Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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from the ASCS2 website:

12 year old Harli White was seriously burned tonight (April 5, 2008) during the ASCS2 event at I-44 Speedway. Harli is from Lindsey, Oklahoma and is the daughter of Charlie and Michelle White.

Donna Harris with ASCS/ASCS2 talked to Harli's mother (Michelle) this afternoon (April 6). Harli has been moved to a burn center in Galveston, Texas. Harli is in very good spirits and has been very touched by the outpouring of prayers, kind thoughts and donations. The family especially wants to thank Donnie Ray Crawford and Jerrod Wilson for their efforts, and plans to call each of them personally.

Michelle provided a little background information on Harli that the family wanted to share with the racing community. Harli is a very competitive, naturally gifted, young woman. In addition to racing, she is a competitive softball catcher and cheerleader. While fairly new to racing, she has been coached by Gary Wright and Jim Woods.

Her current treatment plan consists of the following. Skin graft surgery was performed today. In 3 days, the bandages will be removed and on the 5th day they will have her walking. This cycle will be repeated for the next 5 weeks at a minimum.

Harli will be 13 years old on April 14th. The family and Harli welcomes your cards and letters at the following address:

Harli White
P O Box 158
Lindsay, OK 73052
Harli and her family asks for your continued prayers. They have felt the presence of everyone's prayers, and it has helped to ease their burden

to only elaborate very slightly on this. Many eyewitness accounts have stated that her car caught fire after it had flipped - and that she was in the fire for close to 2 minutes. According to KOCO 10pm news she had sustained 3rd degree burns from her neck to her ankles. Donnie Ray Crawford along with Jerrod Wilson - are by ALL accounts nothing short of HEROES. Everyone please pray for the young lady's continued recovery and for her family.

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Poor thing!! Bless her and family. I can only think of if it were my little girl and then I can't think of it!!

Good luck to Michelle and her family until they can get through this.

This is a very sad story. It makes me sick to hear this stuff happen to kids.

It's sad when it happens to an adult, but at least an adult does (or should) fully understand the risks involved with racing.

I don't know much about this situation, but I do have a question for those that might know. Did this young gal have a nomex or fire resistant suit? I realize if she was in the kart for 2 minutes that a typical suit would be long burned through, but I was just wondering.

I have long seen young people at our local kart/cage kart track that just wear a driver suit, but they don't look to be nomex or fire resistant.

My thoughts are with her and her family for a full and quick recovery. gdude

www.Numbersusa.com  

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

I will pray for you all!!! GET WELL SOON!!!

newsok.com/article/3226922/

Truly a sad period for the family and community, hopefully there will be a positive outcome for her and her family over time. Sounds like she's in good hands at the medical facility. So please keep us posted on her progress.

And I guess if fire were ever to break out at the track to someone I know, Donnie Ray Crawford would be the one I'd want to have near to help get them out of the car.

He's got first hand experience with just how bad a racing fire can become - and how quickly it can develop.

At the 2006 Winter Nationals, the car he was driving erupted in flames when a fuel line broke right inside the cockpit.

I spoke with him after the incident, and asked if I could publish the video clip I took of it; as a reminder to drivers to make sure they have proper safety equipment; as it can happen to anyone, anytime. And he said absolutely yes.

And Donnie's comment in the article about this incident quoted him saying "...incident helps set a higher precedent for safety at tracks nationwide" precipitates the following:

There's never any type of racing safety equipment that will eliminate danger or risk, but you can do your part to minimize it.

I'm sure in this particular case that the child was very well protected and there wasn't much more that could have been done from a prevention standpoint.

But with this unfortunate reminder, your personal protection is your responsibility. If you own a single layer fire suit and don't wear Nomex or Carbon X underwear, you are not adequately protected.

For dirt racing, you should at least have an SFI-3 or SFI-5 rated suit plus full underwear. Not to mention gloves, shoes and an SA rated helmet.

Please take a look at your personal safety equipment - and if you don't know enough about it or exactly what the last paragraph means or says - ask someone who does, and do your part to start racing safer.

Most sprint car drivers are very well versed and protected; and do a good job with their own personal safety. We run with an SFI-5 suit and full Carbon X underwear and Carbon X gloves.

Unrelated to this incident, it's always been a struggle to get many of the stock car drivers on board with adequate personal safety protection. But events such as these can happen in any race division at any time.

Here's to a speedy recovery to Harli and her family; and there are many, many people in the community pulling for them.