During a recent race at the Houston Motorsports Park in NE Harris County, Texas, a driver of a 1967 Camaro lost his life. When the 1/8th mile track ended, the driver veered off the end of the strip, crashing through barriers and finally being stopped by the wall.

Wrecked 1967 Camaro

According to abc13, it’s not certain if the driver died at the track, or at the hospital, but he was the only person involved in the accident. Mechanical failure is believed to be the cause of the accident, but there’s no word on what that means, exactly.

The track the driver lost his life on.

Speaking from personal experience, the amount of things that could go wrong on a drag strip are endless. I’ve seen my fair share of brushes with death during open track days. I even narrowly missed hitting the wall myself when my tires spun off the line and sent my car sideways during a grudge race. All it takes is someone leaving their air conditioner on (that’s a big no, no!) in the staging lanes to slick up the track enough to soak the track for everyone else.

Not to even mention fluid leaks, the possibility of blowing a tire, or even a serpentine belt popping off (I’ve seen it!) to cause loss of control of a vehicle. This is pure speculation on my part, I am in no way saying any of these things happened in Houston. I just wanted to highlight that it’s a very dangerous sport, even though you’re just pushing the gas and holding her straight for a few seconds — those few seconds are fast (if you’re doing it right) and the right car can easily get into the 100 mph range, even on a short track. Even a routine mechanical failure can be life threatening at those speeds.

Be safe out there racing friends!