They don’t call Frankie Taylor the “Mad Man” for nothing. During Saturday morning’s final qualifying session in the premier Pro Extreme division at the ADRL Dragpalooza VII at Royal Purple Raceway in Houston, Taylor lived up to his billing in his supercharged Corvette, paired alongside Al-Anabi point man KH Al Thani. During the third session on Friday night, Taylor had grabbed the provisional pole with a great 3.674 and was looking to further solidify that position in the final session. Instead, he’d take one of the hairiest rides of his career.
Taylor was another wail of a run in the left lane when, just beyond halftrack, fluid made its way under the rear tires of Taylor’s mount. The car instantly hooked to the right and got up on two wheels, headed directly on a collision course with the charging Al Thani in the other lane. Frankie, in a display of incredibly quick reaction and instinct, grabbed for the parachutes as his car bicycles on the left wheels at nearly 200 MPH and was able to reign it in mere feet from tagging Al Thani’s Camaro. Adding insult to injury, he had to watch as KH thundered by and stole way the #1 qualifying position with a run of 3.669 seconds at a booming 209 MPH.
Two cameras were mounted on the Corvette on that particular pass; one in the cockpit showing Frankie at work in his office and the other looking out the windshield from the passenger side of the car. The latter displays the data in real-time from the Davis Technologies traction control unit, and from here you can really get a sense of just how quick this whole near-incident unfolded.
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