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This reminds me of a time at OCIR, Pro Comp. Guy had a blown alky altered. He's on the starting line & all of a sudden he bails out of the cockpit. He had an alky fire & you couldn't see it. He felt it & bailed. argh
 
You can add this one to the list. yesterday at the NHRR in Bowling Green during the first round of NT/F; check out the photo sequence.

Just a Classic Fire...Seen the Jim and Alison Lee bbc AA/FD a couple, 3 times at Seattle. Good running car.
Good to see Tyler is ok. He might need a new fire suit, just saying.
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From what I understand Tyler was not injured at all. These fire often look worse than they really are, but here is one of the photos of the aftermath.

 
From what I understand Tyler was not injured at all. These fire often look worse than they really are, but here is one of the photos of the aftermath.

The third picture in the original fire sequence showed the cockpit itself to be relatively free of fire. Is that a function of today’s modern fire suppression systems or do the cars have a bulkhead that helps seal the lower portion of the cockpit?
 
Joe, I agree, but also heard that a lot of drivers liked the engine behind them cuz of fire. Garlits had looked at rear engined cars for about a year before the accident. He liked the idea that he could see better w/ back motor car. Funny that back motored cars were built way back 1951 or so and never really caught on until Garlits built his version.
 
It's safe to say these guys are happy to be running cars with the engine in front of them. With regards to fire, it's not much different than a funny car with the body blown off.
 
A buddy of mine made a name for himself in the old front engine cars. He’s told me he preferred driving them instead of the rear engine cars.
 
Joe, I agree, but also heard that a lot of drivers liked the engine behind them cuz of fire. Garlits had looked at rear engined cars for about a year before the accident. He liked the idea that he could see better w/ back motor car. Funny that back motored cars were built way back 1951 or so and never really caught on until Garlits built his version.
In Don Garlits first book printed back in 1978-79, he writes in detail about the horrible fire and hospital time he and Pat suffered through years before his clutch explosion. I think it would be safe to assume he had more than his just foot on his mind when he developed a rear motor car that could win immediately. In his book he said it took slowing the steering down to make it drivable at speed. He also has talked about his distain for building monster high horsepower bombs for each pass.
 
I was in the stands on spectator side when this happened. Have never seen the top photo & maybe the last photo as well. Top photo, far right, is Roland Leong. I've seen another photo that shows him kinda stunned as he sees what's happening. 3rd photo, far right, man w/ white outfit & cowboy hat (holding fire extinguisher?) is Larry Sutton. Oh man, every time I see these photos, it brings back the shock I felt when I saw this. I thought Garlits had been killed. When Garlits pulled off his gloves I knew he was alive. Man..... this is one of those events in life that you never forget.
 
I was in the stands on spectator side when this happened. Have never seen the top photo & maybe the last photo as well. Top photo, far right, is Roland Leong. I've seen another photo that shows him kinda stunned as he sees what's happening. 3rd photo, far right, man w/ white outfit & cowboy hat (holding fire extinguisher?) is Larry Sutton. Oh man, every time I see these photos, it brings back the shock I felt when I saw this. I thought Garlits had been killed. When Garlits pulled off his gloves I knew he was alive. Man..... this is one of those events in life that you never forget.
Larry on the left with the fire extinguisher. The late Tommy "T.C." Lemons right behind Larry, Garlits long time right hand man.
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In the third photo of above sequence, you can see Larry already starting to move. He said in the Lions video that he knew something was gonna happen & he was ready for it. argh Garlits said that he thought at first that he'd crashed at the finish line. In this photo, you can see Garlits' hand up. Yet out of all this chaos came Garlits' back motor car, which changed T/F forever. God works all things for the good.... The night before, Garlits had a match race with George The Stone Age Man Hutchison, both of them in flathead dragsters. Garlits won that race & announcer commented about seeing Garlits back in a flathead after all those years.
 
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