Ebay Motors Charity Challenge
If we weren't competitive enough, eBay Motors has come up with a little contest to pit the editors of Primedia's performance titles in a fun, performance car building exercise that will ultimately benefit charity. Here's how it works. There are a total of 10 teams fielding 10 vehicles. Each team has been given an equal amount of money from eBay Motors to locate and hop up a given style of vehicle. Car Craft is hedging its bet by actually being a member of two teams-a Chevy and a Ford team. Once the competition is over and the winner is announced, eBay Motors will auction all the cars off with proceeds going to charity. You can check the progress of all 10 buildups by logging onto www.editorscharitychallenge.com and vote for your favorite on line.
On the Ford side of things, CC has teamed up with Muscle Mustangs & Fast Fords, 5.0 Mustang & Super Ford, and Popular Hot Rodding magazines to field a '93 Cobra Mustang that we bought on eBay Motors with a turbocharger already on the car! It will soon be stuffed with suspension goodies and bigger brakes, tires, and wheels all in the name of Ford performance.
For the Chevy faithful, CC is working with Chevy High Performance and Super Chevy magazines to field a '72 Nova SS that the team found locally in Burbank, California, complete with a 327, a Crane cam, and Edelbrock intake and headers. It should be an interesting buildup to see which team comes up with the best vehicle. We'll keep you informed on the progress of both cars.
Darrell Russell 1968-2004
It was a dream that ended as a nightmare for 35-year-old Darrell Russell of Hockley, Texas. The dream began at the beginning of 2001 when the winningest driver in NHRA Top Fuel history, Joe Amato, named the young Texan as his replacement, and the good times continued when the former alcohol dragster driver became only the third driver ever to win his inaugural professional outing, taking the Winternationals crown in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Russell would go on to take Rookie of the Year honors while finishing Sixth in the points twice before coming home fourth after the 2003 season. In 83 professional outings Russell never failed to qualify.
But that dream job turned tragic in the second round of eliminations at the Sears Craftsman Nationals at Gateway International Raceway outside St. Louis when Russell's dragster suffered what appeared to be a left rear tire failure as the car crossed the finish line at better than 322 mph. Pieces of the tires ripped the rear wing off the car, immediately eliminating all downforce. The car rolled, eventually breaking into three major pieces before coming to rest against the guardwall. Russell was quickly extricated and flown by helicopter to nearby St. Louis University Medical Center, where it was announced that he'd died as a result of his injuries. Russell's death was the first in the NHRA professional ranks since the passing of Top Fuel driver Blaine Johnson at the U.S. Nationals in 1996.
Although no official statement as to the cause of the accident has yet been made by the National Hot Rod Association, Car Craft has learned that Ray Alley, director of Top Fuel and Funny Car racing, has said in an interview that it appears a piece of the Goodyear Eagle tire may have hit Russell in the back of his helmet at a high rate of speed, resulting in what appears to be a massive basal skull fracture, the same type of injury that took the life of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt.
"This was a real tragedy," said Alley. "As you know, so many of racing's rules are written as the result of something unfortunate like this. Darrell should have survived this accident easily. The rollcage was perfectly intact, and he didn't hit anything hard enough to hurt him, and yet something got through an area it's never gotten through before. At the end of the day you cannot build a race car that you can't be killed in."