Big Dog To Plan B

April 3, 2006

By: Bruce Biegler | DragRaceCanada.com

Following his truly unfortunate and very uncharacteristic mishap during the IHRA’s Amalie Oil Texas Nationals, Canadian Pro Mod racer Carl Spiering and his Eaton Cutler-Hammer Motorsports team are charging forward.

Spiering went for a rather wild ride driving his ’63 Corvette during the second round of the IHRA’s season-opening event which saw his car narrowly miss opponent Kenny Lang and then make heavy contact with the San Antonio Raceway guardwall. Carl suffered a rib injury and spent about 10 hours in hospital before being released. His ultra-popular Corvette faired worse with heavy right side damage.

The Corvette will be sent back to chassis builder Tim McAmis for evaluation; however the team will now accelerate their “Plan B” – the introduction of an all new G-Force Race Cars ’67 Camaro.

“During that second round everything seemed to be going as planned,” Carl reflected. “The car did drive itself out of the groove and was close to the guardwall but that’s nothing it hasn’t done before. I was feeding it back gently but exactly when I crossed the finish line it instantly hooked right and I knew I was in trouble. Our computer did show that I hit a bump in the left lane and that might have been what unsettled the car.”

Carl did however take the incident, which did have a rather cosmic aspect, in stride.

“Accidents are part of drag racing – a lot of good drivers have experienced them,” he continued. “I didn’t think that I could ever have been bitten that hard by one of these, so it really opened my eyes. I believe too however that it will ultimately sharpen my skills as a driver in this class.”

The San Antonio event was in fact the first time ever that Spiering utilized a Hans support safety device. Carl is convinced that was a major factor in minimizing his injuries.

“We ordered it last year and it showed up at this race,” Carl added. “I’m really glad I made the move because even with that severe side impact I have no neck or back issues and there was zero damage to my helmet. I won’t drive without one ever again. I’m convinced something bigger was looking out for me.”

Carl and his talented team are now busy assembling their spectacular new ’67 Camaro with will feature one of Tim Hodgins’ (Cynergy Composites – Strathroy, ON) bodies and in-house E.R.D. Hemi power. Following an initial test session in about two weeks, the all new Eaton Cutler-Hammer Camaro should make it’s public debut at the IHRA’s Springnationals at Rockingham, NC (Apr. 21-23).