Here's a fun photo essay of a car that defied gravity for one brief moment before crashing behind a retaining wall. The driver, Mike Austin, was competing in the "top alcohol dragster" category when his 200 mph-moving car soared off the race track.

Mark J. Ribelas, the photographer who snapped the pictures, has been in the drag racing photography game for over 22 years and notes "I could go to the drag races another 22 years and will probably never see anything as wild and crazy as this!" According Ribelas, Austin eventually emerged from the wreck unhurt.

While a video or even an animation would be cool to watch, there is something eerily beautiful about watching it unfold picture by picture without the distracting sounds of racing engines, screaming humans and crunching metal.

UPDATE For all you unimaginative rubberneckers, here is the video.

Mike Austin takes his dragster outta the ballpark in spectacular fashion [Mark J. Ribelas]