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speedy recovery to the instructor, and condolences to the family of the deceased....at least he passed doing something he enjoyed.
Very sad, but glad he didn't hit another car, sad his instructor got hurt.
Guys be safe out there and live every day as if it could be your last.
Screening ECGs are cheap and occasionally quite useful. Good cost:benefit ratio. Anybody particularly interested in this subject can PM me.
Few non-invasive low cost tests (example: exercise stress test) are even close to perfect but screening for potentially life-threatening occult CV disease has merit when you are putting people (often with greying hair) on a track
Very sad to hear about this event but it's not entirely surprising given the age of the participant. Stuff happens, and stuff happens with greater frequency as one accumulates years.
I have to agree with few, as an physical medical /examination similar to the SCCA racing licence requirement one is very viable for track day enthusiasts .
Its inexpensive just had one done at $50.00 dollars at a local emergency clinic.
Condolences & prayers to the family of the driver; I knew him briefly as a fellow Zone 12 PCA'er. He was the President of his Region & a very nice guy. Sad if his wife was at the track when it happened too. Also prayers for a quick & full recovery for the instructor.
Twice I've witnessed cars miss making the turn in at Turn 1 at RRR coming off the front straight. Its always scary to see it when it actually happens. Saw one hit that berm. Both were instructors and were not hurt. Some of the newer faster cars can easily be at 140+ when they come to the braking zone before the turn.
Roebling Road Raceway, which opened in 1959, is reminiscent of many old-school tracks of the era. The fast, sweeping Turn 1 had virtually no run-off and echoed the notorious "hairpin" at Sebring, which terminated with a dirt berm (and a telephone pole). Over the years, Roebling owners were able to create a bit more run-off area, but they are limited by the presence of Roebling Road itself.
The “Madison Ave” (standard design testing loop, also at Putnam Park and just before Station 13 at VIR on the left) is used for bikes, karts and racing cars seeking to replicate tight, square street-circuit complexes for testing purposes. I don’t remember it being used for any track days other than ride-and-drive events for manufacturers in the last couple decades.
There is no question that the g-loadings in Turn 9 leading into the front straight are some of the highest and longest duration corners anywhere (as is Turn 3), so that is an area of stress for most drivers.
The idea of sanitizing the experience by mandating the use of this chicane would be tragic, IMO.
__________________ -Peter Krause www.peterkrause.net www.gofasternow.com
"Combining the Art and Science of Driving Fast!"
Specializing in Professional, Private Driver Performance Evaluation and Optimization
Consultation Available Remotely and at VIRginia International Raceway
Condolences and prayers go to his family for their loss and NFL region and Zone 12 PCA for losing an enthusiast, a leader and a friend. Also prayers that the instructor recovers quickly and well, and to all the good people at Citrus Region who are trying to understand what happened at their event. This touches a lot of people. Always sad to hear of a loss or injury at an event.
From the engineer's perspective, we (humans) intuitively do not fully grasp the amount of energy a moving object has since energy is proportional to velocity squared. 99.9% of our life involves very low velocities and even when our v is higher (like highway driving) we generally do not crash and experience dissipating all that energy. One of my jobs involved crash testing car-sized "things" at pretty high speeds (200 ft/s or about 140 mph). All I can say is that it takes a LOT of bending/breaking of metal and everything else to dissipate the energy - very violent. In one instance with one particular crash orientation, the 5000 lb test article bounced 50 feet in the air after impact!
Very sad.
I told my wife about this last night in the event that she happened to hear about it first and then came to me with it.
Her reply was a simple one.
"This is the game you choose to play. This is what the kids and I think about every time you leave the house with your track car."
I had no answer for her.
Very sad incident. Hope it's a long time before we here of something like this again.
Praying the families and friends affected by this fatality and injury can get through it in one "peace".
"This is the game you choose to play. This is what the kids and I think about every time you leave the house with your track car."
I had no answer for her.
Ditto. My wife has lots of issues with DE events. I will not tell her about this. Back when I was younger, I raced dirtbikes in various types of amateur racing events (enduro, moto-x, hare scramble/desert race). I had a philosophy of never riding wide-open which I generally followed pretty well. Going 85 mph on a 220 lb motorcycle in a desert arroyo is just plain stupid, but plenty of people did it. The "good riders" (me included) would have no problem going full out behind someone and not even being able to see the ground due to dust. Kind of crazy. Had several friends paralyzed and/or injured badly and one death over the years. With the arrival of kids, I retired.
My condolences and hopes for a full recovery of all involved,
but I never understood the "I just DE" vs club race....both are very intense if you make them......I can club race in back and never break a sweat, or I can really work at skills at a DE and do more work then some club racers.
take care of each other and asses your own self, take the ego out....always respected people more who say.....I'm just not feeling right and sit out a race or session......they get the best trophy....home safely with car in good shape and more tires for next time...
rant over ......sorry to take away from condolences
+1
I know we want to be respectful to the families involved, and don't want to add to the rumor mill, but I believe we should always talk about these events. Why did it happen? How did it happen?
We can hopefully learn from what happened and perhaps prevent something in the future. I'm not a fan of attempts to limit information on tragedies like this if the conversation is being had in a respectful and constructive manner.
02-11-2018, 10:40 PM
