Network
At certain points in life, we’re all compelled to consider our own mortality. The reasons we meditate on it are as unique as the human race itself, but it is arguably never more present than in “it could have been me” scenarios — the situation where mere happenstance stood between the ‘you’ that you are now, and tragedy for your loved ones.
Last month, friend and fellow drag racing journalist and photographer Ian Tocher was severely injured in an incident that took the life of Top Sportsman standout Ronnie Davis. Watching it unfold, it’s nothing short of a miracle that Ian is alive, and even moreso that he’s expected to make a complete recovery (and likely even play hockey again).
The truth is, neither myself, nor the majority of our fellow drag racing photographers, were there in Rockingham that day, and we weren’t standing on that guardrail with Ian. But each and every weekend, we take the same risk he took to capture the sport we love. We stand where he stood, and we hope or say a silent prayer that we’ll come back just as we went. Or, we simply block from our minds that something bad could occur.
Our sport has come a long way in regards to safety, both inside the race car and out, but the reality is that the moment we enter a race track, anything can happen …
I like to think of drag racing a bit like baseball. Major league ball has been around for nearly 150 years with 2,400 games and more than 22,000 innings played each season. In that time, you’d think anything that could happen would have by now, but if you watch long enough, you’ll witness something that has never occurred before. The difference, of course, is that baseball has remained relatively unchanged, while drag racing has become more volatile — the cars are becoming quicker, faster, and more powerful by the day — increasing the odds of the truly unimaginable unfolding.
Our sport has come a long way in regards to safety, both inside the race car and out, but the reality is that the moment we enter a race track, anything can happen, and while there some situations we can control (or some in which the odds are largely in our favor), there are others that we cannot.
There are tens of thousands of runs down a drag strip in this country alone every weekend, by thousands of different race cars. And that’s just enough that, given enough opportunity, every factor from parts failure to driver error to mere struck-by-lightning-twice bad luck will creep in when we least expect it.
Racers have had their throttle hang wide open in the pit area. There have been fatalities in the pit area. Fans have been injured and killed by parts and debris trackside. Crew members have been fatally injured standing on the starting line. Transbrakes have failed and sent cars in reverse into the path of those who believed they were safe. Cars can and do go over guardrails.
On the same token, drivers are sometimes prone to neglecting their own safety, skimping on their equipment, leaving the visor open, or loosening their belts so they can drive the finish line, thinking that they’re entirely safe. And 99 times out of 100 they might be … but it only takes once.
Stuff happens, and it happens at times and in ways we least expect it.
Could our sport be made safer, to largely eliminate the what-if scenarios? Sure it could. We could sequester the race cars away from fans and photographers entirely. We could build the guardrails 30 feet high, and construct race cars the same way the military constructs tanks. But then, we’d have taken the utility (and the spirit) of drag racing away entirely.
Rather, and if any advice can be taken from this column, it’s that we have to always remain alert, always be aware of our surroundings, and to never get too comfortable when we’re at the track. And to know that, despite all the precautions we may take, things can still go wrong in the blink of an eye. This is a dangerous sport, but it’s also an incredibly safe sport. And I’m just glad Ian Tocher is still around to be a part of it.
