DE JORIA RETURNS TO SITE OF DEVASTATING CRASH
Her accident was the second of two Raceway Park shutdown incidents since Scott Kalitta’s fatal accident during the 2008 event.
NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car racer Alexis De Joria experienced her first racing accident last year at the NHRA Supernationals in Englishtown, NJ. This
weekend she races at Raceway Park for the first time since the parachutes were ripped from the car following a 260 mph pass sending her into the redesigned sand trap, through one catch net and into the second.
Her accident was the second of two Raceway Park shutdown incidents since Scott Kalitta’s fatal accident during the 2008 event.
“Englishtown has been bitter sweet to our Patron team, after running my personal quickest and fastest run in Top Alcohol Funny Car, we had a part malfunction tearing off my parachutes and coating the brakes with rear-end fluid preventing me from stopping the car before the sand trap,” De Joria said. “I did everything possible to slow our Mustang down and aim it as straight into the trap. It completely destroyed our car and required us to once again start from scratch as we did at the beginning of the season.”
De Joria isn’t nervous about her return to Englishtown.
“I accept that accidents are part of the racing business said De Joria, this is how I choose to make my living and believe that NHRA Drag Racing is one of, if not the safest motor sport today,” she explained.
“Safety is an evolution and with respect to NHRA, the teams and fans, we will continue learning. We incorporated several additional safety elements into the new car built after Englishtown last year and feel confident that we can once again get our performance level back so we can compete for the win this year”.
De Joria is eighth in the NHRA Top Alcohol Funny Car point standings.
