NHRA/Tony Pedregon explosion

[Double D]

I know this is a NASCAR forum, but was anybody else watching last night when Tony Pedgregon's Funny Car exploded? That was the most spectacular fireball I have seen in a long time, parts and car body 100+ feet in the air and the guy gets burns just on a couple spots on his hands!! The fireball itself had to be over 20 feet high.

Check it out on YouTube, I'm sure it's on there by now.

DD

[polarsusd81]

I was watching that too, crazy thing is that it was on John Force's first race back in the car after his accident. It looked like it was just a bit hot in the seat of that race car.

[LMITOUT]

I saw that last night also. He did a darn good job keeping the car straight for not being able to see anything in that fireball. I first thought that he was going to veer over into Force's lane and tag him again...probably lucky that Force never got his chutes out in time.

[polarsusd81]

Yeah, I was thinking he didn't pull em till later to avoid a colision, but he said he just forgot in all the comotion. I think if he would have pulled em, he would have had a flaming fireball slam into the side of his car, probably not hard enough to do major damage, but tearing up the body no less.

[uwecsteeple]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ODX_CCsrJKY

Lucky to only get a couple burns on his hands

[Double D]

Now that I think of it, it's surprising his legs didn't get it worse because they showed how it burned off the front of the knees on his firesuit. Shows how good the safety equipment is. He also could have gone deaf from the boom.

What would you guess: 400 degrees in there? 500? More?

DD

[HOF#13]

That was unbelievable. I can't believe he wasn't more seriously injured.

I can't imagine what he saw, felt, heard, and thought when his car exploded. WOW!

[polarsusd81]

Way more to do that kind of damage to the fire suit that quickly. He was only in there for 10 seconds of inferno at most, I am guessing closer to 800 - 1000 degrees in that sucker. A kevlar oven glove will keep you safe over 500 degrees, to burn through the glove, it was way hot.

[harvey lee]

It looked like he was going to be toast. I watched a show on how they test these fire suits and gloves. They can take a ton of heat without the user getting badly burned.

[VMS]

I was just glad to see him walk away from it..basically unscathed. I'm sure in the following runs, though, it had to have hurt holding the wheel...

After JF's injuries last year, it has really taken a toll on many...did you see the footage of Tony's crew chief when Force was talking to him? And..how force reacted to the whole thing after it happened? I will be many changes will be made in the next few years to make those cars even safer than they are now.

Truly amazing to only get a few little burns from that fireball and walk away...

Steve