Sad Day (1 Viewer)

[Rajunz]

On Thursday, the 14th of June, I took my truck, trailer, and racecar to work with me, because I was leaving for the Denver Divisional from work at noon.
My Boss is a younger guy who is in love with my car, and he started on me early in the day to unload it and let them wash it in our wash bay. I relented, and as I prepared to load it on lunch break, all the mechanics gathered around chanting "Burn out!!" I relented, doing a nice, smoky 2 gear burnout, for 20 feet of washbay and a good half of the 55 foot concrete pad in front. Then loaded up to the cheers of my co-workers and headed to Denver! My boss slapped me on the back, "That's cool, we'll remember this for the rest of our lives."

I returned on Monday to this...and suddenly what seemed like a perfectly sane act of showmanship and team building, now seems foolhardy, risky, and negligent! I can't even imagine the consequences of hurting one of my co-workers, let alone maiming and killing innocent by-standers.

I feel absolutely horrible for Troy, but in the end, he is reponsible for the tragedy...He was the one person most qualified to determine what the conditions warranted, the one with the most experience in handling a Pro-Mod Racecar, the one who decided how long and how hard to do the burnout, and ultimately, the one who lost control. Troy's own website described him as "A professional racer with over a 1000 exhibition burnouts to his credit". Such a statement certainly makes him more qualified to say what proper spectator containment is than a Promoter or small town Sheriff.

The title of Professional is a heavy burden, as a CDL Driver, I know that all to well..when I get behind the wheel of an 80'000 lb rig, I understand the potential for destruction in my charge, and I fully accept the responsibility I have to watch out for the amatuer drivers I share the road with everyday who have no Idea how much peril they face when they lane change 20 feet in front of a Semi running 65mph.
I'm not condemning Troy as a human being, or as a fellow drag racer, and it sickens me to see him demonized in the regular media, but there is no spin that can possibly be put on the deaths of 7 people, the racing community has to understand that.

This is the best post that I've seen to date on this tragedy. Your quote above "...and suddenly what seemed like a perfectly sane act of showmanship and team building, now seems foolhardy, risky, and negligent!" Everyone on here thought it was cool when Jeggie did his burnout down mainstreet, if we still could view the Mater archives from last May, we would be able to read everyone's posts on how cool it was. So many of the same people that are blasting Troy, the Promoter, the Selmer Police, these same people posted a year ago on how cool that burnout was, even NHRA endorsed it at the time.........

 

[knightrider]

Heard on the Clinton news network this morn that Tenn was NOT going to press any criminal charges against Troy.

 

[Turtle]

Heard on the Clinton news network this morn that Tenn was NOT going to press any criminal charges against Troy.

Over here the story seems to change everyday as to weather they are going to press charges or not.

 

[Wayne]

On Thursday, the 14th of June, I took my truck, trailer, and racecar to work with me, because I was leaving for the Denver Divisional from work at noon.
My Boss is a younger guy who is in love with my car, and he started on me early in the day to unload it and let them wash it in our wash bay. I relented, and as I prepared to load it on lunch break, all the mechanics gathered around chanting "Burn out!!" I relented, doing a nice, smoky 2 gear burnout, for 20 feet of washbay and a good half of the 55 foot concrete pad in front. Then loaded up to the cheers of my co-workers and headed to Denver! My boss slapped me on the back, "That's cool, we'll remember this for the rest of our lives."

I returned on Monday to this...and suddenly what seemed like a perfectly sane act of showmanship and team building, now seems foolhardy, risky, and negligent! I can't even imagine the consequences of hurting one of my co-workers, let alone maiming and killing innocent by-standers.

I feel absolutely horrible for Troy, but in the end, he is reponsible for the tragedy...He was the one person most qualified to determine what the conditions warranted, the one with the most experience in handling a Pro-Mod Racecar, the one who decided how long and how hard to do the burnout, and ultimately, the one who lost control. Troy's own website described him as "A professional racer with over a 1000 exhibition burnouts to his credit". Such a statement certainly makes him more qualified to say what proper spectator containment is than a Promoter or small town Sheriff.

The title of Professional is a heavy burden, as a CDL Driver, I know that all to well..when I get behind the wheel of an 80'000 lb rig, I understand the potential for destruction in my charge, and I fully accept the responsibility I have to watch out for the amatuer drivers I share the road with everyday who have no Idea how much peril they face when they lane change 20 feet in front of a Semi running 65mph.
I'm not condemning Troy as a human being, or as a fellow drag racer, and it sickens me to see him demonized in the regular media, but there is no spin that can possibly be put on the deaths of 7 people, the racing community has to understand that.

Thank you so much Billy! One of the very best posts in all 15 pages!!!

What amazes me is how many 'maters were in the car with Troy last Saturday.

Wayne (another CDL professional)

 

[Rajunz]

I wonder why we've never heard a peep about this deal, just days earlier???
Looks like a pretty idiotic place to throw a blanket down and have a family picnic, ya' think?

Race car barrels into crowd

These links really make your heart go out....................

Ex-wife says car show driver devastated by fatal accident

Continuing Coverage: Drag Car Crash

 

[Percboy]

I wonder why we've never heard a peep about this deal, just days earlier???
Looks like a pretty idiotic place to throw a blanket down and have a family picnic, ya' think?

Race car barrels into crowd

Yeah , really! Cant believe the media hasnt played this up. Nearly identical situation, 2 weeks before Selmer.
kdka.com - Drag Racing Car Careens Into Crowd, Injures Child

 

[ProStockJunkie]

Yeah, I read about that one. Thankfully it has yet to be picked up by those reporting the Critchley accident.

 

[downtime]

Yeah, I read about that one. Thankfully it has yet to be picked up by those reporting the Critchley accident.

Actually, the press was all over it a couple of weeks back. It was a county or town fair.... The major press outlets backed off fairly quickly and I did take the time to write a letter to the original reporting agency explaining again that is was a local exhibition as opposed to sanctioned drag racing.

I also called NHRA as the headlines were again "drag racing" and left a message with the secretary of Jerry Archambeault, (I was told he was the appropriate contact person), along with my phone number and email.

This was briefly on MSN as well, however Jerry's secretary could not pull up the site as it was blocked by the firewall at NHRA. Hopefully she relayed the information to him.

I have zero problem with accurate reporting, good or bad, but somehow I very strongly believe that to professionalize our sport we need to clarify and educate the mainstream media and hopefully if enough of us take a few minutes of our time and professionally approach the right people we will accomplish the goal of assisting our sport with gaining popularity and becoming safer at the same time.

 

[ProStockJunkie]

Actually, the press was all over it a couple of weeks back. It was a county or town fair.... The major press outlets backed off fairly quickly and I did take the time to write a letter to the original reporting agency explaining again that is was a local exhibition as opposed to sanctioned drag racing.

I also called NHRA as the headlines were again "drag racing" and left a message with the secretary of Jerry Archambeault, (I was told he was the appropriate contact person), along with my phone number and email.

This was briefly on MSN as well, however Jerry's secretary could not pull up the site as it was blocked by the firewall at NHRA. Hopefully she relayed the information to him.

I have zero problem with accurate reporting, good or bad, but somehow I very strongly believe that to professionalize our sport we need to clarify and educate the mainstream media and hopefully if enough of us take a few minutes of our time and professionally approach the right people we will accomplish the goal of assisting our sport with gaining popularity and becoming safer at the same time.

Well good luck with that Ted. Countless people have done the same thing, and in a professional way, and there has been zero active response on these issues from NHRA.

 

[none]

I have question... Why does NHRA or any other body have to responed to a event that "DID NOT HAPPEN AT THEIR EVENT" just because it involved a car doesn't make it their problem.

 

[rocketman]

I agree Wayne this isn't NHRA's baby as they have no control of what a promoter plans to do. But a news story I googled called it an "NHRA APPROVED RACE CAR". Speaking of stories the press is now saying that Critchley is "in hiding" or "laying low" and has yet to "address the public"

 

[none]

I agree Wayne this isn't NHRA's baby as they have no control of what a promoter plans to do. But a news story I googled called it an "NHRA APPROVED RACE CAR". Speaking of stories the press is now saying that Critchley is "in hiding" or "laying low" and has yet to "address the public"

I think the NHRA was using the ladies on GMA to speak about it's postition on this event without stating anything directly.

 

[Rajunz]

I agree Wayne this isn't NHRA's baby as they have no control of what a promoter plans to do. But a news story I googled called it an "NHRA APPROVED RACE CAR". Speaking of stories the press is now saying that Critchley is "in hiding" or "laying low" and has yet to "address the public"

His ex wife stated that he is not doing very well right now. I'm sure he's going through something very horrible right now, a lot of mental anguish, he's not "in hiding" or "laying low". I would imagine that it is hard for him to even come up for air much less "address the public".

I feel for that guy, how do you carry on living with something of this magnitude?

 

[none]

I feel for that guy, how do you carry on living with something of this magnitude?

One day at a time...

 

[rocketman]

His ex wife stated that he is not doing very well right now. I'm sure he's going through something very horrible right now, a lot of mental anguish, he's not "in hiding" or "laying low". I would imagine that it is hard for him to even come up for air much less "address the public".

I feel for that guy, how do you carry on living with something of this magnitude?

I agree with you. And I feel bad for him as well. I know his heart was in the right place but he let the addrenelin take over and made a bad choice in putting his foot in it while not considering the dangers involved. He's wrecked many lives and we can't make excuses for him. Accidents do happen but this one should have been prevented from the start.