Most Freakish, Nightmarish Dragstrip Accident EVER!

On Saturday, April 2, 2005 Shelly Howard, and her son Brian Howard, were killed in a racing accident at Tulsa Raceway Park. The accident occurred while making a test run of Shelly's new dragster during the bracket racing program. At 10:12 p.m., Shelly made her third pass of the evening in the tower lane. The car left the starting line in what appeared to be a problem-free run. After passing the 1/8 mile mark at

201 miles per hour, the dragster began what is referred to as a blow-over. A blow-over occurs when too much air goes under the front wing of the dragster causing the front end to lift. At this point, Shelly lifted off the accelerator. As the dragster became vertical, it rotated 180 degrees on its axis and then touched down on all four wheels and against the wall with the car now facing the starting line. The impact of the dragster to the pavement could have been severe enough to cause Shelly Howard to lose consciousness. This theory is supported by the fact that she did not hit the kill switch, deploy the chutes or turn the fuel supply off to the motor. At that point, either the throttle stuck wide open, or, Shelly's foot jammed the throttle down. Extensive damage to the dragster and the onboard "black box" made it impossible to determine which occurred. The car continued down the track backwards making almost continuous contact with the tower lane wall, while the tires were spinning in the opposite direction. The dragster passed the ¼ mile stripe in 6.633 seconds at 115 miles an hour. The car continued down the track backwards until approximately 1,500 feet from the starting line when it ceased its rearward momentum and began to travel forward towards the starting line, under full acceleration. After traveling several hundred feet uptrack towards the starting line, the car swerved into the spectator lane and then back into the tower lane at the 660' foot line. The car made hard contact with the wall in the tower lane at the 320' foot mark and light contact with the tower lane wall at the starting line while traveling an estimated 250 miles per hour. At 125' past the starting line, the dragster struck the crew's chase car. The chase car's occupant, Brian Howard, was sitting in the rear seat, and along with Shelly, was killed instantly. The force of the collision hurled both the dragster and the chase car 225' through a rear burn-out wall and into an open field and stream. An investigation by the Tulsa Police Department ruled their deaths an accident. No other injuries were reported.

Tulsa Raceway Park and its employees extend their deepest sympathies to Dr. Paul Howard, daughters Tracy and Jennifer and their extended family. Our thoughts and prayers are with you

Thanks JC for adding all the details!

Patrick '93 Cobra

JC wrote:

You are welcome.

Below is a direct link to a post from someone who was an eyewitness to the accident.

JC

Ouch! That's a terribly violent way to go but like I always say "Death is worse for the living than it is for the dead."

Amazing what 5000 out of control horsepower can do. I don't want to wallow in what killed two people, but I'd like to see the video of this.

-Rich

I knew her and her family. She had come down to the strip in Noble many times. One of the most personable groups of people you could ever meet. When we found out about this, it was like 2 days after it happened. I was devastated, absolutely blown away. I am glad I did not see the accident...I don't know if I would have ever gotten over seeing something like that and actually knowing the persons involved.

Don Manning

And to think, anything you usually don't want to go wrong during a normal race didn't happen in this circumstance which could have saved them, like the engine blowing or tires failing. I guess because it was a fresh car.