m
o
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y
Angr
the adventures of
with
I
am extremely saddened
to pen a column under such
unfortunate circumstances.
Most of you already know
that the King of Top Sportsman drag racing, Ronnie Davis,
was killed in the worst crash I
have ever seen in eighth-mile Top
Sportsman racing. It was unbelievable. Ronnie was a friend and fellow competitor, and I am stunned
by this loss. At first I received reports that he was alive, but in critical condition and I figured, well,
that’s about the best news you can
possibly hope for. He was transported to a major medical center
and while I don’t know the details,
his injuries were too severe and he
left us to drive for God on Sunday,
April 10th.
I’ve known Ronnie for over 30
years, and though we were not
what I would call “close friends”,
we were friends. I c ommunicated
with him on the CompetitionPlus.
com website more often than I did
at the drag races, honestly. He was
a tough-as-nails racer, but would
go well out of his way to help a racer in need. When it comes to Top
Sportsman racing, Ronnie Davis
was everything – no doubt about it,
“The King”. The fateful run was his
final qualifying attempt to get into
the PDRA Spring Open field. His
4.13-second, 174mph run fell just
short of the 4.09-second bump.
I suppose there will be dozens
(hundreds?) of opinions as to what
happened that day and why. From
what I could see on the video, Ronnie started to get crossed up at or
slightly before the 300-feet, but
stayed with it – clearly trying to
make it into the field on his last
shot. He appeared to have the car
back under control by the eighthmile, but as the car unloaded from
driving hard to the left…all hell
broke loose. He crossed over into
the next lane broadside, went airborne and over the retaining wall.
As safe as these land rockets have
gotten, that was without question
amongst the worst looking accidents I have ever seen on a drag
strip. It was the type of deal that
gives you an instant sickening
PRESENTED BY
tom fisher
feeling in the pit of your stomach,
especially knowing that he left behind so many people that love him.
I think we will be all asking ourselves “what if…” for a long, long
time.
At the end of the track, taking
pictures of the cars with their parachutes out to slow down, was Ian
Tocher, a well known and widely
respected drag racing photographer and journalist. The initial report was that the front end of Ronnie’s car broke loose and slammed
into Ian. He suffered very severe
injuries to his legs and lower abdomen. At the time of this writing, he
is recovering at his home outside
Atlanta, Georgia, after a harrowing
two months in the hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina.
I have made thousands of runs
down both eighth- and quartermile drag strips and I have only
had one significant issue in all of
the 56 years I have been racing. I
ran through someone’s oil right in
the traps at 140mph, spun around
and backed into the guardrail. The
damage wasn’t too severe, so we
fixed the car and made it to the finals if I remember correctly. Like
many of you reading this, I’ve had
several close calls over the years,
though, and I know that I was only
moments away from a terribly bad
situation. I guess the Big Guy upstairs wanted me to hang around a
little longer, so he gave me a little
help. I’ve been driving dragsters
for around 20 years, and the number-one reason is that as I get older,
working on a dragster is far easier
than working on anything with
doors and fenders. Another reason
I like dragsters is that with the insane horsepower we are making in
racing today, a Dragster just goes
straighter and is more predictable
than anything else – far less likely
to get into trouble. Last year my
car was a consistent 6.40/208mph
player, and I expect my new ProCharger-powered car to, hopefully,
be much quicker and faster.
In closing, I think I’d just like
to remind everyone – no matter
where you are in your drag racing
journey – to be careful. From the
outside, this stuff looks pretty easy
– just jump in, hang on and do it
again. Don’t fool yourself – it’s not
impossible, but it’s not that simple.
Even more importantly – don’t be
a hero and think you can drive
anything and through anything,
and that you have nothing to worry
about. As you go quicker and faster,
take the time necessary to get used
to the car and driving it, and don’t
push things further until your
100-percent comfortable doing so.
I have seen far too many people get
into an unfamiliar car and crash
because of inexperience in that car.
There is no qualifying position or
win that is worth the cost of a race
car, let alone your life. Use your
head, exercise commonsense, and
live to race another day.
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