Photographer Captures Scary Moment as Racer Veers Toward Starter During Burnout

Drag racing is, without a doubt, a dangerous sport. Obviously, this concept comes into play with the drivers. Hurling themselves down the track certainly has created a situation where lots of things could go wrong. However, there are others that put themselves in harm’s way in order to make each race great.

At the starting line, in particular, there are several different types of people who will be found roaming about. Obviously, a race needs a starter and officials. They have an important job at the starting line to make sure that everybody is doing what they’re supposed to be doing. From there, we have other track crew and last but not least, we find the media in this area as well.

While it might be something that can be easily forgotten about, everyone on the starting line has a responsibility to be aware of their surroundings. It might not seem like the area is all that dangerous. After all, burnouts happen at a pretty low rate of speed. However, for 99.9% of situations that go right, there are still a small fraction of situations that take a turn for the worse.

At Lights Out 11, we would watch one of these scenarios unfold as. Before we knew what hit us, an accident knocked over one of the concrete barriers protecting the starter.

Photographer, Dwayne Culpepper, took to Facebook and posted some photos of the incident as we see below. Culpepper tells us that “This series of images are by far some of the scariest that I have put up in a long time.”

In the midst of doing a burnout, the Ford Mustang piloted by Eric Prezzy would quickly veer sideways.

Culpepper recalls “The car drifted to the right and when it did the right tire hooked and immediately drove the car into the center retention wall.”

This really just seems like one of those situations that nobody could’ve prevented or had seen coming. However, it’s a reminder of just how quickly these things can happen. It really makes us appreciate those who work on the starting line all that much more.

Luckily, in this one, nobody was seriously injured. Hopefully, Prezzy is back to racing soon. A freak accident like this is something that we never like to see.

Photo credit – Dwayne Culpepper