Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Polkaudio XRt12, (XM tuner).

To continue with the hijack, in my early days I used to race at Niagara, St. Thomas and Cayuga Dragways. Nothing too exotic first a 1966 Chevy Nova and then a 1969 Camaro Z28.

I'm a big fan of most forms of autoracing especially F1 and drag racing. I was shocked to hear of this accident, I've never heard of anything like it before and hopefully never will.


This is from Tulsa Raceway Park:
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.

From NHRA:
Howard, a three-time national event winner and Division 4 champion in 2001 and 2003, was runner-up the last two years at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. She was the 2004 Jeg’s Allstars champion and finished third last season in Division 4 points. This season she already had won the Division 4 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series opener at Houston Raceway Park.

Howard, who began racing in 1978, scored her first and final national event victories at the Mopar Parts Mile-High Nationals in Denver, in 1998 and 2001, respectively, and she also was victorious in Topeka in 2001. She also finished second in Division 4 in 2002 and third in 1999 and 2000. She had recorded eight divisional event wins.

Howard, a registered nurse, is survived by her husband, Dr. Paul Howard, and daughters Jennifer and Tracy.


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