Veloce Raptor

http://jalopnik.com/5591575/the-ten-...acing/gallery/

BlueRiver86

No Tom Pryce...?

Also, I personally hold the Purley/Williamson incident as the most powerful, impactful, and sad moment in the history of motorsport.

gums

The problem is that there were a lot more than 10. Some were more infamous because they inolved more people (Lemans, de Portago) or were viewed by more people (Senna), or involved a better known person (Earnhardt). The worst ones to me involve fire (Sachs, Lauda, Bandini, Courage), but huge impacts are also dreadful (Moore, Smiley, Villeneuve, Bellof, Depaillier) and then there are also the gruesome ones (Cevert).
To my mind, Earnhardt was not a bad crash at all (I still suspect that he came out of his belts). Senna, I believe had a steering shaft failure. Courage never had a chance, once his magnesium tub ignited. Cevert was a victim of improperly installed armco. Smiley was pure overexuberance, Villeneuve succumbed to his emotion and temper, and then there are of course the mechanical failures (Alboretto, Donohue, McLaren, Clark (?), Rindt, Revson, DeAngelis...).
See, I told you there were more than ten!

TedA

I was at Daytona on the day of Dale, Sr's crash. It was not comfortable to watch the activity around the car when the crash didn't look that bad.

gums

I've been at a track once when a fatality occured, it was Montreal when Paletti rammed into the back of Pironi, although I didn't see it.

Larry Herman

These were all professional racers who knew the risks and accepted them as part of their passion for the sport.

The real racing tragedy was Rick Calhoun who was out for a fun Club Racing weekend with the rest of us and did not come home. Those who perish in pursuit of their avocation are the "worst crashes" IMHO.

gums

Got a good point there, Larry.

mark kibort

pretty sad!

I think auberlin's flips should be on one for sure.

Veloce Raptor

You mean Joey Hand?









Professional Racing and Driving Coach

gums

Auberlin did a beauty on the downhill at Road Atlanta in a BMW prototype,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xvai7iuubA (after Dalmas)

Hand had the backstretch at Mid Ohio

mrepka

Von Tripps - Monza 1961

J richard

Back before I started flying the air disaster crackups and acro mid air crashes were entertaining to watch, now I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, you know what it would feel like sitting in that seat, same for race crashes now, some of these and a few others I can think of are really pretty disturbing...

Hands flip was the bump off track, auberlin was all aero...

MJSpeed

For me Senna's accident had the biggest impact. It was like watching Superman die. I'm sure it was similar for people back in the day when Clark died. Moments that you'll remember forever.

This following incident was disturbing on many levels:
He survived with a head injury which he recovered from and a bruised heel...

Flying Finn

+1

Another one for me that I'll never forget is Gilles' accident, I was 13 at the time and still remember it like it happened just a while ago and surely will never forget.

stuttgart46

How about Zanardi? That was a huge impact and it took away one of the greats from open wheel.