Ted- I have to disagree with this section of your post, although I agree with a majority of the rest of it, With that train of thought, a sanctioning body should be stepping up and commenting on EVERY "drag racing" incident, no matter what the class- something I believe there is no reason to involve themselves in.

Troy's car was obviously not participating in a Sanctioned event, or on a Sanctioned track. Having the Sanctioning body comment (and draw themselves in closer to the many forthcoming lawsuits) is akin to GM, Ford or Chrysler commenting on every car accident that happens, or in using your sports analogy, MLB having a press conference every time somebody beats someone to death with a baseball bat.

Most cars involved in some sort of street racing accident have some sort of association with drag racing.
Car previously competed at an actual drag strip.

Driver previously SAW a real drag race.

Speed equipment was on the car in some way, shape or form (everything from Nitrous to chrome wheels..)

None of this should warrant the Sanctioning bodies from having to comment on an event that they weren't associated with. Personally, if I were an ...HRA, I wouldn't want to climb into the middle of this sh!t storm if the only thing that tied me to it was a car and driver that usually competed UNDER A WATCHFUL EYE at one of my events, or that the action that caused the tragedy was by nature associated with an action that also a part of one of my events (that also happens in parking lots, empty roads, street lights and Drifting events all over the world just as often as a drag strip..)

Not pointing a finger, but if anybody needs to be coming forward and explaining ANYTHING, it needs to be the PROMOTER that came up with this brilliant idea, and the Sherrif's Department, that gave it's stamp of approval for the venue.

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"Run what u brung, and hope u brought enough...."
http://www.myspace.com/relentlesslightingdesign

Holy !!!!!!!! That was all before he even appeared on the Early Show "LIVE"... Not after as I thought... WOW!!

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theDARKSIDE- TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER*

I agree with you. Keep the *HRAs away as best possible, avoid every possible "incident", and keep the focus on their own sanctioned activities.

However the one huge difference between this situation and all the other little situations that occur in virtually every form of endeavor is this received massive media exposure, coupled with the perception that this was an actual drag racing event as opposed to private event under the unmrella of an outside organization.

The headlines were such that the title of the original post on this board was targeted at the media instead of the incident.

We are not talking about a "John Doe and Sally Sue" accident with a baseball bat that happens to have a high profile name on it. The equivalent would be a MLB "player of stature" demonstrating a home run swing at Rockefeller Centre and someone dying from it, for whatever circumstance.

All I am saying is that some sort of proactive response to separate private activities from the professional sport would be an important step if done in a manner that is non-judgemental.

The promoter should be horsewhipped and the racer had better lose his backing from AMS right now without any hessitation. There's nothing to gain by AMS by not ruling out that he will be back. I'm sure the lawyers are advising them not to do anything that could show fault so if that's the case I understand. Otherwise, based on what the media has uncovered and the severity of the situation AMS needs to take a strong stand here.

In fact, if I was in AMS' shoes I would be pretty worried of the concequences AND I would have included in the press release that this driver will never drive for them again. Period. Saying he's chose to withdraw from the series for the rest of the year makes it sound like the guy is still apart of the AMS and the door is open in light of what happend. That's not a strong enough message. There are well over 1,000 articles just on one news search alone under one key word. There are now stories about bearrying the dead, etc.

Its a very sad situation and never mind the racing community but the moms and dads who will have to deal with the rest of there lives. So to give it a time limit of withdrawing from the series for the rest of the year implies in my mind at least that he'll be back next year. I'm sorry but IF that's the case that's the wrong message to send the general public regardless if it was an accident or not. I don't like to se a racer thrown off the bus but I'll make an exception here. Just my opinon.

The issue was addressed to three professional drag racers on Good Morning America this morning and it was answered in the best possible way. It should have been left at that.

Just because someone is asked by mainstream media, to comment, does not mean they should agree to do so. Personally, I wish Burk had made that decision.

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Jackee Allen-ProStockJunkie
"The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress." -- Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French Philosopher

It is totally amazing to me how many 'maters could/did fit in Troy's car that day!!!

Excellent points David. Burk did his best to downplay the result of the exhibition. It's relevant to note that Burk's website is a Pro Mod friendly site...he's always posting feature stories of cars in that class.

The bottom line is this...planing this 'exhibition' and participating in it were both very bad decisions. Everyone involved in the planning or exhibition will ultimately be held responsible for the outcome.

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Mopar to ya'!
Johnny Mopar

AMS and Troy will be held accountable irregardless whether he drives for them again. There's no way AMS or Troy survive this.

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Mopar to ya'!
Johnny Mopar