Tragic weekend

Tragedy struck the motorsports world twice this past weekend. In addition to Scott Kalitta's fatal NHRA Funny Car crash on Saturday, an American vintage racer (Dino Crescentini of Rochester Hills, Mich.) was killed at Mosport on Sunday. The Toronto Star has the story here.

I would be interested to hear from drag racing people what they thought of the Kalitta crash. The explosion was very nasty - and for all we know, he could have been fatally injured at that point. But after seeing the entire piece, my only thought was, 'Why the #$%&# is there a hard wall at the end of a 300+ mph drag strip?'

Will Kalitta's death spur big league drag racing to do what Senna's death did for F1 and what Earnhardt's death did for NASCAR? Or would a bigger gravel trap, better nets or a much longer run0ff strip not have made a difference?