Professional drag racer John Reynolds was hard to miss at the race track. But after a tragic racing accident at Bandimere Speedway, he will be sorely missed.
Reynolds, 49, of Loveland died Saturday night when the braking parachutes on his 1991 Chevy Corvette ZR-1 Pro-Mod tangled during a qualifying run at Bandimere Speedway. It was the first racing fatality in the 45-year history of the facility, which is nestled in the foothills east of Morrison.
“Most of the drivers on the Super Chevy circuit will stop and sign autographs and say `hi,’ but John was the only driver who took the time to talk to fans and take pictures with them,” said Randy Carroll, who became Reynolds’ crew chief in 2001.
Track owner John Bandimere Jr. saw the cloud of dust, but didn’t think much of it. Track announcer Bruce Kamada of La Salle then told Bandimere that emergency personnel had called for a chopper.
“That really broke my heart,” Bandimere said. “I was hoping that he was OK, and that they were just trying to get him out of the net. I know that John was right with the Lord, and that he was ready to go to heaven. When I go to his memorial service on Friday, it will be a celebration, even though we’ve lost a racer and a friend.”
Carroll, 41, of Lakewood said Reynolds was going 212 mph as he crossed the lights. He deployed the chutes as he was passing his competitor and got some bad air.
“There’s not a lot of air at this elevation so the chutes drag on the ground and then they come up and blossom,” Carroll said. “At sea level, they just pop because the air is heavier.”
The first chute became entangled with the wheelie bar, which keeps the car’s nose from lifting too far off the ground at the start line. The second chute then tangled with the first.
By the time Reynolds realized that his chutes hadn’t deployed properly, he was traveling approximately 220 mph.
“At that speed, the brakes aren’t made to stop the car,” Carroll said. “The chutes are to bring the car down to a manageable speed. The brakes are to help the driver keep the car under control.”
Reynolds hit two of the three retaining barriers at the end of the track. He skimmed across the first sand pit at nearly 150 mph, went through the first safety net and then bogged down in the second pit, causing the nose of the car to slip under the net. The net came up over the car, dislodged the supercharger and sent it through the windshield.
On Tuesday, Reynolds’ death was ruled accidental by Jefferson County Coroner Carl Blesch. Reynolds was pronounced dead on arrival at Swedish Medical Center about 5:22 p.m. Blesch said Reynolds died of severe head injuries.
“If he had hit the net at just a little different angle, it would have gone a different direction,” Carroll said. “It was just a freak accident. John did everything he was supposed to do.”
John and his wife, Susan, 44, had just celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary the day before the tragic accident. She said her husband loved the atmosphere at the track, the speed and interacting with fans and other drivers.
“I can take comfort in the fact that my husband died doing something he loved to do,” Susan said. “The outpouring from the drag racing community has been phenomenal.”
Ray Schoneman, an Evans driver who competes in the Super Gas division at Bandimere, watched the accident unfold.
“I’ve never seen a car go through the sand like that,” Schoneman said. “It went through both nets. Usually the sand by itself is enough to slow them down. When they hit the first net, they usually stop.”
Carroll, who has been involved with drag racing for 24 years as an owner, driver and crew chief, said he’s talked to about 300 people since the accident occurred.
“It’s just been a glorious outpouring of sympathy and support,” Carroll said. “We touched a lot of people. We took the time to talk to fans and tell them what we were doing. People remembered him for that. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body.”
Reynolds competed in 22 races on the Super Chevy series in 2001. He won his first national race that year and finished third in points.
Carroll said Reynolds wanted to put on one more show in Colorado before retiring from racing to spend more time with his family. He did that by posting the fastest time his team has ever run at Bandimere Speedway.
“The car made a pass that John would’ve been proud of,” Carroll said. “The ending was unfortunate, but I guarantee he was smiling all the way down the race track.”
Reynolds was part-owner of DaySpring Medical in Boulder and owned DaySpring Racing, a custom chassis building facility in Loveland that specializes in bracket cars and pro-street rods. He is survived by his wife, daughter, Amanda, 14; son, Patrick, 12; and two children from a previous marriage, Josh, 26, of Colorado Springs and Christy, 24, of Boulder.
“He went out the way he wanted to go out,” Carroll said. “He absolutely loved driving that car.”
Reynolds had been involved with drag racing in one form or another since he was a teen. But he was 40 years old before he could afford a real race car, a 1967 Chevy II Pro-Mod. In 1998, he transformed a 1991 ZR-1 Pro-Mod into a Nitro Coupe.
Carroll will remember John as a good friend who was deeply religious and went out of his way to help others.
“I am at peace with what happened because John showed me how to accept Jesus Christ into my life,” Carroll said. “We spent a lot of time together on the road. He was a lot of fun, even though he got up at 5 a.m. grinding coffee in your ear to wake you up.”
Carroll said Reynolds loved to interact with his fans. He recalls one day that Reynolds gave a boy with a developmental disability a memory that will last a lifetime.
“This kid was really excited to be around the cars,” Carroll recalled. “His dad came up to John to ask for a racer card. John asked the dad if it was OK to move his son into the car. John picked him up very gently out of his wheelchair and put him in the car. You could tell in this kid’s eyes that it was the best thing that ever happened in his life.
“That was heart-touching and brought a tear to my eye.”
Carroll will always have the memories of his good friend, but he isn’t sure what the future holds.
“Right now, I don’t have that much interest in drag racing,” he said. “I just lost my best friend.”
Cory Channell is the marketing director at Schaefer Enterprises, Inc. His feature on auto racing appears each Thursday in the Tribune. Contact him via e-mail at cchannell@schaeferenterprises.com.
