Sprint Car Crash Compilation – High Flying Hammer Down Action!
The Sprint Car crash is inevitable. And that’s why this form of racing is so endearing to racing purists. Like land speed racing at Bonneville, American sprint car racing is fairly unspoiled by corporate interests. The national World of Outlaws circuit is king but there are plenty of other exciting series which compete weekly around the country. Out west especially, the sprint cars and midgets run on dirt. Depending on the track, things get downright rowdy. Considering the modest purses, it’s incredibly refreshing to see these guys (many of whom are in their teens and twenties) strap in and duke it out as hard as they can drive. It makes for great racing.
The cars themselves are brutes, especially the Kings of the West – the 410 sprint car. Direct injected on straight methanol, these cars are akin to pissed off bulls. They make 900horsepower and nearly 700lb ft of torque. They weigh approximately 1,200 pounds. You get the picture. They’re fast, they do wheelies out of the turns and they take flight on a regular basis, sometimes even flipping out of bounds.
This outstanding Sprint Car crash compilation shows you just how bitchin, and what kind of wild action you can expect on a Saturday night at your local dirt track. Especially when the sprinters are running. Wingless sprint cars, midgets, WOO and NARC King of the West cars – you name it we’ll take them all.
This clip starts off with a bang as the flag man, some 12 feet in the air in his box is nearly taken out by an errant wingless sprint car. The second crash is downright nasty as wingless driver Brad Sweet goes completely out of bounds and into the pit area. Sketchy! Billy Wilburn’s crash at Knoxville shows you what a flip and a stuck throttle can do. We have never seen a sprint car crash do that before.
Danny Smith’s qualifying mishap at the 3:04 second mark gives you an idea of the bull-riding characteristics of sprint cars. A high-side drift, ass-end in the air followed by a stuck-throttle wheelie into the catch fence. It’s most likely he had both feet pegged to the floor for the impact which only made things worse.
But the mother of all sprint car crashes we have ever seen is the closing sequence. It happened at the 360 Oval Nationals in 2015. Driver Markus Niemelä’s axle breaks going into turn one at Perris Auto Speedway. The resulting horror crash is the most violent you will ever witness. Thankfully, Niemelä escaped with just a concussion. If that fence wasn’t there, he might still be flipping.
So there ya have it. Sprint car racing is one of the last remaining American motorsports with affordable tickets, unparalleled excitement and blue blood racers going for it. You might even run into the top driver at the hot dog stand. For our money – that’s as good as it gets!
There are many sprint and midget series events across the country. Here are the USAC/CRA sprint car schedules, and you can catch up with the NARC King of the West schedule here
Hammer Down!
