The Final Days Of Stevie Fast’s “Shadow” – Inside The Crash
Concluding RAW3 TV’s eight part series chronicling the final race weekend for The Shadow, Stevie Fast’s beloved small tire Mustang, we go inside the car during the harrowing flight and hear from Jackson himself what all went on during that brief moment of chaos. This footage is incredible and gives the viewer and unprecedented look inside the car itself as it left the South Georgia Motorsports Park surface – well known for its flying car-type crashes– then crashed violently back to earth.
We open with a great look at the crash from the Motor Mania TV coverage, showing just how far the car traveled through the air. We then go inside the car as Stevie stages alongside Dewayne Mills – who just last year was the pilot of a flying car at SGMP himself – for their third round matchup. Jackson recounts being keyed up for the race, knowing Mills had the quicker of the two cars, and cutting a near perfect .004 reaction time. Having made hundreds of passes in the Shadow, Jackson knew as the cars blistered the south Georgia tarmac that the power curve was about to ramp up. As it did, pushing the already-floating front end of the car higher into the air, Jackson pumped the throttle to try to settle the car down, and very nearly did so. However, seeing that he was still very much in the race, Stevie jumped back in the throttle too quickly by the smallest of margins and the torquey blown powerplant screamed back to life, powering the nose to near vertical before Jackson had a chance to pull his foot back out.
At that point, he was merely a passenger on a sky-bound rocketship. The car drifted above the track’s surface for almost the entire second half of the 1/8th mile, crashing back to the track right at the finish line. The in-car footage shows a surprisingly calm Stevie Fast trying to regain his bearings as the car lifts off, even glancing out his window at one point to see where he is at in relation to the retaining wall. As the rear of the car slams into the wall and track surface, jackson is tossed around like a rag doll despite his full use of all safety equipment available.
As the car returned to the racing surface, it flipped onto its roof and slid across the lanes. As this slide took place, methanol begin to pour out of the fuel lines and ignite beneath the car. Stevie, still strapped in his safety harness, begins to scramble to free himself. It takes a few tense moments for Jackson to release his belts, which dumps him onto he roof of the car, A moment later, Jackson kicks the door of the car open and scrambles to safety. We then get an unclose look at the aftermath of the totaled Mustang as the video concludes, ending this outstanding look inside the mind of one of the most dynamic figures to grace the sport of drag racing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj4df2lspJI
