The most violent crash I have every seen. The car just split in two after he pulled the shoots. Horrific!


MADISON, Ill. - National Hot Rod Association drag racer Darrell Russell died Sunday night from injuries suffered in a violent crash during the Sears Craftsman Nationals at Gateway International Raceway.
Russell, a 35-year-old native of Hockley, Texas, had just lost to Scott Kalitta in the second round of eliminations when his Top Fuel dragster crashed while running about 300 mph at the end of the quarter-mile strip at Gateway International Raceway.

The crash occurred around 6:30 p.m. Central time. Just less than two hours later Graham Light, NHRA senior vice president of racing operations, announced to the media that Russell had died at St. Louis University Hospital.

"Unfortunately, Darrell has succumbed to his injuries," Light said. "He was one of our most popular drivers. All I can say is that the NHRA extends its condolences to his family, to the Joe Amato Racing team and to the racing community."

Russell is the first participant to be killed in competition at an NHRA national event since Blaine Johnson died in a crash during a qualifying run at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis in 1996.

Sunday's event continued after Light informed the media of Russell's death. No announcement was made to crowd of about 25,000 in the grandstands.

"The event continues," Light said. "I think Darrell would have wanted that. We're not going to announce it to the crowd at this point, I don't think there's anything to be gained by doing that."

Russell, running in the left-hand lane, had lost to Scott Kalitta in the final pairing of the Top Fuel quarterfinal round when his car went out of control just past the finish line.

The car appeared to shred a tire after Russell pulled his parachute to slow his 2,200-pound car. The NHRA electronic timing system showed that his nitromethane-powered car, powered by an engine producing up to 8,000 horsepower, had averaged 322.73 mph in the final 66 feet of his run down the strip.

The car went sideways as it lost control and wound up going back against the concrete wall to the left of the lane in which Russell had been racing. The NHRA's traveling safety crew was rolling toward it immediately and quickly extinguished a small fire that erupted around the remains of the car.

Dan Brickey, director of emergency medical services for the NHRA, said Russell's driver's compartment was intact when the rescue team arrived. The workers cut away the roll cage, immobilized Russell's spine and then took off his helmet and the required head-and-neck restraint device before loading him onto a backboard and taking him to the ambulance.

Brickey said Russell was unconscious but breathing when he was taken to a helicopter waiting on a pad inside the adjacent oval track at the Gateway complex to be flown to the hospital in St. Louis, about 10 miles from the track.

Light said the recovered parts of Russell's dragster were impounded and examined by the NHRA technical staff before being returned to team owner Joe Amato.

Russell had been the fastest qualifier after two days of runs with a best elapsed time of 4.511 seconds. He defeated T.J. Zizzo in Sunday's first round, but ran a 4.611-second pass against Kalitta, who won with an ET of 4.594 seconds at 328.94.

Russell, the 2001 NHRA rookie of the year, won his sixth career national event two weeks ago at Columbus, Ohio. Light said Russell's wife, Julie, was at the track Sunday.

Light defended the NHRA's record on driver safety.

"I think the safety of these cars is second to none," Light said. "In an event like this, we'll run 3,000 runs down this race track." That total includes competition in the professional and various sportsman divisions over the three-day event.

"We do this week in and week out," Light said. "The protection these drivers have is the best that technology can give them."

 

Yup I saw this also. It was awful but didn't even look as bad as some crashes I have seen. He just hit the wall with such force and the fire was burning for quite some time. My regards are with his family.

 

that's horrible

 

my prayers are with teh russell family.
anyone can say all they want that every driver knows the risk, but that will never prepare any of us for when things like this happen.

god speed to darrell, and god bless his family and friends.

later
tim

 

Yea I saw the race tonight..
Very sad....

JS

 

i went on friday and saturday but had to work this sunday and missed the race but heard shortly after it happened.. a very horrible event

 

Tragic...

 

I saw it too. It looked like the fire was almost concentrated on the cockpit. Even though it was just a few seconds it seemed like it took forever for them to get some liquid on it.

Best wishes to his family.

 

I was watching the race. It was a terrible crash. May GOD bless the Russell family.

 

The wife and I saw this last night also. Horrific! We were both in shock.

God Speed to Darrell, and God Bless his family, Joe Amato Racing and friends.

Coach

 

the look on all the crowds face was just horrid. so sad for an event this great to have something so tragic happen. my prayers to his friends and family. times like this makes life back into the proper prospective.

 

wow, just saw it last night, and it was quite a horrific crash. I couldnt believe the fireball that (as previously stated) just seemed to consume the cockpit. I do not however believe it was the fire that took him.

 

Im with you guys I to was watching the event and my wife and I were in shock when we saw how violent the crash was. Very sorry to to see that he past. God bless his family and friends, also his crew members you could really tell his crew chief was shaken up severely. Gods speed Darrell Russell

 

Just read about it this morning, and it was a shame to see it happen, but it reminds me of a few things:

1-drag racing is a RISKY and DANGEROUS sport! We all enjoy it, and this is the time when people that bitch about safety gear should wake up and realize that it's there to try and save you in case the unthinkable happens.

2-Don't take your race car/street car for granted. Evan Smith wrote a great article in National Dragster recently about checking stuff you'd normally overlook like front wheel studs, steering/suspension components, belts being tightened in the correct manner, cut-off switches, etc...

I've seen MUCH worse crashes where the driver's either walked away or had minor injuries, so it was a surprise to me that he passed. Still, with it being 8 years since Blaine johnson died at Indy, NHRA still has a great safety record to me.

RIP Darrell, and prayers go out to Joe Amato and his family as well.

Derek

 

A very sad day.

 

For some reason I got the impression , based on what was said at the track and on sportcenter afterwards , that Darrell was hit by debris when the tire let go and that's what did the most damage. As far as Top Fuel crashes go , this one didn't seem too violent. Bruce Litton had a crash a couple of months ago that look WAY more violent than this one and he walked away. Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon have had MUCH worse looking crashes and they too were relatively unharmed. Of course , I've seen tires let go at 300 mph and the car came too a safe stop.

This is even more tragic (and a bit ironic) because it was a tire letting go that caused the crash. For those that don't know ; At the beginning of the season Goodyear came out with a new tire for Top Fuel and Funny Car. The NHRA said that everyone had to switch to the new tire but could continue to use the "old" tires until the supply was gone. A lot of teams didn't want to change tires because they might have to change their entire combination. Some of the teams went out and bought as many sets of old tires as they could find. Unfortunately that meant that all of the old tires were gone and those who didn't stockpile the old tires HAD to switch sooner than they wanted to. The NHRA didn't think this was fair so about a month and a half ago they made EVERYONE switch to the new tire whether you had "old" tires or not. Joe Amato's team was one of the few teams that had a huge stockpile of old tires. They might have still been on the old tires at this point. I don't know if it would havee made a difference , but at the very least it's a creepy co-incidence

 

R.I.P.

 

GOD speed my prayers go out to you and your family darrell

 

RIP Darell Russell

 

Speedvision reported last night that NHRA changed some rules for TopFuel and Funnycar.
They are saying that a new tire will be required by all teams effective next race. Also the drivers area will require more sheilding. Not quite sure what that means but I assume the area inbetween the bars of the roll cage will have to be filled with metal plates.
The teams are currently on a two week break, looks like the teams will have some work to do in the off time.