75-Year-Old Drag Racer Killed on Track

It's the first fatality in 30-year history of event at Sonoma
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 29, 2018 8:28 AM CDT
75-Year-Old Drag Racer Killed on Track
   (Getty/tillsonburg)

A sanctioned drag race in California designed to give everyday drivers a chance to show their stuff suffered the first fatality in its 30-year history on Wednesday, reports the Press Democrat of Santa Rosa. The accident happened on Sonoma Raceway's quarter-mile drag strip when a 75-year-old man crashed his 1976 Ford Pinto into a wall at 100mph. Nobody else was injured.

The accident happened during the Wednesday Night Drags program, pitched as a way to give any licensed driver the ability to drive fast in a safe environment, rather than on city streets, per NBC Bay Area. No word yet on what caused the crash. One witness says the unidentified driver appeared to lose control at the end of the track, jerking to the left and slamming into the wall. (More drag racing stories.)

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