On Friday 11 June 2010 Neal Parker of Millville, NJ was killed in a qualifying accident at the NHRA SuperNationals. The accident occurred at Old Bridge Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ. After the completion of the run his parachute failed to deploy shooting his car past the safety runoff area, through a gravel trap. The car breached several safety nets and finally crashed into water-filled barrels. Parker died instantly of the severe head injuries he had received.
Parker was attempting to qualify his 2005 Chevy Monte Carlo Top Alcohol funny car in the Sportsman category. In his fatal run he hit 249 mi/h in 5.7 seconds, which was ironically his personal best.
After the accident racing was suspended for some hours and later resumed.
About two years earlier Scott Kalitta was killed in a similar accident at the same track. After this accident extensive improvements were made to the top end of the racetrack. Among those upgrades were the nets at the end of the sand trap. In addition the race course for the nitromethane-fueled Top Fuel and Funny Car classes was shortened from the traditional quarter-mile (1320 feet) to 1000 feet. However the Sportsman classes continued to race on the quarter-mile.
Parker was a veteran drag racer, he had mainly raced in events organized by IHRA before joining NHRA in 2009. A lifelong Millville resident, he ran an excavation business. He was survived by his wife, Betsy Smith Parker, two sisters, Virginia and Peggy and one brother, Bud.
R.I.P
