February 22, 2010

Spectator Killed by NHRA Dragster's Wheel in Arizona: A woman died Sunday after she was struck by a wheel when Antron Brown crashed during a National Hot Rod Association competition at Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Arizona. The left rear wheel broke off right after Brown's crash at the start of a race and bounced over several barriers.

posted by rcade to auto racing at 07:42 AM - 5 comments

rcade -- I think you are confusing the driver with the Good Eats guy. The driver appears to be Antron Brown, not Alton Brown.

On a substantive note, of all the motor sports, I've never quite seen the appeal of drag racing. Does this type of thing happen with any degree of regularity? Is this a more inherently dangerous sport for participants and/or spectators? Sounds from the article that this was somewhat of a freak thing in terms of the path the wheel took to get to the woman.

And I am just going to have to assume that this quote is taken out of context to some degree (considering the outcome of the crash): "You don't want anyone to get hurt, but it's neat to watch. It's a spectacular thing to see"

posted by holden at 08:09 AM on February 22, 2010

Fixed. That newscast got another dodgy quote from a surviving spectator: "I almost cried."

posted by rcade at 08:14 AM on February 22, 2010

That newscast got another dodgy quote from a surviving spectator: "I almost cried."

This sounds like the same sort of mental giant who would say, "I literally died." People who are this stupid with the language should be restricted to pointing and grunting.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:22 AM on February 22, 2010

holden, it is a very rare thing. I've been a drag race fan (and occasional driver) since I could walk (my dad was a crew chief for a AA Fuel dragster just after I was born) and I've never heard of a spectator being killed at an NHRA event.

posted by mr_crash_davis at 03:28 PM on February 23, 2010

So...do The Simpsons imitate life, or does life imitate The Simpsons?

posted by StarFucker at 11:20 PM on February 28, 2010

You're not logged in. Please log in or register.