If the devastating crash in his Studebaker two years ago didn’t inspire him to quit racing doorslammers, Thursday’s “much-gentler” high-speed incident at the World Series of Pro Modified indeed won’t.
Blue Collar drag racing fan favorite Scott Palmer vowed to be back to race as soon as possible with his 1963 Corvette following run off the end of Bradenton Motorsports Park and subsequent tumble in the soft-dirt trap of the facility outside of Tampa, Fla.
Palmer crawled out of the crashed race car that was caused by a stuck throttle and his inability to deploy the parachute fully in time.
Palmer said the ill-fated run was intended to be a “soft” 3.70 run to get information for tuners Jeff Pierce and Billy Stocklin.
“We were just going to get some information and hit it hard tomorrow and just try to regroup,” Palmer told CompetitionPlus.com on Thursday. “Because my spare ratio and my spare rear end were a different ratio, it threw off our testing a little bit from what we had tested all week. So I actually saw the number on the scoreboard around the 379. Perfect. That is exactly what we were looking for. Even though we knew that wouldn’t qualify… my goals with this Corvette were honestly to run career best, and that would’ve been anything faster than 375. So we were just making moves on it, and I’ve got two of the best guys in the world helping me.”
Where things went awry, Palmer said, even though his hand is always on the parachute lever going through the lights, and his routine is always to deploy the parachutes and lift at the same time. It’s when Palmer put his M&M Transmission in neutral that he realized the parachutes hadn’t fully deployed.
“I realized the chutes did not blossom,” Palmer admitted. “Reached over, pushed the lever about… It went about a half inch more, and I felt one of them come out. It felt like one, but it was just too late.”
Palmer, also a successful Top Fuel driver, realized he’d made a mistake of significant proportions.
“There’s just not a lot of room to make mistakes,” Palmer said. “The throttle’s sticking, not sure what caused that. It could have iced over; it could have been anything. We haven’t had that problem. But the first hit on the chutes, I don’t drive this car enough to be good at it, probably. So I just hit the chutes, let off the gas, put it in neutral, and realized the chutes weren’t out. By the time I reached back over and got them out, it was just too late.”
Palmer said before he knew it, he was in the soft dirt of Bradenton Motorsports Park’s runoff.
“It bounced me around and bounced off, bounced into the dirt,” Palmer said. “The dirt out there in that strawberry field is super soft, and it sucked the nose in the ground and just catapulted me, and it just barrel-rolled, and it tore the car up.”
Palmer said he couldn’t have asked for a better scenario in a bad situation. His clutch guy, Jim Wiens, who also built the car, is one of those he credits for his ability to walk away from a crash that could have been much worse.
Likewise, Palmer credited Stroud Safety for not feeling a thing by outfitting him with their newest neck restraint and the seat by DSP Marc. He added the crash broke the front stuff off and damaged the carbon fiber body, but the full rollcage was intact.
“All in all, this thing sitting here still resembles a ’63 Corvette and absolutely no damage to the main parts of the rollcage,” Palmer said. “As many times as it barrel rolled, I never felt my head even get heavy. As my head went back, because it was barrel rolling, I could feel my head being stable, and it was the wildest feeling ever.”
Worse than the crash itself, Palmer admits, has been some of the social media posts. While he’s quick to point out that the majority have been positive, there are those intent on being negative.
“I know I’ve read on Facebook, ‘Scott should have got the chutes out sooner,’ and they’re right,” Palmer said. “[They also said] maybe I should stick to Top Fuel and give up the Pro Mods. I just want everybody to know I’m not. I’ll be back here next year for the next one. And whatever it takes, I’m just not a quitter. It wasn’t the car’s fault this happened, and it wasn’t really anybody’s fault. The throttle stuck, and if anybody’s going to be to blame for this, I’ll take the blame for not getting the lever pushed the first time far enough. But that’s from not running this car except in the wintertime.”
Palmer intends to change this as soon as he can.
“With the next car, I’ll make more runs in it,” Palmer declared. “I’ll take it to NHRA races and run it on Monday or whatever we need to do.”
In the meantime, Palmer picks up the pieces of a broken race car for the second time in three years. But Palmer, being Palmer, refuses to move forward without crediting those he says makes it possible to consider returning for another shot.
“Jeff Pierce and Billy Stocklin are helping me,” Palmer said. “I’ve had a lot of help on this car: Mark Micke, Louis Ouimette from Canada. I’ve got so many people that have helped me with this car. Rodger Brogdon at RoofTec has been a big-time inspiration. DeWayne Mills, Kallee Mills, and that team have more invested in my team than I do in this car. So there are a lot of people that I need to thank for what they’ve done for me to run a Pro Mod. But as far as me not doing it again, I’ll be back for sure with another Alcohol Pro Mod, and we’ll be down here doing the same thing and hopefully with better results.”
