EARLY TESTING AT DARLINGTON

Words and photos by Ian Tocher

ROCCA CRASHES

Johnny Rocca crashed his 1949 Mercury Pro Mod Nov. 22, when the center hub of his left rear wheel broke during solo testing at Darlington, SC.

After battling tire shake in his first test runs, Rocca appeared to have a good, clean launch on his third pass of the day. However, his car suddenly veered left just past the 60-foot mark, hitting the guardrail with its left front corner. The impact sheared off the front wheel and the car spun around and hit the rail again before skidding to a stop in the center of the track. A brief fire erupted, but died down just as quickly as Rocca climbed uninjured from the wreck.

Rocca said he felt the left rear corner of the car drop and knew there had been a mechanical failure when it wouldn't respond at all to his steering efforts. "I know there's going to be some people out there questioning my driving," said Rocca, who returned to the driver's seat late in 2002 after nearly four years off as a team owner. "But there was nothing anyone could've done there. The rear wheel just came right off -- it broke the center right out of it -- and as soon as it did, the car just took off into the wall."

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