Walker and Casper testing at Huntsville Dragway recently. Photo by Jason McClure

Grudge/No-Time racer Tate “Tate Da Great” Walker, driver of the wicked clean Grand National known as Casper the Unfriendly Ghost, walked away from this hard impact with the retaining wall recently at South Georgia Motorsports Park. The video shows the car make a fairly soft launch, but really turn up the wick as it approaches the 330-foot timers. By the time Walker reaches the 1/8-mile mark, the car appears to have gathered considerable speed. The majority of grudge/no-time races are 1/8-mile affairs, so that’s where Walker planned to end the run, but you can see in the video, Casper has other plans, such as living up to its “Unfriendly” moniker.

Once it’s clear something is amiss, Walker appears to run through the “Oh Shit!” checklist very quickly – he hit the parachutes and killed the power within mere moments of realizing the throttle was hung – but to no avail. If you listen closely, the engine goes silent a second or so before the impact with the wall, but the braking to slow the car drives the nose into the right side retaining wall at a fairly high rate of speed. After a brief moment, Tate exits the car under his own power as the safety crews approach the wreckage.

A still photo from the crash scene shows what appears to be the throttle linkage held open by a cutout in the hood. Ironically, the cutout appears to be to allow free movement of the throttle. According to the videographer, Nitro Art Video’s Kevin Maurer, the hood shifted during the run, which would explain why the opening didn’t line up correctly with the linkage. While the damage does appear to be heavy, the Casper team is likely already rebuilding Casper to his former glory and will be haunting grudge shootouts again soon!