A few comments regarding the Sammy Millet story published at Bob's
Berserko Lounge on draglist.com…
Rocket cars continued to run at NHRA tracks up through the early
eighties. This was many years after the two fatal crashes. They were
banned in large part because the concentrated hydrogen peroxide became
prohibitively expensive.
Although speed and E.T. limits were placed on rocket cars, they were
not specifically mandated to shut-off at half-track. (Dave Anderson's
speed of 344 mph in the first Pollution Packer remains the highest speed
ever recorded at an NHRA National event.) Drivers running rocket Funny
Cars would set the motor on kill then shutoff and have both chutes fully
inflated by the time they hit the speed trap in order not to break the
speed limit.
Sammy's original rocket Funny Car was a converted nitro car. However,
the Vega-bodied car was purpose-built from the outset as a rocket car with
a chassis by Tom Daniels and a rocket system by Dick Keller.
Below is a history article of mine published last year in Bonneville
Racing News.
Sincerely, Franklin Ratliff
The hydrogen peroxide rocket dragster was developed in late 1966 when
Pete Farnsworth, Ray Dausman and Dick Keller formed Reaction Dynamics Inc.
and built the X-1, prototype to the Blue Flame land speed record car. Also
known as the Rislone Rocket, the X-1 closely resembled a slightly
elongated Formula One car and featured an enclosed cockpit, tubular space
frame, front and rear independent suspension, four-wheel disk brakes and
three drag chutes. The propulsion system used a 2,500 pounds thrust motor
fed from a nitrogen-pressurized 11-gallon tank mounted vertically behind
the cockpit. Nitrogen was contained in two fiberglass-wound spherical
bottles mounted forward of the cockpit. The Formula One configuration
allowed Farnsworth to maximize the stopping power of the 750-pound X-1 as
well as place the center of gravity where he wanted it.
In August, 1967 at US 30 drag strip in Crown Point, Illinois, Chuck
Suba drove the X-1 to a 5.41 second elapsed time (although Pete Farnsworth
felt the best elapsed time record on reliable clocks was 5.9 seconds at
Oklahoma City). The 5.41 second elapsed time remained drag racing's
all-time low ET until November 11, 1971 when the second hydrogen peroxide
rocket dragster, Bill Fredrick's Courage of Australia driven by Vic
Wilson, recorded a 5.107 second 311 mph pass during private testing at
Orange County International Raceway, California. In doing so, it became
the first car of any kind to run 300 mph in a quarter mile. The Courage of
Australia was essentially a scaled-down Blue Flame clone. Nitrogen was
contained in a spherical bottle mounted in the nose forward of the single
front wheel with the hydrogen peroxide in a horizontal tank forward of the
cockpit.
The Courage of Australia's initial rival was the first Pollution
Packer. The Pollution Packer name came from sponsor Tony Fox's trash
compactor company. The Pollution Packer was created when Ky Michaelson
mounted the motor from the Reaction Dynamics X-1 in his Top Gas dragster
chassis. The Pollution Packer had a fuel tank larger than the X-1's but
still mounted vertically behind the cockpit. Unlike the X-1, the two
fiberglass-wound spherical nitrogen bottles were behind the fuel tank,
stacked one on top of the other. The fuel system was pressurized to over
500 PSI, 75 PSI more than in the X-1, thus raising thrust from 2,500
pounds to about 3,000 pounds. The Pollution Packer made its public debut
Labor Day 1972 at Union Grove, Wisconsin with a set of 6.13 second 248 mph
and 5.68 second 280 mph runs. In September of 1972 the Pollution Packer
would be taken to Bonneville where driver Dave Anderson established FIA
standing start records of 158.8 mph (5.666 seconds) for the quarter mile,
173.9 mph (6.31 seconds) for the half kilometer, and 234.7 mph for the
kilometer. The kilometer record stands to this day. After acceptance of
hydrogen peroxide rocket dragsters by NHRA, the Pollution Packer would
become the first car to clock over 300 mph at an NHRA National event
during the Gatornationals on March 18, 1973. During the 1973 NHRA
Springnationals, the Pollution Packer became the first four-second
dragster of any kind when Dave Anderson clocked a pass of 4.99 seconds at
322 mph. At the 1973 US Nationals at Indianapolis, Dave Anderson attained
his best ever performance with a pass of 4.62 seconds at 344 mph.
Given the aerodynamics knowledge of the time as well as how the speeds
rocket dragsters attained left little room for driver error and no room
for structural failure or mechanical malfunction, relatively slower less
expensive rockets might have been the type most suitable for drag strip
operation. Arvil Porter constructed just such a car and displayed it in
the pits during the 1973 Gatornationals. This was a medium-sized red and
gold dragster with an enclosed cockpit and a motor developing only about
1,600 pounds thrust. In 1970, Porter had built a go-kart type hydrogen
peroxide rocket car and drove it to speeds of over 180 mph.
Despite their optimistic beginnings, the rocket dragster fraternity
found itself in a series of accidents that began in April of 1973. While
driving the Free Spirit, a car built by Tampa chassis specialist Glen
Blakely with a propulsion system and 5,000 pounds thrust motor built by
Arvil Porter, driver Russell Mendez saw his front tires disintegrate as he
approached Orlando Speedworld's finish line. The Free Spirit was using
Funny Car front runners at the rear and Avon moped tires at the front.
Mendez managed to guide his machine through the traps on bare front rims
to complete a 5.38 second 280 mph pass. Afterward Funny Car front runners
would be used front and rear. The Free Spirit was the first of the rail
type rocket dragsters to use a vertical stabilizer. The hydrogen peroxide
tank was mounted horizontally behind the cockpit while the nitrogen bottle
was a large steel cylinder located forward of the cockpit. Not only did
this move the center of gravity as far forward as possible but also gave
the car a high polar moment of inertia to resist spinning. While making
another run at Union Grove, during the 1973 annual Memorial Day
Championships, Mendez was hit by about a 30 mph cross wind around 900 feet
from the start. The wind, unnoticed before due to signs and guardrails,
caused the Free Spirit to swerve into a track side ditch at 290 mph. No
damage, other than flat spots on the tires, was sustained. Mendez would
later record a fine 5.22 second 325 mph pass with the Free Spirit in
August of 1973.
That same summer John Paxon was at Irwindale Raceway trying out a new
motor in the Courage of Australia. After lifting at the 950-foot mark,
Paxon coasted through the lights at 5.52 seconds 250 mph. Unfortunately,
when he hit the chute nothing happened. Then nothing happened again when
he hit the back-up chute. Getting on the brakes hard, he wore through and
popped the skinny land speed tires. The car stayed upright through the
sand trap then pole vaulted when it hit a wooden beam at the end of the
trap and landed upside down on its vertical stabilizer. Fortunately, due
to the car's sturdy semi-monocoque construction Paxon was uninjured. The
Courage of Australia was built with one chute tube over the rocket motor
and the other chute tube under it. The problem turned out to be the new
motor being several inches longer than the old one. When the first pilot
chute was released it dropped down, welded itself to the nozzle, and
prevented the back-up chute from deploying.
Later in 1973, Paula Murphy had her 3rd and 5th cervical vertebrae
cracked in a similar crash with Ky Michaelson's Miss STP rocket dragster
at Sears Point Raceway, California. Murphy, experienced with jet cars at
Bonneville and Funny Cars on the drag strip, got her rocket car license
driving the Pollution Packer. By this time, Michaelson had split from Tony
Fox with Dick Keller taking over as rocket engineer on the Pollution
Packer team. The Miss STP improved over the Pollution Packer by laying the
fuel tank down horizontally and putting the nitrogen bottles farther
forward behind the cockpit. Murphy's accident occurred when at the end of
the run when she released her first chute and was left virtually brakeless
when it ripped away the portion of the frame to which the chute tow lines
were secured. The Miss STP car was rebuilt by Michaelson and Frank Huzar
and run again by Murphy later that year.
The next year, on March 30, 1974, the first of the fatal rocket
dragster crashes occurred when Dave Anderson died of severe injuries
sustained in the crash of the first Pollution Packer. His car was unable
to stop when its drag chutes failed to deploy at the end of a run at
Charlotte (NC) Motor Speedway's drag strip. The primary chute did release,
with the pilot chute coming out followed by the main canopy. However, the
rear of the car was spinning to the left (clockwise) so that the car
backed into the chute and prevented full deployment. The circumstances of
the crash were worsened by the conditions under which the run was made.
The 1/8th mile drag strip at Charlotte was primarily the pit road for the
various NASCAR races held there. The Pollution Packer bolted down the
track at over 240 mph, slid into another dragster -- killing two crewmen
-- then bent itself nearly double upon impact with the outside retaining
wall.
Two weeks before his death, Dave Anderson unveiled at the 1974
Gatornationals a second Pollution Packer. This was a wedge shaped aluminum
monocoque car designed by Dick Keller with a 5,000 pounds thrust motor.
Pete Farnsworth was critical of the car's design, citing as his criticisms
the car's vulnerability to strong cross winds or an air cushion forming
under the flat bottom. With the aerodynamic knowledge available today, it
would have been simple to build a ground effects tunnel into the car.
During his second test run at the Gatornationals, Anderson was caught in
the lights by a crosswind at about 200 mph. The front wheels rose off the
track and, at one point, both left side tires were above the track.
Anderson managed to throw the car back into line and deploy his chute.
After Dave Anderson's death, Tony Fox selected Vern Anderson (no relation)
as the new driver. At Bonneville on August 19, 1974, Vern Anderson broke
some of the first Pollution Packer's FIA standing start records with
averages of 181.341 mph (4.93 seconds) for the quarter mile and 203.536
mph (5.492 seconds) for the half kilometer. Efforts the next day to break
the kilometer record and establish a mile record were unsuccessful due to
glare from the sun and vibration causing a chute to release prematurely.
The next year, back at the drag strip, the 5,000 pounds thrust motor was
replaced with a 7,500 pounds thrust "stack." Because the fuel
tank didn't get any bigger, the increased thrust did wonders for the car's
elapsed times but at some sacrifice to top speeds. Labor Day, 1975 at
Union Grove, Vern Anderson made a 4.96-second pass with a trap speed of
only 222 mph. His best speed that day was 4.662 seconds at 306 mph.
The last fatal crash of a rocket dragster on a drag strip occurred
March 16, 1975 during the Gatornationals. Following its initial
development in 1973, Russell Mendez and Glen Blakely made a variety of
changes in the Free Spirit. In a change from the way Arvil Porter had
installed the propulsion system, the cylindrical steel nitrogen bottle
located forward of the cockpit was replaced with fiberglass-wound aluminum
spherical bottles mounted behind the cockpit, thus moving the center of
gravity rearward and giving the car a lower polar moment of inertia. New
bodywork was fabricated including wheel pants by Nye Frank for the front
and rear wheels. The problem with the front wheel pants was they had at
least as much side area forward of the spindle as behind it and sharp
leading edges instead of rounded ones. One thing that seems to have worked
well was the experimental solid tires. These were created by vulcanizing a
polyurethane rubber directly to the rims in a process similar to making
high-speed printing press rollers. Running with a new motor from Arvil
Porter developing about 6,000 pounds thrust, Mendez crashed at the end of
a run after he had released the chute but before it had time to inflate.
The Free Spirit veered from the left lane all the way across the right
lane into a post supporting the guardrail. The impact was so tremendous
Mendez was actually ejected from the car.
The rocket dragster that turned out to have probably the longest career
was very similar to the 1973 version of the Free Spirit. This was the
Armor All car owned by Steve Evans and Ray Alley and driven by John Paxon.
After the crash of the Courage of Australia at Irwindale, Evans bought the
rocket motor and propulsion system from Bill Fredrick and had him install
them in a 21 foot long dragster chassis built by M and S Race Cars in
Azusa. Although initially run without one, a vertical stabilizer was later
fitted to the car. The hydrogen peroxide was contained in a horizontal
tank behind the cockpit and pressurized by nitrogen from several
cylindrical bottles located forward of the cockpit.
By 1976, things seem to have settled down with rocket dragsters. People
had a better idea of what would and would not work. Teams running rocket
dragsters, along with those running rocket Funny Cars, motorcycles and
go-karts, would soldier on until the early eighties before they all
vanished when the supply of concentrated hydrogen peroxide dried up.
Franklin Ratliff