 Eve of
Destruction - 9/29/2001
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| Eve of
Destruction - 9/29/2001
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| Tonight's events
were supposed to have included a stuntman jumping over a lake in the
track infield. For some reason, the stuntman cancelled - but Rodney and his SC2 were
up to the task. Above you can see the
red 1994 SC2 parked on the ramp, with about half the width of the lake showing in the
photo. This was the point where I thought, "Absolutely no way in hell",
and in my mind, the driver's sanity started to come into question. Was he really
going to do this? Then the "Dukes of Hazard" TV show theme music began
playing on the P.A. (I'm not kidding)... |
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Leaving the ramp at 62 mph, he jumped about 105 feet across the lake. Unreal. Hold on to your shorts and click the link below to see the jump. .AVI (requires Indeo codec) - 472k Indeo 5 codec can be downloaded HERE.
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| After the landing, the car was missing a few body panels, but was still able to continue driving without a problem. In fact, Rodney headed back out onto the track to do some burnouts and smoking donuts in reverse.
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| Except for a
racing seat, harness, fuel cell, roll cage, and removal of all the glass, the remainder of
the car was completely stock. The suspension took one hell of an impact and the car
still drove. From earlier experiences, the team had determined that about 300 lbs of weight is needed in the SC2's trunk to keep it from nosediving once airborne. When I asked whether the landing had hurt, I was told that its actually rougher participating in a demolition derby and that jumping like this wasn't that bad. For some reason, I don't think I'll cringe quite as hard next time I hit a pothole on the highway.
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| One of the events that followed was the forward/backward race - Each car does one lap forward, and must throw the car into reverse after crossing the finish line and do a complete lap in reverse. Some of the cars had to be doing 60 - 70 mph in reverse. One of the heats was won by a Pontiac Grand Am that was actually two Grand Am front halfs welded together. In addition to two front ends, it had two engines and two drivers. And you should have seen it in the burnout contest - both sets of drive wheels burning in opposite directions. It was pretty damn good at donuts too. Then came the tire race. Each car has a tire tied to the back of the car with about 6 feet of rope. The object is to knock the tires off of the other driver's cars, and the last car running with a tire attached wins.
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A pretty large camper/travel trailer was then brought trackside and parked sideways. A flatbed trailer was parked up against it to act as a ramp, and around the corner onto the front straight came the orange SC2 once again. Click the link below to see the damage. .AVI (requires Indeo codec) - 668k Indeo 5 codec can be downloaded HERE.
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| One run through the camper wasn't enough. It took four to completely demolish it. Click the link below to see the final run from the opposite direction. .AVI (requires Indeo codec) - 406k Indeo 5 codec can be downloaded HERE.
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