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Originally Posted by 77 TRASHCAN
Thanks Steve.
Arnie was at the GTOAA event in Wichita. There was a round table forum with he, Jess Tyree, Jim Wangers, Craig Hendricksen, John Clegg, Art Peterson, and a couple more.
Arnie had described a fire incident that looks like the picture in question, I've never seen him run in the olden days, so I had no clue, I was too young, although I grew up in Iowa, not too far from where he is in Illinois.
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I was too young also but, I have extensively studied fast Pontiac powered drag cars all my life. I bought my first Arnie Beswick b/w poster at the age of 8 and still have it. Arnie did have a bad fire caused by a trans explosion, probably similiar to the Brutus deal, in his '64 White GTO. This must have happened in the summer/fall of 1965 or possibly winter 65/66 ( before his Tempest was ready) as is that is when he was primarily running that car with the blower, etc. His biography on tape says he was hospitalized and, after that, began wearing a fire suit. To me, those were the most exciting and dedicated years as a Beswick fan as he decided to stick with Pontiac power after the GM racing ban ( where most other GM racers switched to Ford/Merc/Mopar. He starting running a blower and running nitro to take on the factory cars of other makes. Arnie was also the first to put a late model door slammer in the 9s at York US 30 against Ronnie Sox in early 1965.
That is the only major fire I am aware of that Arnie had in the day. Of course, he had another very bad fire recently with his chev powered N2O GTO. Not sure when, maybe 5 years back? That is scary stuff and I am glad he came through all of it OK.
These are the reasons why NHRA requires trans blankets or SFI cases. Because of these rules, it is fairly a rare thing to see a bad trans explosion with resultant fire and injury in the last 20-30 years.