Houston Chronicle-Tire Vibration Blamed in Driver's Death

I guess the only way to really find out what caused this harmonic vibration would be through the data recorder or if there was any video of the run.

This is pure speculation on my part and I'm not saying anyone knows anything for sure but harmonics that would transfer to the real tires could be caused by alot of different things. Drive train all the way to the tires. Could be anything.

One thing is for sure. John Force and his braintrust will find out exactly what it was and make the neccesary adjustment and they will share it with everyone else out there. That kind of determination makes drag racing what it is. The best and safest racing there is

God bless Eric Medlen. He will never be forgotten. Hats off to the team for their approach to finding out the facts of this terrible tradgedy. It was done in pretty short order.

Wow, hopefully all the tracks that ordered the "soft walls" can get their deposits back...

How many years have all of us heard from Pro drivers that the worst thing in their world is tire shake (vibration)? Maybe the time has come for Goodyear to engineer a tire that won't roll over itself, even in the event of a large miscalculation on the crew chief's part.

Any time a driver complains about a headache after driving a car, assume he has injured his brain. NHRA and SEMA pretty much cured burning to death years ago. Now, we need to cure shake.

Mark Watkins
www.madscientist1.com

That's exactly why people shouldn't speculate!
Apparently after what was said on the qualifying show he didn't run into the wall he brushed it hard and the damage to Eric was already done before that happened!
Once again m y heart goes out to Eric's Dad, family and his team mates.

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a.k.a. Megadeth

I have heard of tire shake so bad that a driver's fillings have come out. The best description I have ever heard is your head in a paint shaker.

BTW I know Brent Bucsh fairly well and he's pretty passionate about drag racing and we're all lucky he's a member here. I thought the same thing he did when I read DRO.

Reading this reminded me of an interview with dale armstrong I was reading a while back on drag racing online , dale was talking about his early days in drag racing with his old chevy 2 and that tire shake back then was so bad that he had to wear pads on his knees and arms and that some cars shook so bad they hurt some people . He also mentioned that when he was crew cheif on the bud king funny cars they tested a 18 inch wide wheel to cure tire shake . I think it was this interview Drag Racing Online - Innerview: Angelle Savoie pg.1 Vol. III No. 8 August 2001

All I can say is, that description is absolutely spot on. I received a mild concussion from tire shake about 10 years ago. It broke a weld on one of the NOS bottle brackets, the rear bumper broke loose, and it split my quarter panel from the wheel well up to the wing. In Eric's case, it's all speculation now obviously, but after that experience I have absolutely no doubt it could do some serious damage to someone. I remember sitting in the shut down area inside my car, and my head was just spinning, like it was going to roll right off my shoulders. It took me a while to get over that initial part. I just could not focus my eyes. After that I was so sick the rest of the night. It was a pretty scary deal.

I've had driven through tire shake prior to that, and it is possible to keep focused, but not in the case mentioned above. It was like everything was just one big white blur. I had the clutch really screwed on that pass, and it was the worst tire shake I have ever experienced, and I hope I never experience anything like that again.

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Greg Duffield
ACS Data Recovery
http://www.acsdata.com

Greg, I have driven through some tire shake but it was never all that bad. Nothing like you went through anyway.

Greg,

When you lifted, it stopped, right? Eric lifted and put the chutes out, but it didn't stop. The article in the Cronical is about half right as I understand it. And I'll say the same thing to Burk that I said to you guys earilier this week, if you have better sources than mine NAME THEM! Don't just quote "Some guy I know" or "Someone close to the team"

JFR already has had people at the shop from other forms of motorsports, and the medical field to attemt to find a solution to this issue, should the same set of circumstances occur again.

I'm NOT speaking for JFR, and I'm not at liberty to share everything that I know. But I will try to stop the rumors when I can. I spent about two hours with Jim Head yesterday discussing a variety of things. (One good thing that came from a rain day). I hope that you can understand the position that I'm in and trust that what I tell you is true, even if I can't tell you all the details.

Thanks,

Alan

Alan I'd rather hear 1 sentence from you, KNOWING Its FACT than a whole paragraph of "I heard from good sorses"... etc...etc...

Thank you!!

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"When I die, I want to die like my grandfather, who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming in panic like the passengers in his car."

I'm no expert,but from what's been released it wasn't tire "shake" but an intense harmonic vibration that was the cause.If it was a harmonic from the spinning tire,lifting off the throttle wouldn't help unless you could stop the car immeadiately.From what I've read and heard discussed on ESPN,it was more along the line of the tire losing concentricity that caused the harmonic.According to the ESPN coverage,it was this vibration which injured Eric by basically shaking him into unconciousness.

jim head hit it on the spot,when he said this is a high dollar team so it WILL get tended too. unfortunatley it seems to take a high profile team (earnhardts case too) to really get the $$$ spent to make changes for the better. i have heard the alcohol funny cars shake alot, is this true?
im still stunned that russell and medlens crashes really didnt have significant impacts into the wall. then u see caminitos crash and u say my god how did he survive?
have the tires reached their limit? i hope todays race is a safe one. i know im gonna tear up when they fire the first pair.......

Eric's crash was not the result of tire shake.It was a high speed,harmonic vibration reportedly caused by one tire losing concentricity or going out of round.It's something totally different.

David,

You are right that it was not tire shake per sey, but the effect felt in the cockpit was the same. I think we've all seen the ESPN super slow mo of Pro Stockers and Alcohol cars when they shake so hard that all four wheels are off the ground, but in that case when the driver lifts, the shake stops.

Alan