Video Credit: Ley Mayhew/NitroAmerica

Two weekends ago, the Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California held the 55th Annual March Meet, a gathering of nostalgia Funny Cars, Top Fuel Dragsters, and other classic hotrods. It’s an event that many people go to year after year, and is one of the coolest places to be on the West Coast in the month of March – there’s a little something for everyone, and the thunder of nitro-burning machines fills the air throughout the course of the weekend. This year’s action was hot and heavy with hundreds of machines on the property running in a variety of race classes, and we found this video of a rough crash sustained by racer Wayne Mellinger.

This particular machine, like most classic floppers, has a great stance, one that we remember from the Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars we had growing up, and the Funny Car designation tells us that there’s a potential  five-second pass on the way. Unfortunately, not long after the tree drops and the power starts to come in, the car starts making a move left; by the sixty-foot block it’s apparent that Mellinger’s out of the groove, and although he tries to rein the car in, it continues its move toward the centerline. Pedaling it has the opposite of the intended effect, causing the car to dart hard towards the right-hand retaining wall and impact it after taking out the 330-foot block.

Despite the chutes starting to deploy just before impact, they have zero effect on the car’s inertial movement and only serve to slow it down after the fact. Parts go flying, but at least the car stays in its own lane, keeping the damage to a minimum. We hate to see any race car damaged, but it’s good to see that the driver is alive and well. We especially got a kick out of the fact that the photographer never moved an inch – instead checking to see if he “got the shot”.