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Bionic Blog
When his finest creation rolled and crashed, Jim Geese already had it on the jig in his mind
By Bobby Bennett, Photos courtesy of Vanishing Point Race Cars

UPDATED

(4-20-2006) – Scott Cannon, Jr., was only a toddler when his six-time world championship winning father Scotty Cannon crashed a Corvette bracket racing and recuperated in a hospital. A little over two decades later, Junior makes his return to competition after an accident threatened personal harm to the second-generation driver.

Junior never suffered a scratch, but the same couldn’t be said for the team’s new Vanishing Point race Cars-prepared Pontiac GTO. The SKULL Gear-sponsored entry was left for dead as it was loaded onto the rollback in the shutdown area of San Antonio Raceway. However, by the end of the evening, the decision was made to rebuild the mangled race machine.

“For two weeks, 24 hours a day, we worked and worked to get this thing ready,” Scotty said. “Our team has shown a lot of resolve since this happened. The team pulled together to get the job done.”

The GTO was worth salvaging as it established a 237 mile per hour mark during the first session of qualifying during the Amalie Oil IHRA Texas Nationals. Scotty admitted the team was pushing beyond that on Saturday.

“It has more in it and we’re not going to be shy about getting after it,” Scotty said.

Junior admits the accident has been on his mind for much of the past few weeks, but when the rejuvenated Pontiac rolls out of the trailer, the accident will be completely behind him.

“It’s time to let it go,” Junior said. “I have let it go for the most part. Being a human being, you still have a bit that remains in the back of your mind. But, it doesn’t control me nor will it affect the way I drive.”

A few years after the elder Cannon had his first crash, he made his Top Sportsman debut at Rockingham Dragway in 1987. While Scotty admits to bouts of superstition, he couldn’t help but notice the numbers that made up his best run. He made the field with a 7.77 at 177 miles per hour.

Scotty retired from the Pro Modified division in 1998 to pursue a nitro Funny Car program. He returned in 2004 for another run in Pro Modified, but stepped aside in 2005 for his son to drive. Incredibly, Cannon still ranks as the winningest driver in the class.

“I don’t…we just worked hard in those days,” Scotty said. “After this accident, it’s like we never left. We’re still working hard.”

Over the weekend, the primer went on preparing the car for the paint booth. Could the version that returns be different than the one that crashed?

(4-7-2006) - The body work continues in preparation for the Rockingham event. Getting a paint scheme the caliber fo the one in San Antonio, Texas is going to be tough, but don't count the ganf from Lyman, South Carolina out.

The finish line on our project is in sight, or at least for the chassis repair end of things. Most of the body work was completed and the detail work took precedence. Geese and the crew cut in a hood scoop to the front end.

The team did a detailed inspection and completed all final welding. From there, the suspension, both the front and rear, was assembled to completion.

At last, the wheels and tires were bolted on to complete the rolling chassis repair.

Knocking on the door of early Wednesday morning, a fully repaired Vanishing Point Race Cars Pontiac GTO rolled out the door of the shop.

“I have to thank everyone involved,” Geese said. “Scotty Cannon, Scott Cannon, Shane Fortenberry and all of the dedicated employees at the Vanishing Point Race Cars Shop. I want to personally thank Don Carey, Gary Naughton, James Haimovitz, Bruce Pelly, James Adams, Dave Stoddart, Ray Prodorutti, Rick Nace, Keith Fedirko, Ian Carey, Joe Pascall, April Gross, and June Kraemer.”

But, the project isn’t done yet. Once Cannon and the crew rolled out of the shop in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, they headed for home. The next thing on the agenda – prepare the body for paint.

The front-end bore the brunt of the impact and as a result it was left in need of some serious plastic surgery. No one in the shop will admit to being a licensed physician on the human anatomy, but when it comes to this GTO, all have a qualified degree.

Using the extra body that arrived last week, the front end was modified to fit the aerodynamic theme of the car. This part was extended to mirror the original version that

rolled out of the shop in February. The headlights were also installed.

Simultaneously, half of the crew was also working on finishing the wing and the adjusters. The parachute was also mounted.

The team can see the light at the end of the tunnel by the time Sunday can roll around. Spirits are high as is the morale. No one has gained an abundance of sleep but then again the adrenalin is running too high to rest.

On Sunday, the team focused on the cosmetics and grooming the body into shape for the projected deadline. The roof and quarters were massaged most of the day and well after the sun went down on the Telford, Pennsylvania skyline, this area was completed.

The windows were at the top of the checklist on Saturday’s agenda. Geese and the team began fitting the windows to synch up with the new roof. The windows were not killed in the mishap, but it was certain the rollover and making contact with the wall didn’t help them much.

With the windows fitted, the intricate final roof and wing sections were completed. The gluing and finishing was naturally the next step.

The front-end, which bore the brunt of the accident, was the next order of importance. A new front-end was mounted on Wednesday’s fabricated tubing. Geese and the crew started modifying the nose to match its previous version.

Things are looking very good at this point of not only meeting the deadline, but beating it to the point the car could hit the track this upcoming weekend.

Today was anything but a day of April Fools jokes for the gang at Vanishing Point Race Cars. Noses to the grindstone, all had worked on very little rest and yet the adrenalin had everyone pumped to get started.

The crew sectioned in the roof, mounted the doors and built the wing. Since the body lines were special on this ride, much attention to detail went into morphing the new carbon fiber with the existing.

While much of the electrical wiring remained untouched, all of the electrical panels and controls were mounted to the front of the chassis.

The new body was scheduled to arrive on Thursday and showed up right on schedule.

“We realized that the back portion of the body…the back bumper and taillight area except for the wing parts were salvageable,” Geese said. “At this point, we are treating it like a body shop would on a car.”

Geese assessed the damage and determined the best way to repair the roofline is to put a new one on and

blend it in at the quarter-panels. Basically the new body became a roof donor.

Planning ahead just as they did on Tuesday, Geese and company had already begun fabricating the wing on Wednesday.

Geese and the crew at Vanishing Point Race Cars along with the Cannons fabricated the oil and fuel tanks.

Day 2 dawned with welding up the tubing as the primary objective on the agenda. The struts mounts were positioned and tacked into place. Once everything was determined to be in-synch, the final welds were established.

A lot of the disassembly had taken place late on Tuesday evening such as removing the rearend and the rear suspension

By the end of the day, an engine block was being positioned into the frontal area.

Geese and his right-hand man, Don Carey boarded the flight back to Pennsylvania on Monday mid-morning with a scheduled afternoon arrival. All morning, he had been on the phone with Bruce at the shop, checklist in hand, ordering every part needed to repair the wounded racer. Of course, those parts were marked for overnight delivery. If there was a time that delivery had to be absolutely, positively overnight…it was this time.

The car definitely needed a total rebuild from the mid-plate forward and that was just the tubing work. Nothing was salvageable. Everything in the front suspension and frame was damaged beyond repair.

Scott and the team arrived and the car was rushed to the jig by 5 PM. Normally this would be quitting time in corporate America, but this work assignment was just beginning.

In a scene reminiscent of back-halving a Top Fuel car, the front end was cut away from the GTO.

“It was a bad crash and it could have been a lot worse,” Geese said. “When cars crash at 200+ miles per hour there usually is a lot more than cosmetic damage. It’s not like our cars are built with a breakaway section like a Top Fuel dragster. It has a crumple zone design built into the design.”

With the Vanishing Point Race Cars design, even though the front-end took a hit, the cage didn’t move around.

“The front end absorbed the energy so the driver didn’t have to,” Geese said.

Geese and the crew gave themselves a good head start by stripping the car nearly to the frame before putting it in the hauler in San Antonio. Everything was gone, except for the wiring, including the windows. The fiberglass body was unbolted so it would be ready to come off.

“We had to get right back on the horse and fix it,” Geese said. ‘That saved us a lot of time and built strong morale headed into the project. It let everyone know that we were past the wreck and looking forward.”

Geese was able to return to his computer where all the special tubing measurements were stored. A crew began preparing the tubing for the front end.

“Anytime we build a car, we save those crucial measurements in a file and on the computer for repeatability,” Geese said. “The days when you can fly by the seat of your pants are gone.”

What caused it all...

Jim Geese was only eight years old when the ABC network introduced the Bionic Man series. Thirty-one years later, the founder of Vanishing Point Race Cars can still hear the deep-throated words in his mind.

Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.

Viewers witnessed the horrific crash of Col. Steve Austin on their screen during the intro. He was rebuilt using nuclear powered limbs and implants that granted him incredible attributes.

Geese never imagined himself to be anything other than a mechanical physician, armed with the knowledge of how to build a race machine from the ground up.

During the final session of the IHRA Texas Nationals, Geese watched as second-generation Pro Modified racer Scott Cannon, Jr., crashed what arguably could have been deemed as his finest work.

The initial shock for both he and Scotty Cannon proved that race cars are secondary and the human element was of most significance.

Geese turned and walked away unsure of the prognosis on the top end knowing that no news in this case wasn’t a good thing. The elder Cannon, removed his headset, and let it fall to the ground as he walked away.

What seemed like a lifetime of silence was broken when Scott, Jr., spoke up on the radio, “Tell my Dad that I’m okay. I’m upside down…but, I am okay.”

Scotty had not heard the news as he walked over to the team’s SUV. Geese heard it and his heart resumed the normal beat pattern.

Scotty was more than torn up. He’d always prepared Scott that crashes were part of the game, but somehow or another he didn’t fully comprehend the lesson of his words.

Geese declined a ride to the top end and elected to walk the length of the track, replaying the incident over an over in his mind. What went wrong? Geese later learned the nature of a concrete drag strip. Get into the marbles and you’ll pay the price no matter how good of a chassis you have.

When you add in a surface that has a dip here and there and it further compounds the problem.

As Scotty reached the wreckage, all he could do was turn his head in disgust and ask questions not as a team owner, but as a parent. Should I let my son get back in this? How close did I just come to losing my first-born? A disgusted Scotty turned around at the sight of his son and walked away. Some might think he was angry. But those that knew him, knew the deal. Scotty was scared to death and walking away was his way of dealing with that fear.

However, Geese and Scotty weren’t the only ones second-guessing. Scott, Jr., found himself asking anyone within earshot that saw thee accident, “Did I drive it too far? Did I drive over my head?"

It was normal for a sophomore driver to ask such a question and for Scott, Jr., those were important questions that needed to be answered. It was his way of evaluating the situation.

Scott, Jr. has always been a natural driver and a quick study. Scotty, when grooming his son as successor to his throne, taught him a few things. He was to know what the car was telling him and he most importantly needed to know when it was time to lift.

With just a half-season under his belt, Scott, Jr., had learned those techniques. He was always able to convey the car’s actions to Scotty and while he knew the edge of the envelope of when to lift, he rarely drove past the danger zone. That was behind the wheel of a 1953 Studebaker that was grossly overweight, major league outdated and so ugly that only a mother could love it. In fact, when Scotty decided to run it in 2005, his favorite saying was, “We’re going to put lipstick on this old sow and take her to the dance.”

And, they did just that. Scott, Jr., not only qualified the worn out machine, but also found the stamina to put the Australian-built machine into the top three for the 2006 Torco Race Fuel Pro Modified Shootout points standings.

The new car that Geese built was everything the old sow wasn’t. It was aerodynamically efficient, built for Scott, Jr. and knew how to make perfectly boring straight runs, lap after lap.

As Scotty boastfully proclaimed, “If someone can’t drive this car, they don’t need to drive this class.”

Scott, Jr., had established his worth early in qualifying by nailing down the second quickest elapsed time with a 6.07X with an incredible top speed in excess of 237 miles per hour.

Scotty wanted to step up the horsepower output to commensurate with the atmospheric conditions given him. The next few runs gave Scott, Jr. all he could handle, but nothing out of the ordinary. Each time the car drifted to the outside edge of the groove, Scott, Jr. would wisely lift.

Scott, Jr., knew where that edge was and displayed that knowledge time and time again.

On the fateful Saturday evening run, Scott Jr., was nowhere near the limit of where he’d gone in previous runs. The car drifted right, got the marbles, kicked the rear sideways and went into the left wall sliding over on its roof and scratching its way to a stop into the shutdown area.

“I didn’t drive the car any different than I had all weekend long,” Scott Jr., said. “The car slid a little into the marbles and before I could even react, it shot across the track. At that point, I was just along for the ride.”

No one wanted to take pictures, but there was a morbid curiousity that drove fellow racers and fans over to the Cannon pit to take a look at the dangers of drag racing.

Scotty was distraught and immediately began to take inventory of how he could salvage his season before it had really began. Scott, Jr., had effectively experienced his first major crash. Geese; however, began to take inventory of the damage in his mind.

“I guess we’ll bring back out the Studebaker until we can get a new car built,” Scotty said. “It’s all good. This is just a bad situation that we’ll have to make good out of it.”

Sponsor Evan Knoll walked up prior to the car arrived to offer encouragement. He hadn’t witnessed the accident, but the look on the crew’s faces was enough to let him know they’d been fortunate to have their driver and friend intact. Lesser accidents had resulted in the airlifting of driver to the hospital or to the morgue.

“Whatever it takes to get back out there, do it,” Knoll instructed. “If you know of a car ready to go, buy it. But, by all means, if you want to do this, I am behind you 100-percent.”

Then the car arrived. The once sparkling beauty, voted Best Engineered just hours early, was severely wounded.

The front half of the car was a total disaster. Its wheels were pointed in opposite directions and the engine was minus the top half. The doors were jarred open, the glass was cracked and in some instances was broken, the wing pointed downward and the car was a cosmetic disaster.

Geese walked around the car and deep inside while he was torn apart emotionally at the sight of the mangled racer, he drew a gleam of relief knowing that Scott, Jr.’s rollcage was intact – the true mark of a safe racecar. He began to look inside with Scotty at his side.

The wiring was intact and except for the front end of the car and the body, this car could be saved. It could only be done with a full team effort.

“Scotty can you get this car to the shop?” Geese asked. “If we play our cards right and plan accordingly, we can get this thing ready to go for Rockingham. There is no margin for error.”

With his newfound role as team manager, Scott, Jr. and the crew began disassembling the car and determining what could go and what would be left as souvenirs for the fans.

The accident transpired at 9 PM and by 1 AM, the car was stripped and loaded for the long trip to Telford, Pa.

UPDATED

Cannon travels to Rockingham fully recovered from San Antonio mishap

What caused it all...