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scott kalitta


skippy

Well-Known Member
U.S. Military - Veteran
Joined
Aug 6, 2007
Messages
4,901
Age
68
City
Georgia,USSA
Vehicle Year
1983
Transmission
Manual
farewell scott,i shall miss you and your competitive nature on the racetrack.thanks for the memories.

scott was killed in qualifying today at englishtown,he was 46.my deepest sympathy to the kalitta family.
 
Yea, I just saw that, they showed a replay of the wreck. Man, it just looked bad. Thanks for the memories Scott, I hope the best for your family and friends in this tough time.
 
Holy crap I just watched that crash. Terrible terrible terrible. I hope we all learn something from that. Here one day and gone the next. Very sad day for all of us 1/4 milers...
 
We learn not to drive 5,000hp funny cars. I'm about 4,950hp short. Seriously, you know the risks of what you do. The base jumpers are safer than this. I think a funny car accelerates as hard as a carrier launched jet--except it has to stop quickly afterwards instead of flying free at the end of the track. I'm sorry for this guy, but he's not a victim.
 
What can you really say about this, the typical heart goes out to the family, bad thing happened, so sorry to hear\see what happened.......I can't find the words to say outside the norm. True, he is not a victim, looked like mechanical problems, possibly a fuel line burst,hopefully he did not have time to suffer. :bawling:
 
I heard about his death right after it happened. I was watching Nationwide qualifying. I just now got to see what happened with the above link. Thanks to Thumper113 for posting it. Damnnnnn!!! He hit that wall a ton. It looks like a bomb.

All race car drivers know the risks they are taking when they strap into the seat. They do it because they love it, and if we are entertained by what they do, and they can make a buck at it, so much the better. But we are still saddened when there is a loss of life, or crippling injuries. A human life has been lost, much too early in many cases, and this is the sadness and why we mourn.

Thanks Scott for keeping us thrilled and entertained over the years, and sympathies to Connie, and the rest of the family. :sad: shady

PS: Will, you are about 3000 horsepower short in your dragster.
 
Very sad indeed. I'm surprised they replayed the video.
 
Holy crap! :icon_surprised: If you pause the video, you'll see he crossed the line with an ET of 4.474 at 300.78MPH. Bet he hit that wall still carrying 200 of that. Yikes!
 
I have been around drag racing since 1978 and that has to be one of the worst top end crashes I have ever seen. Scott Kalitta was one of the nicest people in the sport and truly did it for the love of the sport. God speed Scott.
 
Truly shocking and ones heart just sinks. FC and TF keeps pushing the limits and that margin of error has become increasingly slim even with safety programs we will see more accidents like this. RIP Scott
 
My heart goes out to the family of Scott Kalitta. He left this world doing what he loves.

I know he drove a funny car class racer, but below is a description of the kind of power involved in top fuel dragsters. Though they are different machines, there is not that much difference in the dangers involved. He knew what he was doing. Rest In Peace, Scott. We will miss your driving.

* One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower
than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500.

* Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1½ gallons of
nitromethane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same
rate with 25% less energy being produced.

* A stock Dodge 426 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough
power to drive the dragster's supercharger.

* With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the
fuel mixture is compressed into a nearly solid form before ignition. Cylinders
run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.

* At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the flame
front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.

* Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the
stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water
vapor by the searing exhaust gases.

* Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an
arc welder in each cylinder.

* Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way,
the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at
1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow.

* If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in
the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow
cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.

* In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an
average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half track, the
launch acceleration approaches 8G's.

* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading
this sentence.


* Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!

* Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under
load.

* The engine red line is actually quite high at 9500 rpm.

* The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked
for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated
$1,000.00 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is
4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top
speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the
run (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta).

Putting all of this into perspective:

You are riding the average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike. Over a mile up the
road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile
strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the
RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past
the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec). The 'tree' goes green for
both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You
keep your wrist cranked hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that
sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes
you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you
just passed him.

Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph
and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you
within a mere 1320 foot long race course.
 
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for more info on scott visit nhra.com.he had a good career with back to back top fuel tittles 95/96.i met him at atlanta dragstrip and he was a nice guy.
 
This is starting to become a bad trend recently in drag racing. 2 drivers in 2 years in funny car alone. Seems like they need a revamp like what has been going on recently in NASCAR.

Matt
 

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