The racer ran a 418W in an '65 back halved Mustang running 10.80s with a stock flex plate. The balance weight from the flex plate broke out and hit the water box guy in the leg breaking the bone and sending him to the ground like he'd been shot. It was a compound fracture. When I talked to the racer afterwards he said it wasn't SFI, but that it didn't need to be until he hit 9.999 ets. I didn't say anything, but I'm pretty sure it's 10.99 for SFI flexplates to be required. The situation really sucks, but the lesson to be learned is to comply with the rules when saftey is involved. The track kept the flying object and is requesting the rest of the flexplate when he gets it out of the car. Can anyone spell lawsuit?

I had a friend who had a built 1300 VW bug that sent a piston through the cylinder, the rear firewall and pieces ended up under the rear seat! Talk about lucky.

Regardless, that sux about the guy getting hurt.

I did the upgrades at 10.99 for our cars, and was thinking it was required. I visited Rick in the hospital this afternoon. He's in good spirits and knows it was a risk of the job. He said it was exciting, but he's not returning to the starting line. He may work the staging lanes, but not the starting line. First he has to go through lots of rehab before he can do either. I figure that weight was traveling at 350 feet per second. Compared with a .45 auto at 750 fps and a arrow out of a hunting bow at 200+ fps that big projectile was right up there.