7-year-old drag racer dies in crash

[Mike A]

Jeeze...has the NHRA lost their collective minds?  Never heard of the NHRA Summit Racing Jr. Drag Racing League:

NHRA Jr. Drag Racer Dies in Crash

[HiFlyer]

😢

[dave2013]

So sad.  The parents are clearly at fault here.  Nobody that I've known would allow their 7 year old child to race cars that can go 85mph.

You can't fix stupid.

Dave

[Matthew Kane]

I don't have a problem with it, the sport was developed in New Zealand in the late 80s, the cars are just a single cylinder engine with restrictors according to age catagory, and from what I can tell this was the first death in it's 37 year history, that means more kids die skiing, swimming, ice hockey, football etc etc etc. Always sad when a kid that young dies but from doing a little research this sport does have a lot of controls in place and no more dangerous then many other sports, its just unique is all 

Here is a shot of an engine, they use Briggs and Straton, same engine in Go Karts which kids take part in as well

Edited February 7 by Matthew Kane

[Swe_Richard]

I would never in a million years let my seven year old participate in drag racing, even if he wanted to. Really tragic and I bet the parents hate themselves at this point. 😔

[stans]

This is terrible.  With racing, just like most other sports, there is a chance of serious injury or even death.  Kids start into sports at early ages and for racing, a number of these kids come from racing families.  They develop skill early so that by the time they are 17 or 18, they are racing in the major leagues of racing. 

[n4gix]

12 hours ago, Matthew Kane said:

Here is a shot of an engine, they use Briggs and Straton, same engine in Go Karts which kids take part in as well

I read the comments and learned a critical fact:

The beginner's class she was "competing" in is speed limited to ~20 to 25 mph, or about the speed of an e-bike or e-scooter which is a far cry from the 85 mph the more experienced drivers operate at.

I posit that even that seemingly benign speed should not be considered even close to "safe" for a seven or even eight-year-old child!

[kerosene31]

This isn't uncommon in racing.  There's kids at 4-5 racing go carts.  There's 17-18 year olds running in Formula 1, so they start much younger in the earlier series.  

[LHookins]

28 minutes ago, n4gix said:

I posit that even that seemingly benign speed should be considered even close to "safe" for a seven or even eight-year-old child!

We used to ride bicycles which could get up to that speed downhill without even a thought for helmets and elbow pads and knee pads and whatever else the powers-that-be mandate for safety. "THINK of the CHILDREN!" Most of us even survived to old age, with only a few scrapes and maybe the occasional broken bone.

Anyone remember the advertisements for bicycle speedometers? "Wow, I'm going 20 miles per hour!"

Thank you for reading the comments. We learn more from them than we do from the article.

Hook

[LHookins]

16 minutes ago, kerosene31 said:

There's 17-18 year olds running in Formula 1

Weren't there 19 year olds flying B-17s in World War II?

Go ahead, wrap your kid in cotton wool and keep him on the shelf. By no means let him play outside, and for gosh sake never let him play in the dirt. Safety above all other concerns. What could go wrong?

They said my young son had ringworm, and he got it from our cats. Truth was he played in the dirt almost as much as I did at that age. The cats would have gotten it from him, not the other way around.

I kinda miss the Good Old Days, but I'd really miss the Internet if I somehow went back. I can't imagine where I'd be today if I'd had the Internet when I was 12 years old.

Hook

[n4gix]

11 minutes ago, LHookins said:

We used to ride bicycles which could get up to that speed downhill without even a thought for helmets and elbow pads and knee pads and whatever else the powers-that-be mandate for safety.

Speaking of memories, did you ever have a "siren" on your bike? They were quite the rage at the time, or at least they were until the cops had the authorities outlaw them!

[LHookins]

9 minutes ago, n4gix said:

did you ever have a "siren" on your bike?

I don't remember those.  I had a battery powered light (basically useless) and a battery powered horn (mostly annoying). Instead of a siren, we put cards in the spokes which made a satisfying "motor" noise. 🙂 

Hook

[charliearon]

27 minutes ago, LHookins said:

I don't remember those.  I had a battery powered light (basically useless) and a battery powered horn (mostly annoying). Instead of a siren, we put cards in the spokes which made a satisfying "motor" noise. 🙂 

Hook

Better yet, was the balloon in the spokes that sounded like a motorcycle engine! 😉

[Mike A]

9 minutes ago, charliearon said:

Better yet, was the balloon in the spokes that sounded like a motorcycle engine! 😉

What was the life expectancy for a balloon? We used baseball cards; am I wrong to think baseball cards were more durable than balloons?

Edited February 7 by Mike A
Sp.

[Mike A]

3 minutes ago, Mike A said:

Edited just now by Mike A
Sp.

I accidentally typed baseball cars  and changed it to cards.  This is a baseball car: