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| Tommy Fults and the 'Lil Buzzard at the 1970 Atomic Cup. |
Fults' dream ended Wednesday when he was tossed out of his unlimited hydroplane and killed in a freak accident only moments after the course was opened for practice runs.
First on the water in his sleek, Pay 'N Pak 'Lil Buzzard, Fults, 29, of Seattle, Wash., was fatally injured when his boat buried its right sponson under a wake while in a sweeping turn, pitched violently and threw him out.
His heart was still beating when he arrived at Scripps Memorial Hospital but doctors said he was clinically dead from the instant of the crash with a severed spinal cord.
"An accident like that wouldn't happen again in 20 years," Fults' teammate Ron Larsen said. "When the wake he hit he was, not moving fast enough to either clear or put his life support system into use. That couldn't happen again."
His death, however, resulting in a life-saving drama.
Late Wednesday, with the consent of the racer's wife, Susan, Fults' kidneys were transplanted to a man and a women at Scripps Hospital.