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A tragedy at the track in an exotic car on the track experiene today. Driver in his 30's and instructor in his 50's died when the Lamborghini they were riding in hit the wall and burst into. Flames.
RIP... car allegedly left the road on one side, crossed the track and impacted a tire wall covered jersey barrier on the other side, caught on fire and both were trapped inside.
__________________ -Peter Krause www.peterkrause.net www.gofasternow.com
"Combining the Art and Science of Driving Fast!"
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From the pics, the impact point appears to be near the place's billboard. From the vid, it looks very easy to make a high speed right turn and then mess up the left and right into the barrier.
I do dream Racing whenever I go to Vegas... Last time out I drove the Blancpain series cars in full cup spec. Lamborghini then Ferrari then the Porsche cup...
Lambo was fairly easy, the AWD was like cheating in that car. Put the power down and it seems to have unlimited grip.
Got in the Ferrari 458 Cup and OMG... If ever there was a car built around the drivers seat that is it... What a stellar amazing machine to drive. With that being said, I did a 180 spin on track trying to put the power down in the same spot I put it down in the AWD lambo. Lesson learned, don't let off the throttle once it starts to go
Then came the Porsche... Did 2 laps, came back in handed them they keys and told them they shouldn't let someone without a race license drive that car.
The point of my long winded story is that to the point PLNewman made there does become a point where it becomes unsafe. Couple that with the fact that these are not manned tracks like we would think of them with corner workers and safety teams ready to go. Yeah, there is usually an ambulance on site but the bigger issue is no corner workers, no safety team and a mentality that this is a "job" not a track event which leads to employees becoming lax.
I wonder how prepared they were for this, what safety training their staff has had, who was onsite from a safety team perspective, how long it took them to get to the car after the impact and finally, did the car have a fire suppression system and was the driver shown how to activate it. Thinking about it, I was never shown where the switch or pull for the fire systems were in any of the cars I drove in the event something happened to the instructor.
Tragic event but the bigger question is what lessons can we learn from it?
RIP to the occupants. Why this happened would be pure speculation at this point. It's just a tragedy involving two (most likely) car guys. I feel for their loved ones.
Remember the Porsche Cup Car Experience at Barber Park? They totaled two in quick succession then installed an instructor-side brake pedal, crashed two more, and shut down the program. There's fast and there's f a s t. Some people aren't designed to go f a s t.
RIP to the occupants. Why this happened would be pure speculation at this point. It's just a tragedy involving two (most likely) car guys. I feel for their loved ones.
From the pics, the impact point appears to be near the place's billboard. From the vid, it looks very easy to make a high speed right turn and then mess up the left and right into the barrier.
Sad and tragic. RIP.
-Mike
Sad indeed, and possibly preventable.
As is usually the case, there were probably several contributing factors, one of them being the 'pay a lot of money to drive a few thrill laps in a fast car' format of the event, which is very different from the more systematic, educational, and controlled format we typically have in DE.
I wouldn't be surprised if the track wasn't well designed from a safety standpoint. Aside from tracks for F1, NASCAR, etc., there are no real regulations or widely-used standards for design of track safety, and often the people who 'design' such safety features aren't qualified to do so, instead just eyeballing things based on anecdotal experience and flawed judgment. In this unregulated environment, track owners often resist getting input on safety from qualified people because of concern that their liability may increase if they receive safety recommendations but don't implement them. Companies that provide insurance to track owners are also typically clueless about track safety. More here:
02-13-2017, 12:01 AM
Driver & Instructor killed at SpeedVegas
