Veteran driver Chris Raschke died after a tragic crash on the second day of Bonneville Speed Week.
Raschke was piloting the Speed Demon III, a streamlined race car, at nearly 300 mph when it went airborne and crashed at the 2.5-mile mark.
Raschke, 60, was a seasoned driver and had won the Hot Rod Magazine Trophy at last year's event with the highest five-mile speed of 446.716 mph.
Bonneville Speed Week—where custom-built, missile-shaped streamliners take to the Salt Flats in western Utah to challenge for the highest top speed—has come to a halt after a tragic crash. On Sunday, the second day of the competition, a catastrophic crash for Speed Demon Racing took the life of veteran racer Chris Raschke, suspending the event.
On August 3, Chris Raschke was piloting the team's new vehicle, Speed Demon III, and was making a preliminary pass down Bonneville's Course No. 1 when the vehicle left the road and ended up airborne at around the 2.5-mile mark. The Speed Demon III was reportedly traveling at almost 300 mph. Emergency services responded immediately, and Raschke was airlifted from the course, but he succumbed to his injuries and died the same day, as confirmed by an official statement from the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA).
The event was stopped for the day at 4:00 p.m. local time. The statement from the SCTA said that the cause of the crash is now under investigation, but more details about the circumstances that led to the incident aren't yet available. Speed Week started on Saturday, April 2, and was scheduled to conclude on Friday, August 8. The event is set to resume today.
Raschke was 60 years old, and his Speed Demon team has been a mainstay at the high-speed event. Raschke, a long-time motorsport aficionado, joined the Speed Demon crew in 1996. He eventually got behind the wheel for the successful team and won the Hot Rod Magazine Trophy for the Speed Demon team at last year's event by setting the highest five-mile speed of 446.716 mph.
"At this time, we ask everyone to please respect Chris’s family, friends, and the Speed Demon team. We are deeply devastated," the team said in a social media post.
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