If you saw the helmet , You know that she hit her head. Once again someones life was saved by the safety eqipment.

That my friends was nothing short of a miracle and or luck... WOW!!

Where is the shaking head smilie that means I can't believe what I just saw or read??

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theDARKSIDE- TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER *

That 'Dead Man' switch is really great if you come OFF the bike. If you are steering with both hands and trying ride the darn thing out it's tough to kill. Isn't there another way to shut those things off. A regular kill switch. Something? Whatever? That was about the worst I've seen and she JUST missed the opening in the turnout as well!

If the bike hadn't hit..and raised the net..she would have plowed right into the bike/net.

Lucky indeed..the speed she went under that net was frightening.

Glad you're ok, Connie.

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--An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it.--

There is a video clip of the incident on ESPN's website. Click on the NHRA section and there is a section of clips from Englishtown; Connie's incident is on the page 2. (there's 3 clips per page)

I've always wondered why they never had a killswitch on the right bar just like streetbikes. I guess the reason might be the fear of accidentally hitting it on a good pass and screwing up a good run. I'd rather goof up a pass then be held 'hostage' on a runaway bike. I've been riding sportbikes since 1991 and I've never once hit the kill switch by accident.

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"I got a fever, and the only prescription... is more cowbell!"

Buell's and Hardley's suck!

That's exactly what I thought because when she did the burnout it was an extremely long burnout.

That's what I was looking at too... if she was just a little more to the left she would have run right into the edge of the rail, and I don't think we would be saying "thank god"s but rather RIP's...

CJ Curtsinger

Here's the correct ESPN page. (It's not the most clear cut page to navigate to.)

The video is on the right hand side, navigate to the second page and you can see it.

I saw some smoke coming off her tires as the bike seemed to be heading off to the left wall. The throttle did seem to hang, and it looked like she was really fighting to keep it straight. She JUST missed hitting the striped curved portion after the final turn off, instead bouncing off of the flat portion before hitting the net.

I'm glad she's OK. That looked ugly.

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AKA DrRocket

To my ears it sounds like the engine is at at least 5000 - 6000 rpm as she's trying to keep it off the wall and it also sounds like it's laboring under load like the throttle is stuck open. She's definitely very lucky.

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"I got a fever, and the only prescription... is more cowbell!"

Buell's and Hardley's suck!

Can't you just pull the clutch in?...or does it melt/weld like top fueler?

Pulling the clutch in with the engine revved that high might be like pulling the pin on a grenade. And without the engine compression helping slow the bike down, the brakes alone might not do the trick anyway. Tough choice, I'm sure, and Connie only had a second or two to make the decision. She was very lucky it wasn't more serious.

We have a master power switch on our funnybike . It would be impossible to shut it off during a run .And to put the "plug" would require you to let go and yank it out . My rider will tie the teather to his zipper of his leather instead of his arm . Either situation @ 190-212 mph would take my rider off the bike mroe than likely . No easy way to prevent it just glad connie is ok and that the bike lifted the catch fence for her .

First off: Get well soon Connie!
What I have seen happen ( I drag raced bikes for 10 years) Is one of the 4 throttle cables for the Lectron carbs gets hung up when the throttle is chopped off fast. Watch at the end of a burnout-some times you'll hear the bike rev to 8k-but sound sick. Then the rider will wack the throttle a couple of times + the idle will drop.

I forgot that about those carbs! I've only ran Mikuni RS radial slides and those only have one cable...but I have had the slides hang open before I got wise and bought a Yoshimura push/pull throttle assembly. The first time the throttle hung open on me was just after ripping into 3rd gear and I was just under 100 mph and it scared the s^*t out of me! Thankfully my brain kicked in almost immediately and I hit the kill swith to save my hide.

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"I got a fever, and the only prescription... is more cowbell!"

Buell's and Hardley's suck!