 130 or so the traps ??? who could have stopped it?? Factors out of her controll prevented a smooth trip to the pebbles, For a fairly new driver she did exactly what she needed to do kept it straight and stuck it in there as best she could. 5.55 @ 260 is one hell of a shot congrats to the team and I'm sure she will be back and better and more motivated than ever. Speedy recovery Team Patron.. and the Follow a Dream Team..

 

If it were up to me I would put fire fighting foam in the barrels.

 

www.espn360.com

 

More specifically, if you play the ESPN360 replay, fast forward to 2:41 in the three hour reply.

Scary for sure. Thanks Scott.

 

Alexis and Nick are at the shop now. New body is ordered and the new chassis will be underway shortly. The car is fixable but they have elected to have all new pipe.