Well like any fellow racer, especially one with almost an identical car combo, I hate to see a crash. Like the others said, the car can be replaced. The uppers look to be older models, we have not made that style upper in approximately 3-4 years. We now have a gusset or brace on the top and the bottom of the u shaped bracket. We have sold thousands upon thousands of these control arms without an issue. It looks to me from the foggy picture that the metal simply tore.
I am not putting blame anywhere, however racers especially the ones with power plants like this need to be aware of change. On another post the driver stated "well I admit I should have aborted the pass earlier.. it got loose before the 8th a couple times and I pedaled it but I got back in it because I was still in the grove and to be honest imp used to doing that before the 8th if the car starts to tire shake or blow them I pedal to half and get back in it because the cars moving slow enough to do it but no way on the big end if it gets loose there I just lift.. The thing is even if I had had a perfect pass up to the 1000 foot mark this still would have happened because I was passed all the drama and the car had settled down and was in the groove then it just got out again.
After about 700 feet it settled down was going straight and in the groove so I stayed in it .. At 1000 feet that sucker just went left towards the cones when I hit max boost and at that point I simply lifted no trying to get back in it on the big end... but soon as i lifted the ass came around and i slid diagonaly into the wall."
Racers need to be aware of an important lesson that I learned from racing with Billy Glidden: maintenance must be performed on a regular basis. I inspect every inch of my car before each outing. From all of the suspension to the engine every area must be looked at. I am positive that the u bracket would have told the story long before the crash. I have worked on many cars at the track that were ill handling and found loose jam nuts, missing nuts, bent parts, etc. Please be aware that if you have to "pedal" a car, there is always a reason. Drag radial cars are always prone to heavy weight tire shake; this wreaks havoc on suspension components, more reason to inspect all on a regular basis.
I know that I am open in yellow bullet for bashing, so fire away, but let’s try to keep it civil and factual.
Thank you,
Jeremy Martorella
561 588 6630
