NHRA Driver Steve Matusek Walks Away From Incredible Crash

Pro Modified has quickly become one of the most popular classes in the NHRA. Drawing it’s own loyal fan base and enough cars to fill the field twice then the rest of the pro classes are struggling to fill the ladder once. The fans love the diverse mixture of body styles and power adders and the edge-of-chaos action that keeps them on the edge of their seats, not to mention the personalities behind the visors. With up to, and possibly beyond 4,000 horsepower on tap, the turbocharged, supercharged and nitrous-injected hotrods are constantly fighting to keep the rear tires planted as they rip down the 1320.

Their massive rear slicks are designed to have a controlled about of slippage, and if the suspension or engine tune is off ever so slightly, the tires will actually bite harder than expected, leading to them wadding up, then releasing the built-up tension, then wadding again, in an extremely violent action known as tireshake. There are two options when a car begins to shake: lift out of the throttle or try to drive through it. If you lift, you’ve almost certainly lost any chance of winning the round, but if you try to drive through the shake, things usually smooth out eventually, but sometimes the outcome can be far worse than losing a round, as you can see below.

Aeromotive founder Steve Matusek found himself faced with the decision to lift and lose or stay in it and hope it settles down yesterday during the first round of eliminations at the NHRA Summit Equipment Nationals as Norwalk Raceway Park. His blown 1968 Camaro began to shake around the 200′ mark and made a move toward the centerline. You can see that Matusek decided to abort just before the 330′ cone, but at that point the car’s balance was upset and he was along for quite a wild ride. With the wheels turned back toward the center of his lane, the car began to rotate as it veered back toward the retaining wall, stuffing the nose into the concrete barrier, then spinning around and slamming the wall with the rear, actually skidding along the top briefly, before spinning back onto the track. Luckily for Matusek, the car slid instead of grabbing and barrel rolling. Matusek walked away from the crash without injury and likely will be back as soon as he can get a car ready.