Lynn Goodfellow, Chad's dad was in a car accident (specifics later to come) and he was burned pretty badly. He has since contracted pneumonia, and is still in a hospital in Salt Lake. I just wanted everyone who reads this to be aware and not hear it from someone else. Chad is flying up to Salt Lake tomorrow to see him. When he first had his accident Chad was not too worried only because his dad has already in his life survived two plane crashes and one other car accident -- invinsible. Well, this time he is not getting better as fast as Chad thought that he would. There was a family fast yesterday and Lynn had a skin graft surgery today. I would ask that if would please remeber Lynn Goodfellow in your prayers -- thanks.
I am including part of an email sent to me from Chad's neice, Chelsea -- written by another neice, Sage -- she does a good job of explaining what happened. If you are interested you can google, Lynn Goodfellow, Bonneville -- there were a few mentions in the local papers. Sage... "What Happened:
To break a record, you do two runs, and then they take the average of your two runs. His first run Grandpa went 299 mph. Grandpa had thought that there was a problem, so he had let off one of his emergency water containers (that explodes so it can cool things off, in case of a fire). They got the car back, looked at it, but found no fire, or any problems for that matter. Maybe for that reason, who knows, Grandpa didn’t want to do the next run, but was close to his goal, that he was talked into it. Kurt told me that they were gonna hear about it when Grandpa can finally talk. He went on his second run, and took off perfectly. (You will have to hear it from Kurt when he talks about Grandpa taking off… he said he had never seen him drive like that, and it was beautiful.) Somewhere down the way, his radiator cap blew off, letting the mist come into the car, hit the turbo and lit a flash fire. Little did they know, but the coolant they were using is mostly alcohol based, and will light on fire when reached to 250 degrees (something that low)… grandpas turbo was at least 1500 degrees. The fire was so hot that it melted the sealing into the driving pit, and moved toward grandpa because it was low pressure in his pit. The fire melted the sealing behind grandpa’s seat, and the fire came in through over his head. It was a blue flame, not a red/orange, so grandpa didn’t even see it at first. Grandpa tried to let off his other water containers (sorry, I know there’s a real name for them), and they went off, getting him wet, but didn’t stop anything because it was an alcohol fire. Oh, ps- Grandpa, at his peak was going 348 mph… woohoo! Way to go Grandpa! He is now a member of the 300 club, and has a really ugly hat to prove it!
A couple men in charge of the racing out there (not even guys from his crew) felt so bad about the situation, that they drove all the way in last night, just to try to see him. One of the guys is the director of the racing, so he had been the one to take apart the car afterward to investigate. He said that the car had held up perfectly, and that nothing in the car was wrong, it was really a matter of the coolant that was used. It is already outlawed in NASCAR, but is now officially outlawed out at the raceway. Kurt said (a few times, talking about the company that sells the coolant), “they will be hearing from us”. We asked the guy why his hands were burned so badly, and if the reason was because the gloves failed. The guy kind of laughed at us a little and said, “oh no, the gloves did their job… that’s how hot it was it there”. I guess they still have his gloves, and Kurt said they were something else. As far as his suit and helmet, they also did their jobs. His helmet’s visor is melted, but it protected the back of his head and neck. Grandpa’s body from his neck down is in absolute perfect condition. The only areas he is burned are his hands, and the bottom part of his face. He probably would have been okay if he had pulled the sock-like thing over his mouth and nose, but most drivers have a hard time breathing with it, so they pull it down to their neck (like grandpa did)."
For those who were interested Lake Mojave is the body of water, lower than the Damn, which can be accessed by Cottonwood Cove, just pass Searchlight, Nevada.