Porcupine Tree Incident Zip
Huston Platt and the Dixie Twister. In spite of many years of flawless career service, the impact of a few errant seconds can forever shadow a life, and thats exactly what happened to Huston Platt on March 2, 1. A split second intervention by fates darkest hand overshadowed his lengthy and admirable career as a builder, tuner, and driver. Fate forever tagged him as the man at the center of the deadliest accident in American motorsports. The incident weighed heavily on Huston Platt until the day he died. His family and friends said he struggled with the tragedy, overcame the events, and finally moved on to regain his life. That he was able to rise above the tragedy will remain a testament to the mans fortitude and courage. Porcupine Tree Incident Zip' title='Porcupine Tree Incident Zip' />His date with destiny came as he made a run at the Yellow River Drag Strip, east of Atlanta. Closed for many years now, the track became a mobile home park, located off Interstate 2. Exit 8. 8. In the 1. Yellow River was well known for staging FX and Funny Car match races. It was also notorious as an outlaw track. No national sanction. No rules. Yellow River was always a substandard facility that, without major improvements and investment, would never have satisfied the minimum requirements for sanction. PT_Incident_Wall18.jpg' alt='Porcupine Tree Incident Zip' title='Porcupine Tree Incident Zip' />The Times of Northwest Indiana the source for crime, business, government, education and sports news and information in the Region. Porcupine Tree Incident Zip' title='Porcupine Tree Incident Zip' />Its inherent danger aside, Yellow River attracted a steady stream of race cars and spectators who ignored the obvious danger and were eager to flirt with disaster. Time Bomb Ticking. The lanes were narrow and the shut off area short, requiring good brakes and an early parachute release. The track was barely capable of accommodating 1. The River was a sort of drag racing bullring, a term commonly applied to sub basic dirt circle tracks that dotted the Southern landscape. Its inadequacies were well known, but the track paid well, consistently booked top traveling pros, and was a favorite of Atlanta area drag racing fans. The spectators were a core problem. Save for a few strands of farm barbed wire drooping from weathered posts, there was no fence and the fans crowded perilously close to the action. These hard core whoopers bolstered their courage with cold beer often combined with white liquor, gulped from brown paper sacks. It was not uncommon for hydraulically emboldened spectators to run out to the edge of the track to experience a 1. Such antics usually earned the applause of colleagues followed by an unheeded, Get back, dammit warning from the announcer. Hustons Dixie Twister 1. Camaro was current by all standards. A dedicated hands on racer, Huston built the car and the blown 4. Chevy in it. Many other Funny Cars had gone to the 4. Huston Platt had his date with destiny as he made a run in his 1969 Chevrolet Camaro the Dixie Twister at the Yellow River Drag Strip, east of Atlanta. Bored hackers who arent getting paid tend to get restless. And so, on Sunday, the cyber thieves behind the recent HBO breach leaked several unreleased episodes of. Amid the chaos of a canceled Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia attended by white supremacists, neoNazis, and other members of the socalled. Hemi or 4. 27 SOHC, but Hustons loyalty and parts bin remained with Chevrolet. His engines were powerful and reliable. Traction at most tracks in the Southeast was marginal, but Hustons tuning and wily driving allowed him to master sandy, slippery surfaces while opponents helplessly spun their tires. Like many of his peers, Hustons chassis was built by Mt. Clemens, Michigans Logghe Stamping Company. Its cars had a great reputation for being fast, well handling, and safe. Logghe pioneered the modern chassis and fiberglass flip top body that dominated the Funny Car ranks. The Dixie Twister was running against Frank Oglesby, a journeyman driver, in Dyno Don Nicholsons Cougar. Oglesby had only recently taken over for Nicholson, who had moved to a SOHC powered AMP Maverick. After several close calls, Dyno had called it quits in the increasingly hazardous nitro Funny Cars, so Oglesby was driving to fulfill Nicholsons prior match race commitments. Also on hand was Malcolm Durham, Jungle Jim, Arnie Beswickall of them Funny Car vets. Huston and Oglesby did the usual smoky burnouts, followed by a couple of dry hops. Both cars were off on the green. At the 1,0. 00 foot mark, Huston heard what he thought was a bang, and lifted off the throttle, at the same time deploying the parachute. The preliminary pop chute was quickly followed by the main chute, which filled quickly. Witnesses reported that a spectator ran to the edge of the track and was swept up in the fully blossomed chute. Some reports had him trying to retrieve a beer can from the track. He was killed instantly. The car jerked to the right and into a group of spectators sitting or standing just 2. There was no time to escape. Police reports said that 1. A 1. 2th victim died a few days later in an Atlanta hospital. The Yellow River incident remains the deadliest accident in American motor racing history. The Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution covered the tragedy extensively. The story was carried nationwide, via AP and UPI wire services. Naturally, TV and print media sensationalized the crash with lurid photographs of the bodies of the victims. Huston Platt was uninjured, but deeply shaken. He was taken home by friends and put to bed, likely the victim of shock. Frank Oglesby and the Cougar were unscathed. Oglesby stopped his car quickly and ran back to the scene to provide what help he could. Witnesses and investigators said there was absolutely nothing Huston Platt did wrong, nor could he have prevented the crash. It was a tragedy caused by an unsafe track, a time bomb that finally detonated that sunny spring day in 1. From Gasser and Super Stock to AFXHuston Delanie Platt was born November 1. Little River, South Carolina. His parents had a daughter and four other sons, one of which was a Drag Racing Hall of Fame member, the late Hubert Platt who passed in September 2. Like many families in the Southeast, the Platt clan moved to the Atlanta area in the late 1. Huston and Hubert began perfecting their mechanical skills at an early age, repairing and rebuilding all sorts of cars, trucks, and farm machinery. Installing Realtek Hd Audio Driver Failure. Download. They were soon building cars for the backroads and both of them quickly climbed the speed ladder on Southeastern dragstrips. Initially, they ran Gassers built from prewar bodies. Then they moved to late models, first in Stock class cars and then Super Stocks. Hustons first race car was a 1. Chevy Biscayne. Its 24 four barrel 4. NHRA Optional Super Stock OSS class. Rules stipulated strict adherence to stock parts, but area tracks had a more liberal interpretation, and Hustons car sported as many of them as he could get past the tech inspectors. Such personalization was and continues to be a hallmark of highly competitive and inventive Southern racers. The 1. 96. 2 4. 094. Biscayne or Bel Air Bubble Top was a formidable race package featuring a solid lifter camshaft, aluminum high rise intake, and a pair of Carter four barrel carburetors. With tuning, headers, a camshaft change, and sticky tires, these Borg Warner four speed cars were capable of honking deep into the 1. Cs 1.6 Speed Hack'>Cs 1.6 Speed Hack. In a parallel universe, brother Hubert had established factory connections and moved into one of the rare, aluminum front end Z 1. Impalas about 4. W Series engine expanded to 4. Don Nicholson, Hayden Profitt, Butch Leal, Bill Jenkins, and Sox Martin slammed these porky four speed stormers into the low 1. The Z 1. 1 was Huberts Chevy swan song. In early 1. 96. 4, he signed with Ford and was provided with a 4. Thunderbolt. Huston remained a Chevrolet loyalist and stepped up with an AFX match racer of his own. A rabid interest in match racing was fueled by the proliferation of hyper powered factory performance vehicles.