The Bader family is well known for pulling out all the stops at their annual Night Under Fire at the Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk—their most famous and unique tradition being the ceremonial burning of the large, vertical sign behind the starting line by jet racing icon Bob Motz. Well, this year, the destruction—usually entirely planned—took everyone, including the Baders and throngs of fans hanging on the fences, by total surprise.

Chris Darnell, behind the wheel of the triple-engine Shockwave jet semi, was part of the booked-in entertainment at the Night Under Fire, which features everything from NHRA fuel Funny Cars to wheelstanders and nostalgia racing. During one of Darnell’s scheduled performances just before dark, his 36,000 horsepower behemoth heated the pavement behind the burnout box to well beyond a safe range while doing his burner pops. Soon enough, the high-thrust pops lifted a large section of the pavement right out of the ground and blew pieces, both large and small, into the crowd standing behind the fence.

Cell phone footage captured by fans from behind the incident showed a swift exodus by the throngs who were in the wrong place at the wrong time—some of them covered in blood after being struck by chunks of what used to be the Summit Motorsports Park’s pre-burnout waiting area.

After Darnell completed his run, the Norwalk staff got to work cleaning up the mess behind the starting line, and the event that proceeded as normal—with a rather small pothole awaiting anyone rolling into the right lane burnout box the remainder of the evening.