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In the midst of one of his finest seasons of racing, not even an unfortunate and ill-timed accident that left his “Blackbird” Vega looking worse for wear could dampen the spirits of Street Outlaws star Shane McAlary.
McAlary, who has really turned up the threat-level on the streets and has been a consistent late-round finisher at the handful of no prep events he’s taken part in this year, crashed his world-famous Vega in the semi-final round of eliminations at the $100,000, invitation-only Street Outlaws filming at the Bristol Dragway on August 22nd. MacAlary was racing fellow 405 runner Justin “Big Chief” Shearer when he got out of shape near mid-track, spun around and struck the concrete guardrail nearly on his side, facing back in the direction he came.
Video credit: National No Prep Racing Association [2]
Video credit: Joey Ellison [3]
“it got all four wheels off the ground and skidded sideways, on it’s side, backwards, down the wall. The quarter panel and the roof took the worst of it — it didn’t do any damage to the door. It bent the outlet on the ProCharger a little and smashed the piping. The major stuff was the A-arms, the lower control arms, it was just mangled. It didn’t do any structural damage to the chassis, but it bent the tabs, so I had to cut those off and weld on new ones.”
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With the Oklahoma City cast presently in the middle of filming for an upcoming season of the popular Discovery Channel reality show, the incident left McAlary with just seven days to turn the Vega around and have it race-ready. He immediately got to work repairing the damage to the front suspension, and a good friend at Shannon’s Paint 7 Body in Elk City helped knock the quarter panel back into place. With the front clip damaged beyond repair, and a new piece about three weeks out, Shane was forced to go commando and run the car sans any bodywork forward of the firewall.
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The situation this time, however, was far less physically or financially draining than the accident he endured last summer when the Vega took a harrowing, high-speed tumble, leaving it in virtual ruins. McAlary spent the next several months rebuilding the car, all of which has led to its impressive competitiveness this season, despite having all the high-tech bells and whistles of its street and no prep counterparts.
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“That last one was bad. This one wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t the greatest situation either. the car getting slammed down and sliding across the track, it bent both rear wheels, so i had to gather up some new wheels, and Shawn {Ellington] gave me some front wheels he had left over from his car, and I just put the car back together well enough to race it.”
A new set of wheelie bars, rack and pinion, tubing, tie rod ends, and other small parts and pieces were acquired from Quarter-Max, which played a significant role in the rebuild of the Vega last summer.