Eric Medlen
Encyclopedia
Eric Medlen son of John and Mary (Mimi) Medlen and brother of Eryn Medlen, was an NHRA Fuel Funny Car
driver. Medlen drove for John Force Racing
in 2004, 2005 and 2006, campaigning in the Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang Fuel Funny Car, and in 2007, campaigning in the Auto Club/Pleasant Holiday Ford Mustang Fuel Funny Car. He had a total of 6 career wins. His first win came during his Rookie season in 2004 at Brainerd International Raceway
.
He worked as a mechanic for John Force
and past teammate Tony Pedregon
for 8 years until Pedregon left to join his brother Cruz's race team. Medlen was moved into Pedregon's Castrol Syntec-sponsored car. In 2004, he was a top contender for the NHRA Road to the Future Funny Car Rookie of the Year. He followed with 3 wins in 2005 and 2 wins in 2006. Each year he raced, he placed in the top five or higher in NHRA Championship Points. Prior to 2004, his fastest elapsed time was 4.681 seconds. His fastest speed was 328.54 MPH. He had 8 #1 qualifiers and a 94-65 win-loss record.
Medlen was a champion calf roper in high school and considered a career as a professional team roper with his partner and mentor, World Champion Team Roper Gerald Camarillo. He also loved to build custom motorcycles and paint his race helmets. His father John Medlen was his crew chief.
in Gainesville, Florida
, Medlen was critically injured when his Funny Car developed the most severe tire shake ever recorded in a Funny Car.. The side-to-side force of the shake caused his head to hit the roll bars around his head, causing severe head injuries. He became unconscious, causing the car to lose control and strike the wall.
After being cut free from the car by the NHRA Safety Safari and receiving emergency treatment at the track, Medlen was transferred by Alachua County Fire Rescue to Shands at the University of Florida
where he was treated for four days for what doctors characterized as a severe closed head injury.
Medlen survived a delicate, three-hour craniectomy procedure to relieve pressure and hemorrhaging on March 20, 2007 but succumbed to complications of diffuse axonal injury
three days later after being removed from life support in accordance with his own previously stated wishes.
According to auto racing safety expert John Medlen, Medlen was literally shaken to death in the incident. The deflating tire caused an 18-inch movement up and down, which then exerted a force of 40,000 or more pounds as it rotated.
He was the first NHRA fatality since 2004, when Top Fuel racer Darrell Russell
lost his life in a race, and the first Funny Car driver to lose his life in 30 years. John Force Racing immediately began an investigation into Medlen's death, leading to the development of the Eric Medlen Chassis.
holds the Eric Medlen Ice Cream Social with fans and competitors being able to have ice cream after the final round of qualifying during the track's NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series race. Medlen mentioned that a person can never be unhappy when eating ice cream. The benefit helps local racers in the San Francisco Bay area who race at Infineon toward a scholarship fund.
One major legacy that was left behind by Medlen happened after his death, the NHRA enacted a new safety requirement within the Funny Car division, that states that the roll bars within the car now have to be padded. The roll bars are padded with a heavy foam rubber insulation and wrapped with seven layers of Nomex
fabric to make the foam rubber more resistant to fire. This has dramatically reduced the kinds of injuries among drivers that Medlen suffered which ultimately resulted in his death.
The project to build a safer car at John Force Racing after his death is called the Eric Medlen Project, with the new chassis often called an Eric Medlen chassis.
Other
Funny Car
Funny Car is a drag racing car class. In the United States, other "professional" classes are Top Fuel, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle. Funny cars have forward-mounted engines and carbon fiber automotive bodies over the chassis, giving them an appearance vaguely approximating manufacturers'...
driver. Medlen drove for John Force Racing
John Force Racing
John Force Racing is an NHRA drag racing team. In over 30 years of competition, John Force Racing has won 17 Funny Car championships. The current line-up of drivers includes John Force, Mike Neff, and Robert Hight. John Force Racing has had Castrol as their main sponsor for more than 30 years...
in 2004, 2005 and 2006, campaigning in the Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang Fuel Funny Car, and in 2007, campaigning in the Auto Club/Pleasant Holiday Ford Mustang Fuel Funny Car. He had a total of 6 career wins. His first win came during his Rookie season in 2004 at Brainerd International Raceway
Brainerd International Raceway
Brainerd International Raceway is a road course, dragstrip and kart track near Brainerd, Minnesota, USA. The raceway hosts the National Hot Rod Association Nationals.-History:...
.
He worked as a mechanic for John Force
John Force
John Harold Force is an NHRA drag racer, a 15-time Funny Car champion driver, and a 17-time champion car owner. Force owns and drives for John Force Racing. He is one of the most dominant drag racers in the sport with 133 career victories...
and past teammate Tony Pedregon
Tony Pedregon
Tony Pedregon is a 2-time NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Funny Car Champion from Torrance, California. He is also the youngest of the Pedregon brothers. His brother Cruz Pedregon is the 1992 NHRA Full Throttle Series Funny Car Champion.-Early Days:In 1993 Pedregon qualified for his first...
for 8 years until Pedregon left to join his brother Cruz's race team. Medlen was moved into Pedregon's Castrol Syntec-sponsored car. In 2004, he was a top contender for the NHRA Road to the Future Funny Car Rookie of the Year. He followed with 3 wins in 2005 and 2 wins in 2006. Each year he raced, he placed in the top five or higher in NHRA Championship Points. Prior to 2004, his fastest elapsed time was 4.681 seconds. His fastest speed was 328.54 MPH. He had 8 #1 qualifiers and a 94-65 win-loss record.
Medlen was a champion calf roper in high school and considered a career as a professional team roper with his partner and mentor, World Champion Team Roper Gerald Camarillo. He also loved to build custom motorcycles and paint his race helmets. His father John Medlen was his crew chief.
Death
On March 19, 2007 during a test session at Gainesville RacewayGainesville Raceway
Gainesville Raceway is a quarter-mile dragstrip just outside Gainesville, Florida. It opened in 1969 and is most famous for hosting the NHRA's prestigious Gatornationals event since 1970...
in Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...
, Medlen was critically injured when his Funny Car developed the most severe tire shake ever recorded in a Funny Car.. The side-to-side force of the shake caused his head to hit the roll bars around his head, causing severe head injuries. He became unconscious, causing the car to lose control and strike the wall.
After being cut free from the car by the NHRA Safety Safari and receiving emergency treatment at the track, Medlen was transferred by Alachua County Fire Rescue to Shands at the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
where he was treated for four days for what doctors characterized as a severe closed head injury.
Medlen survived a delicate, three-hour craniectomy procedure to relieve pressure and hemorrhaging on March 20, 2007 but succumbed to complications of diffuse axonal injury
Diffuse axonal injury
Diffuse axonal injury is one of the most common and devastating types of traumatic brain injury, meaning that damage occurs over a more widespread area than in focal brain injury. DAI, which refers to extensive lesions in white matter tracts, is one of the major causes of unconsciousness and...
three days later after being removed from life support in accordance with his own previously stated wishes.
According to auto racing safety expert John Medlen, Medlen was literally shaken to death in the incident. The deflating tire caused an 18-inch movement up and down, which then exerted a force of 40,000 or more pounds as it rotated.
He was the first NHRA fatality since 2004, when Top Fuel racer Darrell Russell
Darrell Russell (drag racer)
Darrell Russell was an NHRA drag racer. He was the 2001 NHRA Rookie Of The Year. At the time, he was only the third driver to win in his Professional debut....
lost his life in a race, and the first Funny Car driver to lose his life in 30 years. John Force Racing immediately began an investigation into Medlen's death, leading to the development of the Eric Medlen Chassis.
Legacy
Infineon RacewayInfineon Raceway
Infineon Raceway, formerly Sears Point Raceway, is a road course and drag strip located on the landform known as Sears Point in the southern Sonoma Mountains near Sonoma, California, USA. The course is a complex series of twists and turns that go up and down the hills...
holds the Eric Medlen Ice Cream Social with fans and competitors being able to have ice cream after the final round of qualifying during the track's NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series race. Medlen mentioned that a person can never be unhappy when eating ice cream. The benefit helps local racers in the San Francisco Bay area who race at Infineon toward a scholarship fund.
One major legacy that was left behind by Medlen happened after his death, the NHRA enacted a new safety requirement within the Funny Car division, that states that the roll bars within the car now have to be padded. The roll bars are padded with a heavy foam rubber insulation and wrapped with seven layers of Nomex
Nomex
Nomex is a registered trademark for flame resistant meta-aramid material developed in the early 1960s by DuPont and first marketed in 1967.- Properties:...
fabric to make the foam rubber more resistant to fire. This has dramatically reduced the kinds of injuries among drivers that Medlen suffered which ultimately resulted in his death.
The project to build a safer car at John Force Racing after his death is called the Eric Medlen Project, with the new chassis often called an Eric Medlen chassis.
Career
National Event Wins- 2004 Brainerd
- 2005 Seattle
- 2005 Brainerd
- 2005 Memphis
- 2006 Sonoma
- 2006 Richmond
Other
- Earned three 2005 tour victories, equaling the total of series champion Gary ScelziGary ScelziGary Scelzi, , is an American dragster racer and midget car owner who has won the NHRA Powerade Top Fuel championship on three occasions and the Funny Car title once...
. Scelzi's crew chief, Mike Neff, will succeed Medlen in the John Force Racing ride in 2008.
- Became the fourth different driver to win an NHRA national event in a John Force Racing Ford Mustang when he prevailed at Brainerd, Minn., in 2004.
- Has 55 total victories with John Force Racing – six as driver of the Castrol Syntec Ford, one as a crew member on the Syntec Ford (1996) and 48 as a crew member on John Force's championship-winning Fords (1997-2003).
2006
Was perfect 2-for-2 in final round appearances; Matched career-best finish of fourth place in POWERade standings; Advanced out of the first round at 17 of 23 events.2005
- Finished a career-best fourth in NHRA POWERade points.
- Won three times in a four-race period (Seattle, Brainerd, and MemphisMemphis, TennesseeMemphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
) in mid-season to thrust himself prominently into a five-way battle for the POWERade Championship.
- Became just the sixth driver to break the 4.70 second barrier with a career best 4.698 in qualifying for the O'Reilly Fall Nationals at Dallas.
- Earned his first repeat victory when he won for the second straight year at Brainerd, MinnesotaBrainerd, MinnesotaBrainerd is a city in Crow Wing County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 13,590 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Crow Wing County and one of the largest cities in Central Minnesota...
.
2004
- Was a finalist for the Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award naming the top rookies in the NHRA POWERade Series and the Funny Car division.
- Finished fifth in driver points.
- Earned breakthrough victory at Brainerd, beating three-time former NHRA Top Fuel Champion Gary ScelziGary ScelziGary Scelzi, , is an American dragster racer and midget car owner who has won the NHRA Powerade Top Fuel championship on three occasions and the Funny Car title once...
in the final.
- Runner-up to Whit Bazemore at Topeka.
- No. 1 qualifier at Englishtown, New JerseyEnglishtown, New JerseyEnglishtown is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 1,847....
, and Reading, PennsylvaniaReading, PennsylvaniaReading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...
.
- Four-time winner of the Motel 6 "Who Got the Light?" award presented at each event to the winning driver of the pro race decided by the narrowest margin.