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GEIGER: Drag Racers Are Definitely Wired Differently
Written by: Rob Geiger - Go2Geiger.com
go2geiger.com   http://www.go2geiger.com
05/13/2009
Porter, TX
 
It's impossible to think of Bristol Dragway, the site of this weekend's Thunder Valley Nationals, and not remember Top Fuel veteran Cory McClenathan's spectacular crash from 2006. Which got me wondering what Cory himself thinks about when he sees Bristol on the schedule.
Cory McClenathan. (Go2Geiger.com) ยป More Photos

"Well, for sure I'm never going to forget it," he said. "You're the second reporter to call me this morning and I'm not even out of bed yet so certainly it's still something people are talking about, and I understand that.

"Call it luck, say it just wasn't my day to go, talk about the good Lord watching over me, whatever it was, I came out of it okay, so I'm very fortunate. We've seen guys die after accidents much less severe-looking than that one. Even now, when I see the video, I think 'wow, that was bad.' But it doesn't bother me. It doesn't scare me off. Heck, I can't wait to get back there -- that track owes me one. A nice boring win would be just fine with me."

A quick rewind: McClenathan was cruising down Bristol's quarter-mile just fine during a fire-spewing nighttime qualifying session, 10-foot header flames licking the night air and thrilling the capacity crowd. Everything seemed perfectly normal for Cory Mac, or at least as normal as it can when you're in a vehicle accelerating faster than any other ever invented, pulling 5-plus Gs in a blur of raw horsepower.

Then, just after he half-track, which he reached with a speed of 271 mph, all hell, literally, broke loose. McClenathan's car bowed up in the middle, snapped off just behind the driver's compartment, spun around 25 feet in the air, and smacked the guardwall extremely hard. In pieces, the electronics showed he still crossed the finish line in 4.65 seconds.

Somehow, McClenathan was okay, and as drivers often do in these instances, he quickly freed himself from the tangled wreckage and walked to the other side of the track to presumably contemplate his good fortune. The medical crew took him to a local hospital because they figured something must be broken, but the fit fan favorite was soon released and he returned to a heroes welcome at the track.

The wreck was so spectacular that it has been shown hundreds of times on NHRA broadcasts (look for it at least 20 more times this weekend) and those infamous "And they walked away…"-type programs. Monday after the wreck, every morning talk show and news outlet from New York to L.A. had McClenathan on-the-air live and the footage of the accident made the rounds for days.

But before he became a media darling for something he wished had never happened,
and even though he admits he was "pretty beat up" from clanking around in the cockpit, all McClenathan could think about was getting back in a racecar and making another pass. Late Friday night back in his pit, once they determined his brain wasn't scrambled any more than normal, the Fram crew granted Cory Mac's wish, pulled out the back-up car, and got to work making it race-ready.

Sunday morning, a few minutes after being showered with a lengthy standing ovation from the fans and his fellow drivers at the starting line, Cory Mac was once again zooming down the very strip that tried to ruin him a day and a half earlier. He pulled off a picture-perfect 4.66 at 317 mph in a first-round loss, but the fact he made a run at all was a giant victory.

"There was never a thought in my mind about not racing again," McClenathan said. "I mean this is what I do. It's all I know. So the next thing is to get back on that horse and do it again. In hindsight, I'm really glad I was able to get back in a car that weekend because maybe it had happened Sunday and I had a few weeks off to think about it, I might have come to my senses (laugh)."

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, SPEED, FOX, or NewsCorp.

Award-winning journalist Rob Geiger founded his go2geiger.com Web site in the spring of 2008 after eight years as senior editor of NHRA.com with a goal of providing drag racing enthusiasts an unbiased news outlet. Featuring a staff of respected and pedigreed journalists, go2geiger.com strives to deliver clear, concise, and well-researched stories on all aspects of quarter-mile racing.

A published author, Geiger became well known in the drag racing world through his daily work on NHRA.com, his meticulous stat-keeping, the Associated Press stories he supplied to the general media, the content that filled event programs, and his numerous regular appearances on radio programs across the country.

Prior to joining the NHRA circuit as a media relations specialist in 1997, Geiger covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Dallas Stars, ran the sports staff of a daily newspaper, and worked as a disc jockey for two rock-n-roll radio stations. An honor graduate at the University of Houston, Geiger resides in Porter, Texas, with his wife Lori, daughter Sara, and son Rob Jr.
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