TIME TO RE-TIRE AGAIN

Brady Kalivoda qualified 12th for the stout Winternationals field with a career-best 4.521/327.59 and met Brandon Bernstein in round one. Kalivoda was on his game as he beat the Bud car off the line, but just past half-track the right rear tire blew causing the car to swerve abruptly into the left-side guardrail. Kalivoda was awake and talking to the Safety Safari, then transported by ambulance to a local hospital for a CAT-scan. He was back at home in Seattle on Sunday night.

When the car was towed back to the pits, the chassis was clearly bent with crushed headers and rippled and displaced body panels from the hard smack against the guardrail. The right forward wing strut was sheered in half, but was still in place with one-third of the right rear wing missing from the tire shrapnel. Clearly the newly mandated design for attaching wing struts worked well in this incident and may have saved Kalivoda from serious injury. The change came out of extensive analysis of Darrell Russell's crash last year. Kudos to the NHRA Tech Department.

Prior to dismantling the racecar back in the pits, owner Bill Miller gathered his crew together to check for every bolt, screw, tab or anything that might be missing from the car. Miller told the crew, "Brady's OK, racecars can be repaired, we'll be back, but I want each of you to take your time, to be absolutely sure that nothing we did contributed to that tire failure."

The car had received a new set of Goodyear slicks on Sunday morning and as of press time there had been no reports of any external debris contributing to the tire explosion. According to a crewmember, the crash probably totaled the 2004 Don Long chassis, but they will have the chassis into Long's shop by mid-week for evaluation. (lead photo by James Drew; second photo by Zak Hawthorne) [2-14-2005]

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

The Winternationals wasn't a great outing for veteran Gary Densham with the Racebricks-sponsored Monte Carlo, now that he's not part of the Force stable. While towing through the staging lanes a blower belt idler pulley retainer snapped off and needed to be drilled out and replaced as the first pair of funnies fired for Saturday's last chance qualifying session.

As testament to the commitment from John Force Racing to helping the new
Densham effort, Force crew chief John Medlen directed members of the AAA
flopper crew for the hasty repair. The best Densham could muster over the three sessions was a 9.290, but with continued help from old buddy Force, he will probably be back in competitive form with his new team soon. [2-14-2005]

MORE TIRE NEWS

Just like last season, a few other nitro racers had chunking and tread separation problems during the Winternationals. Jim Head's Dodge Stratus-bodied funny car lost this large section of a slick on a Saturday qualifying session with no apparent damage to the racecar. (Zak Hawthorne photo) [2-14-2005]