Video: Racer Unhurt In Wild War In The Woods Crash

Midwest no-prep drag racing regular Eric Trigalet was unhurt in a fiery, high-speed accident while competing at War In The Woods XIV that was captured from a series of wild, internet-breaking vantage points.

Trigalet has been competing for a number of years in his beautiful 1969 Chevrolet Camaros at the twice-annual, Woodstock-esque no-prep battle at Brown County Dragway deep in the remote, wooded terrain of central Indiana. He’s won it three times and sometimes even raced his familiar yellow nitrous oxide-assisted ’69 in both Big Tire and Small Tire on the same weekend.

This year, Trigalet brought his machine known as “OJ,” powered by a Precision turbo-boosted, 427-inch small-block Chevrolet, to compete in the small-tire class that well and truly pushes beyond the limits of the historic old dragway. During a early round on Saturday in front of a capacity crowd, Trigalet lost control of his machine at the top-end, crossed in front of his opponent, and struck the concrete retaining wall nearly head on. The car burst into flames upon impact and tumbled to a stop in the grass in front of a stunned audience and even more frightened individuals on the return road who were mere feet from the melee.

“The bump upset the car and drove me toward the other car, and all I could think in the moment was to save his car,” Trigalet says. Adding further salt to the wound, Trigalet noted, “I just front-halfed the car this winter and painted the front end two weeks ago. I’m fine, though. The car needs a front half and will need to be reskinned, but the main chassis is fine. I’ll get it on the chassis table and make sure it’s straight and start putting it back together.”

Trigalet’s car sports Strange Engineering Evolution 4 front brakes and a dual caliper setup in the rear, a Strange Ultra case third-member with 40-spline axles, and relies on AFCO shocks and struts for the all-important weight transfer to get down slick no-prep racing surfaces.