Chatham, IL - On Tuesday night at Needmore Speedway in Norman Park, Georgia during a Hunt the Front Late Model event, Brian Shirley experienced one of racing's biggest nightmares - a complete burndown of his racecar. While entering turn one while leading the third and final heat race, the car went up in smoke which was quickly followed by fire. The car "ran away" which is typically associated with diesel engine vehicles when the engine free revs uncontrollably until absolute catastrophic failure allows the engine to quit.
Late Wednesday night, Shirley made a post on Facebook detailing the post-race investigation that has been ongoing from different industry professionals and gave his insight on what unfolded. The 43-year-old was unscathed in the massive fireball. He and the Bob Cullen Racing team are planning to pull out "old faithful" to return to racing with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at All Tech Raceway Thursday night.
The following was posted by Shirley on his Facebook page:
"Think I should clear the air on last night.
So people quit blaming parts,lines or products that didn’t cause the problem.
the motor hurt a piston going into the corner. Unfortunately the motor did (diesel) from there the flames out the exhaust set the tire and quarter panel on fire. Which from the heat melted the blater in the fuel cell that holds the fuel. Which left the fuel in an aluminum can that isn’t completely welded solid spray out the corner of the fuel cell. So why was the gas spraying out the cell. Because the motor was running and the fuel pump runs off an oil pump on the back of the motor when the motor is running. The fuel system In the car has a constant flow of pressure that goes back and forth to the motor from the fuel cell. Which couldn’t shut off because the motor was running. There for it was feeding fuel to the fire out the corner of the cell. Till the motor finally blew up, which then shut down the fuel pump. And they could put the fire out completely.
1- the owner of the fuel cell company came to the shop today. To personally inspect the cell. It did do its job. The cell and foam from inside keep the fuel from not exploding. (Yes) he has some ideas about how to hopefully make it safer. The fuel cell could actually be reused again. (Obviously we are not.) he took it with him for R&D.
2- Steve Arpin- longhorn chassis / rumley / Rick Schwallie/ Steve Francis / FSE fire extinguisher/drivers and many others have been communicating with everyone about how they can learn from a dangerous situation that luckily no one got hurt.
(yes the fire extinguisher did go off)
3- all my lines are from brown and miller from fuel to oil lines. (Braided) They all look brand new. And none of them failed or busted. If they would have busted. The fire would have been ten times worse. The fire would have spread faster to the front of the car. Even my brake lines stayed in tact.
I believe no body builds a product that they would want anyone to get hurt. Racing is a very dangerous sport. And isn’t perfect. But all the right people have reached out to try and figure out how to prevent this from happening or hurting someone in the future.
So please quit assuming or blaming innocent people. Respect that everyone is doing there job to make it better. No one wants any racer to get hurt.
Thank u " - Brian Shirley, Facebook