A 17 year old girl lost her life here in Ontario, on one of the Premo Drag tracks we have..

But here is the CRUX...17 year old persons are not supposed to even drive alone or in the dark...

But Kendall..she drove drag,,,followed all the rules..

She was killed yesterday in a 250MPH Rocket Car.(Bad roll over, she was ejected)

I'll send love to her, dying in her passion, I'll NIX a Govermentment that allows it...17 is to young.

Opinion?

I might point out...she held all her records for her age...but Sweet Jesus that's just to young.

Well, 21 is too young, 35 is too young...
People are supposed to live into their 80s these days (at least 70s), so why not ban all racing all together?

Where would you draw the line? What's the difference between a 17-y-o, and an 18-y-o (who is allowed to drive cars)? People die in motorsports at every age. Not allowing them to race under 18 is not going to change things... It's only going to drive them underground in an uncontrolled environment.

She left this world doing something she loved to do anyways. Props to her. Most people die in screwed up situations.

Props to her for having the balls (I know) to do this. She knew the dangers of drag racing. Everybody knows. She also knew the dangers of driving a rocket powered dragster. It was her choice. It is sad that it came to an end but she was doing something she loved.

Quote from AtomAnt :

But here is the CRUX...17 year old persons are not supposed to even drive alone or in the dark...

Driver's License rules do not apply to racing (Many series do not even require a valid driver's license, only a racing license which you do not need a driver's license to get in some situations).

Tragic accident, though.

Every 17 year old think he/she is invincible. It is really amazing how much a person grows up between the ages of 17 and 21. Your perception of danger changes completely. It's a given that 90% of 17 year olds have rocks for brains, and should not be allowed behind the wheel of a 250MPH car. Her parents are idiots and should go to jail.

The difference between 17 years, 18 years, and 21 years is cruicial. Some of the things I did at 17 still give me cold sweats, and I know that I would never ever repeat them now.


RIP

Obviously if she was piloting a jet car than she has proven herself already. It wasn't just a stright jump from some stupid 17year-old to racing a jet car ya know. Besides, I was down in Florida a couple years back and watched some saturday night stocker racing at the New Smyrna Speedway. In one race, there was a 14 year-old kid; who came second. He lead the entire race until he was passed by his father a few laps from the end of the race.

He was 3 years younger than this girl; are his parents idiots? Should they go to jail?

I'm sorry, but your comment is an extremely ignorant one, imho.

And aside from that, everyone involved in any form of sport knows the risks involved. It's part of the game; accept it or don't play it.

Quote from MAGGOT :

Obviously if she was piloting a jet car than she has proven herself already. It wasn't just a stright jump from some stupid 17year-old to racing a jet car ya know. Besides, I was down in Florida a couple years back and watched some saturday night stocker racing at the New Smyrna Speedway. In one race, there was a 14 year-old kid; who came second. He lead the entire race until he was passed by his father a few laps from the end of the race.

He was 3 years younger than this girl; are his parents idiots? Should they go to jail?

I'm sorry, but your comment is an extremely ignorant one, imho.

And aside from that, everyone involved in any form of sport knows the risks involved. It's part of the game; accept it or don't play it.

To answer your question, yes the father of that 14 year-old kid is an idiot. And he is a perfect example why some people should not be having kids. 14 to 17 year old kids do not KNOW the risks involved because they are INVINSIBLE. They don't understand that at any second their existance may come to a screeching halt. That's why people under 18 should be supervised by their parents.

Using your logic I can argue that older men can have sex with 14 year old girls if they have consent. I mean 14 year olds understand all the "risks involved", of course it's all a "part of the game". Right? WRONG!!! 14 year olds don't know what the hell they are doing, and others can take advantage of them. That is why most countries have AGE OF CONSENT.

Dude there is a reason why there are minimum age laws in place, ok? Teenagers have a limited capability when it comes to assessing risks, that's why they get into more accidents, drink/drive, jump off buildings and generally "don't care". A responsible parent has to step in and help the situation, not let his son drive a freaking jet car.

Get a grip people

I'm 15 yrs old, If i had the money to race in a jet car or any form of drag car and if I had the passion for it I would do it. I wouldn't mind doing some track racing in the next couple of years to see what it's like. The one thing I would say to my mum though is "Back me up, or back off" she can either be with me or she can just leave me to do something i love, but no I would not do anything out the ordinary at this age, but when im 16/17 maybe i will. I do think that driving a jet car at 17 is outrageous as you most probably have just passed your driving test at that age and your responses will be slower, In my opinion 25+ is more reasonable to drive 220mph+ cars as most probably you would have more experience. I wouldn't do anything if I couldn't handle it, but training or no training, I wouldn't ever drive a jet car...

Quote from Xaid0n :

The one thing I would say to my mum though is "Back me up, or back off" she can either be with me or she can just leave me to do something i love, but no I would not do anything out the ordinary at this age, but when im 16/17 maybe i will.

I am not sure how far this attitude is going to take you, considering that you are living in her house and eating her food.

Some of these kids have been racing since before they were in double-figures, it's not like they aren't experienced.

Quote from spookthehamster :

Some of these kids have been racing since before they were in double-figures, it's not like they aren't experienced.

I'm sure some of those kids can compete on the world-class level, but that's not my point. No matter how good they are, (majority of) teenagers cannot judge risk on the same level as adults can. I cannot stress that enough. It's not about how good they are, it's about the fact that racing is a high risk sport that requires complete understanding of all the dangers involved which cannot be expected from a child, and at 14 years of age in the eyes of the law you are a child.

There are 13 year olds that play golf on Masters level and I have absolutely no problems with that. Why? I have no problems with 13 year olds playing golf because their chance of dying in a fiery crash is much lower while playing golf, than while racing a car in excess of 200 miles per hour.

Quote from silver bullet :

I'm sure some of those kids can compete on the world-class level, but that's not my point. No matter how good they are, (majority of) teenagers cannot judge risk on the same level as adults can. I cannot stress that enough. It's not about how good they are, it's about the fact that racing is a high risk sport that requires complete understanding of all the dangers involved which cannot be expected from a child, and at 14 years of age in the eyes of the law you are a child.

There are 13 year olds that play golf on Masters level and I have absolutely no problems with that. Why? I have no problems with 13 year olds playing golf because their chance of dying in a fiery crash is much lower while playing golf, than while racing a car in excess of 200 miles per hour.

I basically agree with you. Participants in dangerous sports/activities should always do so with a full knowledge and understanding of the dangers, and the decision to enter should be their own.

I see a lot of very very young kids in basic motorsport, and I wonder about how they got involved. If their parents over-encouraged them, or pressured them, they would have to live with that for the rest of their lives if something happened to their child, because at the age of 10, even if the kid enjoys it, she/he's most probably only there because someone put him/her there.

I got into karting because I practically begged my parents to let me do it, but some people are pushed into it and I think that's the irresponsible thing to do. If the kid wants to do it then fine, but if the parents are pushing the kid to do it then I think that's wrong.

I'm 15 and I know that I could end up in hospital this weekend (karting), I understand the risks and I know I'm not invincible but a hell of a lot of young drivers think they are. Part of the racing license test should be based on risk assessment IMO.

Going back to the original post, if 17 is too young, then what should the limit be? If you push it up to 21 you have exactly the same problem with mainly men (a good example is chavs, you do get them over 20). If you push it up to 25, people will go into motorsport with no experience whatsoever, it's not like now where you enter karting when you can, 25 is pretty old(ish) so people will want to skip the karting bit and go straight to the cars. IMO that is a very bad idea. Push it up to 30 and you get very short racing careers, take Schumacher for example, he's retiring from F1 at 37, if he started motorsport at 30 then it would have taken at least 3 years to get to F1, leaving only 4 in F1. Nowhere near the length of careers people get now.

Leifde, you know much more about motorsports at age 15 than I do at 22 so correct me if I am wrong here. The risk of getting killed/maimed in a kart accident is a little bit lower than the risk of getting killed in a drag race accident flying down the motorway at 250+Mph. I'm not saying at all that people under 18 should not be allowed to race, but the parents must exercise common sense too. Kart racing is fine, hell its probably less risky than many other sports. But drag racing a freaking 1000hp+ monster?

Yes, there's much more room for potential disaster in jet car racing but she was ejected from the car, that's a failure with the seatbelts. I don't know any more details about the crash but I think she would have been alright if she hadn't have been ejected from the car. Also the fatal error in drag racing usually comes from the car itself, which makes it uncontrolable, not the driver.

Again it comes down to the argument of how young is too young? If you say someone at 17 shouldn't be driving a jet car, how old should they be? If you offered me the chance to start drag racing now and when I'm 17 start driving a jet car I would take up the chance, even though I know the risks involved. It's always sad to lose someone racing but they chose to do the race/drag/rally/etc and they died doing something they loved, regardless of age. Is losing someone at 17 worse than losing someone at 25? I think they're both exactly the same.

On the age subject:
I think it's ironic that certain countries allow their citizens to go to war at age 18 but don't allow them to have an alcoholic drink until age 21 (combat situations are safer than drinking a beer in a bar, it seems - and bullets are not as bad as alcohol to your health at such a young age). There is no magic "maturity" switch that gets flipped at any age. We all know people (perhaps ourselves for some?) who are surprisingly "immature for their age" and vice versa (ever got hit by a "logic bomb" from a 6 year old?).

On the thread subject:
I just hope the parents don't have any guilt from this - because if they do then they most likely did push her a wee bit too much into it, although I'd like to think she was introduced to the risks of all things motorized (a trip to the ER reception of any hospital is a good starting place).

Quote from xaotik :

On the age subject:
I think it's ironic that certain countries allow their citizens to go to war at age 18 but don't allow them to have an alcoholic drink until age 21 (combat situations are safer than drinking a beer in a bar, it seems - and bullets are not as bad as alcohol to your health at such a young age). There is no magic "maturity" switch that gets flipped at any age. We all know people (perhaps ourselves for some?) who are surprisingly "immature for their age" and vice versa (ever got hit by a "logic bomb" from a 6 year old?).

Thank you, my point exactly. It is amazing how much a person grows between 18 and 21 years. Try recruiting 21 year olds into the army, and see how many are going to sign up. Very good point indeed.

Back on the age subject:

Quote from silver bullet :

Thank you, my point exactly. It is amazing how much a person grows between 18 and 21 years. Try recruiting 21 year olds into the army, and see how many are going to sign up. Very good point indeed.

Funny that according to US military statistics the average age of recruits is 21. And they also recently raised the max limit to 40something as I recall, no? I guess they want to get those 35 year old teenagers before they mature.

Another point of interest:
"Persons of 17 years of age, with parental permission, can join the U.S. armed services." Which explains why the kids I kept seeing on shore-leave here when they were being shipped to Iraq looked exactly that - kids.

Laws and such are so ironic sometimes.

You can "join" the military but I don't think you can actually ship to basic at 17. I know 100% that they won't send you to the combat zone at 17, or even to the post. Possibly for training.

They are raising the minimum age because the Army is running very short on volunteers.