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Drag racing can be a very rewarding sport but also very dangerous. While in basic terms, the sport seems as simple as lining up, pressing the gas pedal and holding on for dear life for a quarter mile, mishaps can happen even with the most experienced of racers or most track-worthy cars. That’s exactly what happened to Dave Park and his ‘68 Camaro at Dragway 42 in Ohio recently when the car’s rear axle gave way under a full throttle launch. Check out the impressive footage of the situation from inside and outside the Camaro that we found on Autoblog above.
This is what Dave Park's Camaro usually looks like going down the track.
The video was shot by Bob Gates, Park’s crew chief and owner of Airborne Video Services. Gates was teaching Park how to drag race and using video to dial in the car when he captured this amazing footage.
The Camaro is set up on a tube chassis with a complete fiberglass body minus the roof. Under the hood, the car sports a 385ci. small-block attached to a TH350 transmission. In addition to aftermarket axles, the Camaro also features a Ford 9-inch rearend with 4.33 gears. In total, the car only weighs 2,400lbs, making it a potent track machine.
Unfortunately, having a potent track machine means having a better chance of breaking things, and Park found that out first-hand when the rear axle of his Camaro broke just past the wedding ring as he tried to launch on his third or fourth pass of the day. With a hard jerk to the left, the driver-side rear tire comes flying off, taking with it the rear quarter panel and rear deck piece.
In just a split-second, things went from a good launch to a bad situation for Park and his Camaro.
Fortunately, Park instantaneously reacted, preventing his car from hitting the guard rail as it careened almost 45 degrees in under a second. What could have been a huge disaster was lessened thanks to Park’s immediate reaction.
As you can see from both the real-time and slow-motion footage, the damage to Park’s Camaro was extensive. However, this didn’t prevent him from fixing the car up and racing just 10 days later. We’re just glad that no one was injured in the incident and that the only real damage was to Park’s savings account.
