2008 Pro-Eliminator Champ Augers-In
Jim Tucker from Kinsbury, Texas, a
20-year veteran of competition drag racing died Saturday June 20th on a lake near
St. Louis, Mo. The name of his boat was “Say When” and it reportedly “began chine
walking and then dipped bow first into the water and tore off its deck” before it
nearly disintegrated toward the end of its qualifying run while going 140-mph. Tucker
was ejected from the boat. He died later on land in the arms of his wife, Yvonne,
of internal injuries, broken bones and head trauma.. He was trying to qualify for
the 30th Annual Budweiser Creve Coeur Lake Drag Boat Classic. After his death was
announced, the charity drag event continued with more qualifying runs “…just as
Jim would have wanted” said one racer.
  |
|
Boat drag racing is a dangerous sport as the videos in this newsletter attest. |
See local TV news report video about the accident --
From the Kingsbury Sentinel--
A 52-year-old Kingsbury man was killed Saturday when his drag racing power boat
crashed at 140 MPH in a race on a lake near St. Louis, Mo.
Fred Welshans, president of St. Louis Drag Boat Racing Association, said Jim Tucker
was killed when his open power boat, “Say When,” lurched and then dipped bow-first
into the water as it approached the end of a qualifying run Saturday afternoon for
the 30th Annual Budweiser Creve Coeur Lake Drag Boat Classic.
“We don’t know what happened,” Welshans said Monday. “The boat was on a good run.
It just got a little squirrelly at the top end, the front of the boat got in the
water a little bit and it tore off the top deck. It got tore up pretty bad, and
he got caught in it. Only God knows what happened after that.”
Tucker, a 20-year veteran competitor who was the 2008 International Hot Boat Racing
Association’s “Pro Eliminator” class world champion, was thrown from the boat and
was believed to have suffered head injuries and a number of broken bones. He was
pronounced dead at an area hospital shortly after the accident.
The wreckage was recovered, Welshans said, but a preliminary look on Saturday revealed
no clues as to how the accident occurred.
“We retrieved the entire bottom of the boat, and all his hardware — the rudder,
the propeller, the safety gear — was all there, intact,” Welshans said.
Investigators will work to determine what caused the crash and whether the accident
could have been prevented.
“There’ll be guys looking to see what happened,” he said.
Welshans said Tucker’s death was the first in the event’s three-decade history —
and a tragedy that rocked the drag boat racing community in the Midwest and Southwest
where Tucker competed.
“This was a great guy,” Welshans said. “We’ve just lost one of our family. That’s
how we see it. This is a sad day.”
Tucker has raced in the event since 2003. His boat was an open-cockpit “Pro Eliminator”
that competed in the fastest open class sanctioned at the St. Louis Drag Boat Racing
Association event. The boats are permitted any piston-driven power plant a racer
can mount in a hull.
“They can be blown (supercharged), naturally aspirated, you can run anything you
want, said Welshans, who is himself a drag boat racer. “The only thing you can’t
do is run nitromethane (fuel).”
Tucker’s boat, named after a famous line from a showdown in a Western movie, was
powered by a 496 cubic-inch Chevy big block that burned alcohol.
In spite of the safety measures employed in the construction of the boats and the
running of the events — which always include emergency divers to effect quick rescues
— the sport is an unforgiving one when things go wrong.
“I’ve been racing boats for 30 years and I’ve seen a lot of it,” Welshans said.
“It’s a bad thing. You don’t like losing your friends and your racers, but we all
think about the same way. None of us thinks it’ll never happen to us. But we had
a guy get killed up here on a local sprint car track this weekend, and guys play
football and break their necks and die at that. I’ve always been a hot rodder. It’s
a challenge, and I’ve always liked speed. It’s just a passion. Adrenaline junkies
is what we are.”
And the race continued, Welshans said, after a meeting in which other competitors
agreed Tucker would have wanted the event to go on without him.
“There were still a line of racers standing in line behind him,” Welshans said.
“I would like to give special thanks for all Jim’s Texas fans who came up here,
and I’m sorry for the loss. We all know this can happen.”
And so did his wife, Yvonne Tucker.
“Nobody has to feel badly for Jimmy,” she said. “I’m sorry to lose him, but if I’ve
got to lose him, I’m glad he went that way, doing what he loves. How many of us
get to do that?”
Report from the Chicago Tribune—
A Texas man died after crashing his boat at the St. Louis Drag Boat races at Creve
Coeur Lake in Maryland Heights this weekend. It happened about 4:30 Saturday afternoon.
The races went on as scheduled Sunday, minus one of the circuit's best drivers,
Jim Tucker, 52, of Kingsbury, Texas.
"He was one of my best friends," said drag boat driver, Greg Carr, choking back
tears. Carr said he and Tucker became very close, racing and traveling together
for events across the country.
"We all got together and went out to eat Friday. He said, 'man I'm ready to go Red
Lobster'. I did get to buy him his last meal. Yeah, we're going to miss him," Carr
said. Tucker won the World Championships in his class in Arizona last year. His
wife, Yvonne, told Fox 2, he'd been racing boats since 2003.
Investigators weren't sure what went wrong Saturday.
Witnesses said Tucker's boat teetered or "chime walked", then went into the water
nose-first, ejecting Tucker, who died after suffering multiple broken bones and
head trauma.
Police said accidents this severe were rare in boat racing, even with drivers typically
reaching speeds near 150 MPH.
"It is uncommon to actually have accidents out there," said Maryland Heights police
lieutenant, Mike Klos.
"The majority of the time when they do, they're not overly serious ones."
"He died doing what they loved," his wife told News 11.
She was there when rescuers brought him out of the water. He was bleeding, so badly
he couldn't communicate. Someone said he was struggling to breathe, she said no,
he was trying to talk to her. She seemed pretty certain about that.
Before Sunday's races, the other drivers prayed for Tucker's family and the safety
of everyone involved in drag boat racings.
They took up a collection for Tucker's wife.
The two had no children. "Just 10 dogs," she laughed.
"We're all like family here," said Raffael Saleca, a driver and Vice-President of
the St. Louis Drag Boat Association which sponsored the event.
He said the races went on as scheduled Sunday partly in tribute to Tucker.
"That's the way Jimmy would have wanted it. Make no mistake. That's the way Jimmy
would have wanted it," he said.
"We're all going to miss him," Carr said, crying. "I know he's up in heaven somewhere
looking down on us, saying, 'go'."
An organization called RESP, Racers Emergency Response Program, donated $5000 toward
funeral expenses.