I was there when Buster crashed

I was friends with Buster Brownfield. I was there when he crashed and months later when he passed away. He never regained consciousness from the moment of the crash. As to the date of Buster's crash, I think it was Labor Day weekend and it was a sanctioned race event. The lights became in-operative so several of the guys decided to do exhibition runs for the crowd. Buster of course was one of those guys. When he crashed it really wasn't at a top speed but torque took the boat over and he was never able to straighten it out. His chute was snagged on the motor and he was pulled down. There was some delay on the rescue because the recovery team had partially stood down because the racing was postponed until they could figure out how to fix the lights. Buster was the 3rd or 4th exhibition run. He was taken to what is now UC Davis hospital in Sacramento. He remained there for about 2-3 weeks. He never regained consciousness. He was transferred to a Kaiser Convalescent hospital where in about 3 weeks they took him off of the ventilator and he breathed on his own. That lasted about two weeks when he had a heart attack and passed. Buster and I shared the same birthday only he was 10 years older than me. He is buried at Sierra Hills Memorial Park at Greenback Lane and Verner Avenue in Sacramento County. I knew all the people that Mr. Hoffman mentioned, in fact Bill Paddock built our Hondo for racing. We were all friends with Don Brandon, Ted Holder and other Sacramento-based drag boat drivers. My father in law, Blackie Carpenter, drove a 454 Chevy flat bottom Hondo. I'll be 70 this year and except for losing friends, racing was an exciting time in my younger life. Never had enough money for more horsepower because you kept on going to the next level. Gosh it was fun. Thanks and I hope this sheds a little light on Buster as he was quite a guy, a character and a fearless racer.