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E-mail Story'Horrific' scene: Racer killed at March Meet
Top Fuel racer dies after high-speed run crosses track safety features, flips over
| Saturday, Mar 8 2008 8:45 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Mar 10 2008 3:16 PM
Tragedy struck Saturday at Auto Club Famoso Raceway when nostalgia Top Fuel racer John Shoemaker was killed in a high-speed crash.
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Judee Shoemaker guides her husband John Shoemaker back to the starting line after his burnout in top fuel qualifying. Seconds later, Shoemaker crashed at the end of the track and was airlifted to a local hospital. He would later be pronounced dead.
Shoemaker, 65, had just finished a qualifying run at 6.11 seconds and 249.93 mph when his dragster failed to slow after powering past the finish line.
The car, under what appeared to be full throttle, thundered down approximately 3,000 feet of shut-down area and a sand trap that is more than 300 feet in length. The parachutes never deployed and Shoemaker's car hit an dirt berm, which separates the track from a public dirt road and an orange grove to the south.
Shoemaker's dragster flipped over the berm and came to rest upside down about halfway between the berm and the orchard.
Track rescue crews were quickly on the scene, administered aid and an air ambulance was brought in. According to the Kern County Sheriff's Department, Shoemaker died en route to Kern Medical Center.
Shoemakers' longtime friend Dave Smith was waiting in the staging lane just a few cars behind Shoemaker when the tragedy happened.
"It was pretty horrific," Smith said. "We think he lost consciousness during the run because he never let off the throttle and the chutes didn't open."
Smith, owner and promoter of Sacramento Raceway Park, met Shoemaker in 1965 at the Raceway and remained friends and racing competitors for 44 years.
A longtime chassis builder, Shoemaker came out of retirement last year to compete against Smith and some of their mutual racing friends, Smith said.
"John was well respected in the racing community," Smith said. "This is a very, very deep tragedy for all of us. We were good friends. He and his wife were very respected and wonderful people."
Steve Gibbs, vice president of the Wally Parks Motorsports Museum, said that to the best of his knowledge the death is the first in the history of nostalgia Top Fuel racing, which has been going strong since the mid-1990s.
"It shakes you back to reality," said Gibbs, who is a consultant for the new NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Series. The March Meet is the debut race in the series.
"It's something you can never take for granted," Gibbs said of racing. "These cars are very fast cars and we've made great strides in strides in safety. Without any speculation at all as to why it happened, it's just a terrible thing particularly for this community.
"We go to back long way together. I've known John Shoemaker for well over 40 years. He's been a great racer. Probably an unsung racer. He's not a household name but he ran Top Fuel cars back in the 1960s and '70s and alcohol dragster He's just an old-school drag racer and it's a terrible loss."
Shoemaker won the NHRA Winternationals in Top Alcohol Dragster in 1984 was was the NHRA Northwest Division TAD champ in 1989.
Shoemaker is survived by wife Judee and a son Jim.
Assistant sports editor Ross Priest contributed to this story.