TULSA, Okla. -- Racer Michelle "Shelly" Howard may have
lost consciousness and been unable to cut the fuel firing the
engine of her dragster before it flipped over and shot backward,
killing her and her son.
During a Saturday night test run, Howard's rear-engine dragster
suffered a "blowover," where all four wheels left the surface,
Tulsa Raceway Park said Friday in a statement.
Howard, 59, apparently took her foot off the accelerator when
the car went airborne at the 1/8-mile mark on the track.
"As the dragster became vertical, it rotated 180 degrees on its
axis and then touched down on all four wheels and against the wall
with the car now facing the starting line," the raceway said.
"The impact of the dragster to the pavement could have been enough
to cause Shelly Howard to lose consciousness."
The racetrack said the veteran driver never hit the engine's
kill switch, deployed parachutes or turned off the fuel supply to
the motor.
"At that point, either the throttle stuck wide open, or
Shelly's foot jammed the throttle down," the raceway said.
Tulsa police estimated the car was traveling 250 mph when it
struck a chase car parked behind the starting line with her
36-year-old son, Brian, in the back seat.
The force of the impact hurled the vehicles 150 feet through a
fence and into a drainage area. Both Howards were thrown from their
vehicles and pronounced dead at the scene. Because of extensive
damage to the dragster and its onboard "black box," it is
impossible to determine exactly what happened.
An investigation by the Tulsa Police Department ruled the two
deaths an accident.
Shelly Howard was a three-time national event winner in the
rival National Hot Rod Association and a regional champion in 2001
and 2003. She raced in Division 4, which includes Louisiana,
Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.
Howard raced in a category of vehicles one notch below the
zenith in the sport, the Top Fuel dragster. Howard, who started
racing in 1978, had won the Division 4 season-opening event three
weeks earlier in Houston.