The engine explosion that led to a fatal crash involving popular NHRA driver Scott Kalitta last weekend was eerily similar to one experienced by two-time Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon in the season opener at Pomona, Calif.
That fact was not lost on Pedregon, who walked away from his crash with only minor burns to his hands. He attributes the different outcomes not to blind luck but to the places where they happened.
“His car blew up almost like mine did,” Pedregon said before leaving his Indianapolis home for this weekend’s race at Norwalk, Ohio. “Place him at Pomona, is the result the same? I don’t think so. I don’t know of very many tracks with the hazards that Englishtown has.”
The NHRA is investigating but as yet has reached no conclusions on what caused the crash or what could have been done to keep it from becoming a fatality. But Pedregon and fellow driver Ron Capps are among those who believe the cars, which routinely reach speeds approaching 330 mph, have outgrown some of the tracks on which they race.
“What happened with Scott didn’t have anything to do with the car,” Capps said. “We need to work on some of these tracks. We still have a few on the circuit with short shutdowns. They’re the same as they were in the ‘60s and ‘70s when the cars were going 250 (mph) or so.”
“There wasn’t anybody more experienced than Scott and he was in a very safe car,” Capps said. “When it happens to a guy like that, it really makes you as a driver stand back and say, ‘Whoa.’ “
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