Winners Cory McClenathan, Tim Wilkerson, and Greg Anderson and their fellow National Hot Rod Association racers completed the Northwest Nationals Sunday evening and are moving on to Sonoma, Calif., for this weekend's FRAM-Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
 
Meanwhile, the King County Sheriff's Department Criminal Investigations Division will continue its examination of the Pacific Raceways scene where Top Alcohol Dragster driver Mark Niver died Sunday in a high-speed top-end accident.
 
Lead Detective Jay Moloney said Monday morning, "We're just barely getting started. We processed the scene yesterday, but I haven't had a chance to do much but just the initial paperwork on this. The autopsy was most likely early this morning, but I haven't heard from the medical examiner's office yet."

UPDATED: Citing a report from the Medical Eaminer's office, the Seattle Times news department has reported Mark Niver died from severe injuries to his head, neck and torso. His death has been ruled as an accident. The Kings County Sheriff Department has an ongoing investigation.

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Winners Cory McClenathan, Tim Wilkerson, and Greg Anderson and their fellow National Hot Rod Association racers completed the Northwest Nationals Sunday evening and are moving on to Sonoma, Calif., for this weekend's FRAM-Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
 
Meanwhile, the King County Sheriff's Department Criminal Investigations Division will continue its examination of the Pacific Raceways scene where Top Alcohol Dragster driver Mark Niver died Sunday in a high-speed top-end accident.
 
Lead Detective Jay Moloney said Monday morning, "We're just barely getting started. We processed the scene yesterday, but I haven't had a chance to do much but just the initial paperwork on this. The autopsy was most likely early this morning, but I haven't heard from the medical examiner's office yet."
 
He said "it's too soon" to determine whether negligence on anyone's part played a role in the accident.
 
"I know the NHRA is looking into the causes so that they can prevent it from happening in the future. The vehicle still needs to be inspected to figure out what happened with the parachutes and why the vehicle folded the way it did. The biggest question's going to be what the vehicle inspection show us," he said.
 
No cause of death has been announced officially, but Moloney said, "I think (with) Mr. Niver, the cause of death probably will be head injuries."
 
He confirmed that Niver, 60, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was pronounced dead at the scene after his A-Fuel Dragster became tangled with the netting beyond the sand trap and crumpled like a paper wad.
 
"King County Medic One makes that determination. When I got to the scene, I notified the medical examiner's office and they responded." He said Niver never was transported to a hospital or treated away from the Pacific Raceway property.
 
Moloney said he has no timetable when his investigation will be completed but guessed "about a month, possibly longer, definitely not a year."
 
He said, "I don't expect any charges" to come from his investigation. Any time there's a death, we have to do some sort of investigation to make sure that there really was an accident. And there's nothing in this case that would indicate that it's anything other than an accident."
 
What Moloney's department will be inspecting, he said, is "mostly the car." The NHRA, he said, "is mostly going to be doing most of the inspection on that. It's beyond my expertise to be able to tell you what failed on that vehicle."
 
Glen Gray, vice-president of technical operations, will be working with Moloney, as will Graham Light, NHRA board of directors member and senior vice-president of racing operations. Both were at Pacific Raceways Sunday, helping Moloney and the King County Sheriff's Department. "Mr. Gray is the one I primarily spoke with," the detective said.
 
Said Moloney, "Luckily, Pacific Raceways really doesn't have that many accidents. This has been kind of a rough year for them, because they had a motorcycle fatality earlier in the year. It was on the road course. He failed to negotiate a curve. I can think of only one other. The driver of a roadster died of natural causes. He made the quarter-mile and had a heart attack, and the car just rolled to a stop."
 
Niver's fatality was the second in a month and the third of the year at an NHRA national event. A female spectator was killed in February at Phoenix's Firebird International Raceway, hit by a tire that came off Antron Brown's Matco Tools Dragster.