Sometimes you watch a Youtube racing video and think “this is pretty awesome, I wish I had a car like that.” And sometimes you watch a video and wonder, “who in their right mind would strap into the seat of that thing, and what track owner would let them actually run it like that?!” This is one of those cases. The entire time watching this video we were picking out all of the potential things that could have gone wrong; the list is wide-ranging and potentially deadly. 

While it’s certainly interesting to see the skills of the mini-dragster’s builder and the unique machine – and we respect the efforts to do so – our interest was tempered by the safety issues that appear almost from the outset. While we’ve seen cars held into place by crewmembers to start the burnout (and certainly don’t condone the process), actually holding the vehicle back during the burnout process is a definite no-no. A glaring issue rears its head almost immediately – the driver wasn’t wearing a helmet during the burnout either. The burnout process happens not once, but twice, before a crewmember standing off to the side hands him a helmet, but only after the burnout.

We also noticed that he wasn’t wearing any sort of arm restraints, but most importantly (and perhaps astonishingly!) he didn’t appear to be wearing any shoes! Not at the beginning, middle, or end of the video. And he doesn’t appear to actually strap the helmet on at any point during the process either. The number of safety issues happening during this video are many and multitudinous, and perhaps the most shocking is that the track operator allowed all of this to go down. In a day where lawsuits are plenty and brainpower is withering on the vine, we just can’t imagine who was in charge on this day.

“Take it to the track” is a valid idea, but only if you follow the safety rules – that most likely came about after someone else spilled blood, or gave their life, for those rules and regulations to be put into place. Drag racing is a dangerous sport – don’t make it more dangerous by putting your brain bucket up your hind end before getting a chance to demonstrate your ingenuity. The thing is definitely quick, though. The Ninja didn’t have a chance.