Dodge Viper Destroys The Wall At Tx2K

Typically, when you have a car vs retaining wall battle at a drag strip, the car is the loser. Sometimes, however, they both lose, and we have a perfect example of this thanks to the guys at Speed Video, who are streaming all the festivities at this weekends TX2K19, at least those taking place legally

During Thursday’s roll racing test session, this Dodge Viper apparently had too much power and not enough traction, despite roll racing being intended to all but eliminate tire spin, and the driver wasn’t able to lift out of the throttle in time to keep the car from slamming hard into the left side wall at Houston Raceway Park.

The impact obviously caused heavy damage to the front of the Viper, but also left a large section of the wall damaged, halting racing while crews worked to repair the break.

While this does happen, especially with heavier street-driven cars, it’s pretty rare to see a car hit the wall this early in a run and have enough momentum to demolish the wall in such spectacular fashion. This is not a small crack in the wall, this is a section of the wall about 12 feet or so in length that is actually knocked over onto the grass beside the track.

As a trackside photographer who often stands right up against these retaining walls, this certainly gives me a reason to think about whether or not I would stand in this are at HRP. While the NHRA limits where photographers can stand trackside to the first 225’, and this appears to be just past that, it’s hardly outside the realm of possibility that this impact could have taken place a few feet toward the starting line and, had a photographer been present, resulted in serious injury and possibly death.

Luckily, the driver of the Viper was uninjured in the incident, although the same likely can’t be said for his pride or his wallet.