NHRA: Mark Niver a top Alchohol Dragster dies in an accident at the race
Mark Niver, 60, who is known as one of the top Alcohol Dragster died last evening in a high-speed car crash when his parachutes failed to work properly, which prevented him from stopping, leading him to collide against the netting at the end of the track.
The National Hot Rod Association told the reports that they are doing an investigation, and are awfully sorry to Niver’s family. When asked by a spokesman about further information regarding Mark Nivers death, his request was declined by the association.
As seen on the video the parachutes instantly ripped off after the dragster deployed them in order to stop his car near the finish line. Mark failed to stop his car which was travelling at staggering speed of 271mph, which led him into the sand pit, where his car skidded through the gravel, hitting the netting at the end of the sand pit where the cars chassis came through in the driver’s cockpit. The accident happened around 2:15 pm but the race organizers contacted the County Sheriff after 25 minutes later but by the time, the police reached Niver had died already. The Sheriff ordered to shut the event down by 4:15 p.m. right before the start of the final round. The drag race was delayed until the players briefly started to race again until the law enforcement officials came in and terminated the drag race championship.
Mark Niver had been with the NHRA for over 30 years, was also a mechanic and owned a machine shop in Phoenix, where he built his own cars and engines. Till date, he had won two finals in the Top Alcohol Dragster championship, 2008 being his recent win.
However later, the wife of Chris Demke who was the winner of the emotional race gave Tanis and her grandchildren the winning trophy at the end of the race.
Chris Demek said that he hopes Niver’s memory was seen in a win light, he also said that people run into the net all the time and are okay but this was certainly an odd instance loosing an elder in the sport has really choked him up. Demek exclaimed that when he saw the dirt cloud from distance, everyone around him told him he probably has won the race but he did not care as his main concern was Mark. Chris also said losing Mark was like losing a family member.
The NHRA expressed its “deepest sympathies to the entire Niver family”.
However, this was not the first death in NHRA history but the second death in just under one month.
NHRA top veteran driver Neal Parker also died in a horrific crash recently at 58. Parker also died due to the same reason, as his parachute which seemed to have malfunctioned and he just couldn’t stop hitting the safety net, died due to tremendous head injuries.
Five months from a spectator also died an unusual death, after a dragster crashed at the Arizona Nationals. Antron Brown who is the U.S army dragster’s car went out of control and of the strip, which resulted into his left rear wheel discharging from the car hitting the woman, who was taken to a hospital via airlift for treatment but shortly died.
Scott Kalitta, known to race for Funny Car who is a two-time Fuel Championship and one time Funny Car Championship winner died at 45, a few years ago as well, after his car’s engine exploded at 300 mph near the finish line. According to the reports the dragster car spun out of control when he hit 300mph leaving his parachutes damaged, which failed to slow the car down, which led him through the sand trap at the end of the track eventually hitting the concrete filled post next to the safety net. He shortly died after the brutal crash.
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