Topic: Top fuel Harley went off the end,

[Don R]

 The report on Facebook is Drums Brancaccio went off the end of the track at Cordova's IHRA event. It's new pavement and a decent shutdown area but not the longest there is. There's a gravel trap and a bean field at the end. He's in the hospital,

[dusterdude]

Damn,hope he pulls thru

[Sam Green Racing]

I've asked Nitro Hunter Robbie Crawford on facebook as Robbie was at the event.
Quite a few different reports coming out. One said he was OK, another said busted legs.
Lets hope he is OK.

[Bill/BentON Racing]

Dragbike said fractures,  that's all they said.

[dusterdude]

Good deal

[Sam Green Racing]

Here you go guys, this is straight from Robbie a few seconds ago, I've copy and pasted it.

Robbie Crawford Sam, Drums is one of my pals at the track and friend to our team. frown emoticon
The Nitromaniacs FB site had a post earlier. The brain swelling had stopped so that was the great news. Broken shoulder, wrist, compound fracture of his ankle. He was thrown from the bike as went over the sand pit and out into the field. Initially they called for the life flight but weather became a factor and happily wasn't required. The thought was that when the front wheel touched down the bike got close to the wall, he had to blip the throttle to get it away. So sad he's our buddy and a real character.

Sam.

[MRieck]

I would never have the balls to ride anything like that. While you "work up to it" it is still a rocket ship tied to asphalt. Man....I sat down and had a good conversation with Ian King several years ago...no one around....he was attracted by the Union Jack flag. It was the most candid conversation starting with his "high performance" facilities etc.
 Racing is dangerous .......period. Maybe the only thing more dangerous is street riding.

[Sam Green Racing]

Thanks Mike, hope all is well with you and the family.

Sam.

[754]

I should mention Bayliss. On the Ducati team at the Sacremento Mile. Went into the airwall last night...looks like he has a broken leg... Bummer
 I hope Drums heals fast..

[dusterdude]

Good god people,ya'll be careful out there

[Sam Green Racing]

Update on Drum from Robbie.

Update on Drums: I just talked to Michael and Drums did not have to have the surgery to relieve the pressure and bleeding on his brain, it has begun to go down on its own so they are going to monitor him. His 1st surgery to clean up his cuts and compound fractures went well and he is resting now. Michael says "Thank You" for everyone's thoughts and prayers and will keep us posted as to how things are going.

Sam.

[NitroHunter]

Night racing is fabulous for the spectators. All of our nitro jam events are run under the lights both Friday qualifying and Saturday night eliminations. For Q2 they run the nitro Harley's before the funny cars, so as usual I was there on the starting line to watch that run.
Drums has been doing this for many years but yet the unthinkable happened. And when the initial word came that they cancelled the life flight it's a sickening feeling - I was there at Indy when we lost Elmer Trett. Well thank God it just wasn't needed and the weather was deteriorating. Stay safe my brothers.

[Sam Green Racing]

Have a safe one back Robbie, keep us informed if you hear anything.

Sam.

[Don R]

I would have like to have been at cordova, we had a Super Comp Association points race an hour east at Byron Dragway so we raced there sunday. Last year a friend went off the end into the trees and was injured so Sunday one of the racers put a $5 bounty up for anyone that opened their chute on a time run. We collected and used it to by a raffle ticket, there were cars that run 8.90 that had never opened their chute.

  I didn't win the raffle but we won the race and a $75 dollar side bet on who would have the best RT in the final. We left there the point leader with a win and a runner up.
 I got a text that Cordova ran funny car with the 1/4 mile gate open exposing the end of the wall. Sad and hard to believe.

[NitroHunter]

DON you can bet I'll be checking into that.  ASAP.  NO BUENO!
We'll be back for the World Series of Drag Racing as the defending NFC champs.

[NitroHunter]

The gate was open during clean up only. Got this first hand, along with a 'WTF???'

[Don R]

 Let me start by saying I heard Drums is stable and I'm relieved. hope he recovers well.


   My buddy who is TAD licensed was there and witnessed the gate open, he texted me since he knew I'd had discussions with Bobby Jo about it last year. She assured me the wall is offset and it's impossible to hit it. She said it's open because they can get out there quicker if there's an accident and all the tracks do it that way now. I talked to the guy that set the K wall sections and he didn't offset anything although he said he can turn the wall back in if they want to.
  We had just run 180 and our opponent went 198, I really thought my head was going to explode when I saw it open. I'm not the only guy to bring it up, there are several of us in the doghouse over it.