My heart just breaks for them... they've been through so much this year, and then this! Get well soon, John! That's all that matters! I'm sure that we'll all learn much from whatever went wrong here thanks to JFR's hard work.

Sorry Jerod. You know the year has been bad here as well. It's a very frustrating and sad year all around.

Take care folks.

A Countdown Question for you all:

Assuming that John will not be able to participate in the rest of the Countdown to the Championship, could they put someone else in his seat?

I am not trying to be insensitive, because I am a HUGE JFR fan...but I'm just curious.

it's all good patti no worries.

All I read was Sean would like to know what caused the chassis failure. Is that jumping the gun? I don't think so. His car was broke in half. That's pretty obvious. What caused it? Don't know. I didn't see Sean pretending to know either.

I wish they would stop referring to this as a crash with Kenny Bernstein. Johns car broke in half and part of it hit Kenny Bernstein. KB had nothing to do with it and John would be the first to tell you that. Whether the next lane was empty or not, John is still in the hospital tonight.
You have to wonder how this affects the future of JFR. How much can they take.

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I'm still DamnYankee

"A Friday night run in a Funny Car is just really intense" - Whit Bazemore

An update has just been posted on nhra.com. The information has once again changed but it's better news for sure.

NHRA News: Force hospitalized after top-end accident in Dallas (9/23/2007)

Thanks Dan....'full recovery is expected'

__________________
I'm still DamnYankee

"A Friday night run in a Funny Car is just really intense" - Whit Bazemore

As Eric's accident showed, they will stop at nothing to make these cars safe for not only John's kids (Robert included) but for everyone else in the class.
No one wants to see this.

Get well John. Hope you are up and about and racing real soon.

I dont know what caused it, but this picture sequence is sort of spooky.

I think that is the blower belt coming apart at that point. Might be eating itself up a little bit.


Here, the car shoulders to one side.


Lots of debris, primarily from the back, passenger side. Look where the cone is.




Could be the clutch, a tire blowing, lots of things I guess.

You just might see him pack it in now. I hope not, but he has never been hurt this bad.

I wouldn't think so. Drivers get the points and not the car.

My source backs this story up- but I feel this is important for everyone to understand, his legs are not broken- He is fine and he is pissed!!

All the updates to the drivers compartment held him in, snug as a bug-


He's good!!

Broken Ankle
Bruised Knee
Dislocated & Broken Wrist

K??

gotta go-

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theDARKSIDE- TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER*

It looks like the back end of the chassis on Force's car lowered before Kenny even hit the cone.

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'If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.' -Ronald Reagan

All I have to say is after seeing the remains of his race car, John is one lucky man. As ugly as the crash was it could've been far worse.

First - as bad as this was, thank God John's injuries are not worse.
Now a question . . . I believe I heard Mike and Paul state that FC chassis are designed to break apart behind the engine to dissipate energy during a crash. And - I just heard Mike say something that seems to contrdict earlier statements.

I know that is true in top fuel (with the difference that the car separates in front of the motor), but it seems strange that a FC would be designed to separate at a point that would leave the driver's legs exposed to impact.
Does a more knowledgeable Mater have an answer?-

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"The Counterfeiter"

It looks to me like the car came apart, and the front half of the car went into KB's lane, and the back half stayed in JF's lane and came to rest against the wall. Is that right?????