[Shtgnr]

Darrell was killed in a bad accident at Gateway Intl Raceway on Sunday. myh sympathies go out to his family. [img]graemlins/sad.gif[/img]

[DWCamaro69]

That was a horrible crash! I was afraid for him and his family as soon as it happened as it looked like drivers cage sustained alot of damage. My families thoughts and prayers are with his family. He was a great driver and from everything I have seen about him a great guy.

[Everett#2390]

Rest in Peace, God bless.

[ZZ430DropTop67RS]

What a shock that was.

It looked like the chassis broke just in front of the engine and debris punctured the rear tires, and the wing collapsed. I'm sure it will be investigated.

Scott Kalitta in the other lane did a great job of driving, avoiding an even worse disaster.

The Amato team had finally found the performance they had been looking for with this new car that was in it's second race.

My prayers go out to his family.

[jethro]

I saw that accident also... the speed at which the COMPLETE chassis/frame seemed to come apart was incredible, and I remember saying a prayer for him. Sad.

[Rich69RS/SS]

Darrell Russell car like any modern race car is designed to break apart to dissipate the energy but to me it looked like when the rear wing strut broke and it punctured the rear slick which then sent the car out of control. But the bad part was when he was sliding down the track backwards in that massive fireball engulfing the driver's compartment. When ESPN interviewed the doctor on site you could see in the background Darrell sitting in the car and the front of the helmet was burned pretty bad. The drivers are strapped so tight in those cars that when it broke apart that violent shock sent through his body could've been when he was hurt, like Brandon Bernstein accident last year that broke his back. I think Gary Selzi said it best that Darrell loved driving a Top Fuel Dragster and he passed away doing what he loved to do.

[ZZ430DropTop67RS]

It all happened so fast.....many wing failures have resulted it crashes, the Army car comes to mind. The Miller Light car broke in half a year or so ago, and Scelzi himself also had it happen at Sears point a few years ago. Darrell Guinn's car also broke in half just in front of the motor, and he was unfortunately paralyzed and lost part of his arm.

As I recall, these accidents were attributed to chassis with a lot of passes on them. The Amato car was new.

They need to get to the bottom of these failures and prevent them from happening in the future.

The new tire Goodyear has this year was supposed to be designed to be less pucture prone than in the past, but obviously any tire would have failed in that situation.

I heard that something pierced the driver's compartment, as well as the terrifying fire that we all saw on TV.

I'll be looking forward to the results of the investigation.

This was the first pro fatality since the great Blaine Johnson lost his life at the U.S. Nationals in 1996.

[Rich69RS/SS]

ZZ, funny you should mention Darrell Gwynn if you have the chance to read his book "At Full Throttle" he talks about the accident ( he loaned his saftey gloves and arm restraints to Al Segrini and made the run without them ) and what happens after when they loaded him in a van and bounced him over a framer's feild with a spinal injury. He said that the chassis had been modified with new tubing the raise the motor angle or that the chassis could've had stress fractures during the transatlantic voyage. Anyway the car broke in half and nearly ended his life. The worst one I saw was when Eddie Hill at the Winternationals had front wing fail entering the traps and the car took off and flew. If I remember rite the rear wing tripped the clocks at 200MPH in the air then the car landed and broke into pieces. But he thankfully walked away from it.