sports.espn.go.com/rpm/racing/nh … id=3455554
Scott is the son of Connie Kalitta, owner of Kalitta Air.
The speeds of these cars are getting out of hand, 2 deaths now in a little over a year.
I saw the video. The car exploded and caught fire near the finish line and just kept going til it hit the end of the track.
Sad news, RIP Scott
Damn, that’s sad. I watched his Dad race at Raceway Park/Englishtown for years in the 60’s and 70’s.
God Speed Scott.
Scooter 99:
Scott was killed in in a drag racing accident today. Any idea if and/or how he fits in to the airline?
The only thing I could find is that Scott had owned of Trans Continental Airlines, Inc, and he leased a DC-8 from Connie to run cargo, but TCA either shut down a few years ago or was bought out, and Scott moved from Michigan to Florida.
Don’t know if he had any direct contact with any of the other Kalitta flying companies. I have read that his cousin Doug has his pilot’s license but that Scott did not.
Connie was Scott’s crew chief and was at the track today when he died and he made the phone call immediately to Scott’s wife knowing the media would announce his death as soon as they knew it.
The more I see the video the more it is apparent that there is not much of a runoff area and this is probably the reason for his death. Don’t know the Englishtown history, but it could be like an airport thing where the airport wants to expand but the neighbors protest. I know we lost an NHRA tour stop at BTR because of insufficient shut down area.
Sad.
I don’t agree. It’s a track safety issue. Any kind of soft runoff area would slow the cars when chutes fail. Hitting a cement wall any faster than 100 is likely to hurt you pretty badly, so 100 or 300 whats the difference at that point.
The speed of the cars is the WHOLE POINT to racing!
While I agree with you leardvr, in this case, I doubt any amount of runoff would have changed the outcome to this event due to the excessively high speed. I believe the car would have skimmed the surface of the runoff area just like those high speed boats do in the water when they lose control.
Once that chute failed, it probably destabilized that car to a point where it wouldn’t have been controllable and would have disintegrated just from rolling and rolling from the excessively high speed. I doubt if you had a 2 mile runoff that the outcome would have been any different. Just a longer trail of pieces and parts to pick up.
It truly is amazing how the technology of the NASCAR cars have come a long way along with the track safety improvements with the barrier walls that now take more of the impact with “give” but when you are talking speeds of 250+ mph, I don’t think we have that technology out there to save a human life should something go amiss. All thoughts of mine, nothing to back my statements naturally.
And like Needlenose said, why race if you are not going to speed 