RJay

Having just come back from the Glen on Monday & Tuesday, I'm deeply saddened by this event and offer my sincere condolences to friends and family of the driver. Hopefully, someone will be able to furnish a few more details as to what happened. Its an extraordinary event for someone to even get hurt at a PCA DE. For a death to occur, particularly with a novice driver, is quite troubling. Very, very, very, sad.

hinchcliffe

What happened, anyone know his name, where from. My condolences. Too bad.

Jerseybean

http://www.stargazette.com/apps/pbcs...0324/1001/News

Greg Fishman

What do you mean by it could not possibly have been avoided? Did he have a mechanical failure?

dgz924s

Indeed a sad day for all.

Flying Finn

Very sad. My condolences to the family.

I also have a same question as Greg, was it a mechanical failure or driver's error?

Jerseybean

http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/...WS01/508010308

ltc

There was a Rennlist member instructing another student about 4-5 car lengths behind the Boxster when the incident occured.
I haven't spoken to him since I was first told of the accident.

Jeff Curtis

How tragic.

Being that I am a fellow "track junkie", this news brings pain and a deep thought process to myself. My heart goes out to the other participants, event organizers and Eric's family.

This is terrible news to both of the victim's family as well as a region that has a history of running safe events...not to mention the PCA itself has a steller record of running safe events.

As we all know, these things can happen - it sucks that they do, but when you have all sorts of variables involved at those speeds...well...

Maybe we'll find out what happened and quite possibly we will not...regardless of driver error or mechanical failure, it is indeed a tragedy that should spawn thought amongst all of us, and hopefully you will place Eric and his family in your prayers.

Gary R.

It is tragic and it certainly does make one think. I'm fortuneate to be able to have a car built specifically for track use by someone that is 100% driver safety first. This latest horror ended an internal conflict I was having about getting a HANs device, as I thought it was overkill for DE's (especially at my level). I could care less about whacking up the car as long as I give myself every chance to walk away. The thought of my daughter waiting in the pits.... well, my heart goes out to them.

Godspeed Erik

Jerseybean

Anything that improves your safety on the track is a good thing. I'd rather spend money on that than go faster improvements. I've already started to see a few Hans devices being used at DE events.

hacker-pschorr

That makes two of us, news like this is horrible. When I shared the news of Ben Keaton with my fiancé, she gave me this blank stare I will never forget. I don't want to tell her about this accident. She was also on the scene with me for the Group 6 pile-up at Road America 3 weeks ago, a group where we have friends competing. Since I started getting serious about doing DE's this year, my new "hobby" is not sitting well with her at the moment.
I agree with you about the family, if I make a mistake on the track and hurt myself, it’s a something I have to live with. If I end up in a life ending incident, my family had to live with that forever. Every sport is dangerous or deadly, people die every year in skiing and boating accidents. Still hits home with track incidents no matter who it is or what track it happened on.

ColorChange

My deepest condolences to the family.

Does anyone know what happened? I really try to learn from these tragedies.

Juan Lopez

Godspeed

Larry Herman

I was there & know Erik's instructor very well. This was probably Erik's 5th or 6th event. He was in the lowest run group. He was a slower driver, but aware and not particularly aggressive. He had been solo'd before at prior events.

This was his 6th half-hour session on the track, and he was just solo'd. He was entering the laces of the boot (turn 6) where it was surmised that he dropped 2 wheels off on the outside and spun into the tire wall/guardrail. The details are still quite sketchy as it was the first day for the corner worker, and as of yesterday afternoon, we did not hear from the driver who was immediately behind him. He was wearing a five point harness, and it was estimated that he hit the wall at about 80 mph.

Erik was not in the best of health, and it is still unknown whether it was purely driver error, or some sort of seizure or spasm momentarily distracted him. There are many theories, and we may never know. From what I do know, Erik's instructor feels very badly, and is helping the family with arrangements. If I hear any more, I will post it.


On another note, I didn't realize that other rennlisters on this forum were there. Too bad we didn't meet up.