Christine Steffens experienced the most dramatic moment of her Nitro Funny Car career on Saturday night at Perth Motorplex when her ‘Croc’ fireballed at 1000 feet.
Steffens said after a quick pedal the supercharger backfired, resulting in a spectacular fire outside the car but fortunately no flames inside the cabin. It is believed the backfire sent a piece of shrapnel into a front tyre, which then caused the car to get into the wall in the braking area.
“It was on a real mission, I don’t know why I pedalled it, and it just exploded. It was instanteous,” Steffens said.
“I knew that I had a backfire and I knew I had popped the blower or done something, but I had broken windscreens before. I was annoyed because I hit the wall and knew I had done body damage.”
Steffens said the fire briefly appeared again when she pulled to a stop in the braking area but the fire bottles put it out almost instantly.
Despite the backfire, the car still ran 5.42 over the quarter mile and Steffens said the data showed it may have been on a 5.0 pass.
With the level of damage, Steffens is not sure about her future, at least with this car.
“It’s probably my last pass in a fuel funny car, unless I can talk my husband around,” she said.
Video by Phil Blondel/dragsmedia.
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