Video: watch a dragster fly down the strip… literally

Behold your brown underpants moment for the day. It’s footage from the third round of eliminations of ‘No Mercy 7’, a drag racing event that was held in Georgia last weekend.

Stevie ‘Fast’ Jackson was set up against DeWayne ‘Big Daddy’ Mills (you’ve got to love drag racing names, doncha) for a showdown. DeWayne in a glitzy gold Camaro, Stevie in his ‘Shadow’ Fox Body Mustang that looks like it’s been sent straight from the gates of Hell.

For the first half a second of the race, it went swimmingly. But, while Stevie has his throttle pinned to the floor, a gust of wind tucked itself under his Mustang tipping it back into wheelie.

Seemingly unperturbed by the situation, Stevie decided to keep the pedal down, rocking the supercharged Mustang further back onto its fat, sticky rear tyres before getting so upright it bucked onto the rear bumper and went flying into the air.

From then on, the poor Mustang and Stevie were in the hands of physics. Unfortunately, physics wasn’t kind to them.

See, dragsters aren’t meant to be flying objects, so when the air swept it up, it was sent down the track like a plastic bag in the wind – nearly taking out a drone – before slamming into a concrete barrier, nearly wiping out the marshal behind it.

The rear sub-frame crinkled and the car toppled onto its roof before skidding down the track in a cloud of sparks leaving a trail of parts behind it. Finally coming to rest on its roof a long way from where it took off, it caught fire.

Luckily, Stevie was unharmed and able to scramble out of the burning wreckage to safety – rugby tackling a female marshal to the floor on the way through – while the fire was put out. Lucky boy.

However, if you fancy a winter project to keep you (very) busy in your shed for the next few months, the car is currently for sale. So if you’re interested, let Stevie know below…