Some say, the best 60″ that raceway’s ever seen.
Sacramento Raceway will have to shell out a couple thousand to replace their Christmas tree after Wednesday night’s drag night. According to video posted on social media shortly after the accident, a Ford Maverick managed to launch and veer straight into the raceway’s timing light, taking out the Christmas tree before high-centering itself on the K-rail separating the two drag lanes.
Check out the video for yourself below.
As many have pointed out, coincidentally enough, this Ford Maverick was a part of a “Mustang Night” lineup of cars. Mustangs, if you didn’t already know, have a reputation for veering into crowds and sidewalks even after their wheels are pointed straight.
Those in the know speculate this Maverick broke a front axle at launch. With one wheel suddenly directing all that power to the right, a sloppy run and an accident was in this Maverick’s future.
Here’s the aftermath of the timing light accident below.
While unfortunate, most race fans in the Sacramento area just wanted to know if they were going to be able to race that weekend or not. Today is testing for this upcoming weekend’s Govenor’s cup, an NHRA sanctioned event.
According to comments in Sacramento Raceway’s Wednesday Night Drag group, a new Christmas tree is being installed as I type this and a timing system will presumably be in place for testing later today.
A new tree, it seems, has been sourced from Race America, a timing system company based a couple miles away in San Jose.
As for the broken tree, according to long-time Sacramento Raceway attendee Elsie Newman, it looks like that tree’s been there for the better part of 20 years.
A lot of great memories sitting in the passenger seat of my dads truck racing 20+ years ago. That tree has a lot of history.
Timing tree lights aren’t the most complicated devices. I’m sure someone will step up and repair the broken one. It’s what scrappy NorCal drag racers do.
Rear axle… there are no front axles on that. just a front spindle.