Veloce Raptor

And another one, it seems: Sunday at turn 6 of Le Circuit Mont Tremblant.

Paseb

yes, sad, it was a friend of one of my friend...

Veloce Raptor

I am sorry to hear. Do you know any details? I prefer not to post rumors here...

Paseb

i dont know what happened on track, if it was a broken part or a driver mistake

only thing i know is that he was wearing an hans device, rollcage and bucket seat. but not an halo seat.

his neck broke on the side due to the impact of the car.. so probably the halo seat would have save him. (assuming here)

his wife was there for the weekend, they were leaving for his 40e anniversary on monday just after the track weekend...

Bob Rouleau

Dave, I was on track with him when it happened. This was a race day bit it was practice lapping in the AM. Car was a mess but I have seen worse with no injuries. Driver's door opened without a problem. No intrusion into the cockpit. Harness. seat and Hans all fine.

This should not happen!!! Turn six in a GT3 like his is over 100 MPH and we all consider it as a nothing corner - a big fast sweeper. First fatal crash here in 35 years.

One of his friends is a ER doc, she attended him and he was already gone. ****!!! It serves as a reminder that there is a danger factor in what we do even if it was only lapping. The nearest car was about 100 yard ahead, it was a single car accident which SHOULD NOT HAVE CAUSED INJURY MUCH LESS DEATH.

Veloce Raptor

R.I.P.

gbuff

Far be it from me to presuppose, but it makes you wonder if the driver was in distress before the impact.....either way, a tragedy. Best wishes and prayers to the family.

Gary

ckdc

Hey Guys-

I'm a BMW guy but lurk around here occasionally. Sad news in this post.

I wanted to share my accident experience with drivers here.

In 2008 I was driving in an HPDE 3 session at Summit Point with the NASA MA group at Hyperfest. It's my home track and I was working with a friend/coach that weekend who is a 15 year SCCA racer and lap record holder at Summit in a Formula Continental car. I was a licensed Time Trialer with a recent 2nd place spot at VIR in TTC with my 95 M3.

The track had been repaved before the event and chunks of asphalt the size of tennis shoes were coming apart at many of the apexes. It was Sunday at 11am and we all had to drive a line outside of the apexes by 2 to 3 feet due to the drifters and heat tearing up the new asphalt which hadn't cured.

My car was street legal, with a half cage and sport seats, 6 point harness, no halo seat and no HANS (Not required then).

I went off turn 8 solo and spun backwards and sideways towards the outside grandstand wall. I impacted at 60 mph with my passenger front quarter hitting hard then passenger door and rear following in a 2 impact style hit.

I was wearing one of those donut style go kart neck supports (DO NOT WEAR THESE ON TRACK) and my head snapped to the right into the passenger area and contacted the passenger seat. This was pretty hard to do since I was strapped in.

Once the car came to rest it started smoking/steaming from the front so I got out and hopped over the fence. EMS took a while so I hopped back over and sprayed my fire extinguisher under the hood and then noticed my neck was starting to tighten up and I was feeling like my throat was closing a bit.

I asked to see the EMS and we decided to put me in a brace and get checked out.

The hospital came back from xray and informed my i had fractured my C2 in 3 places and was lucky to be walking around- much less hopping over fences.

The neurosurgeon and I discussed why my break was so high, and concluded that the donut collar didn't let my neck move as one structure. It focused all the movement at the point where the donut met the helmet - right around C2 and the weight of the helmet moving sideways caused the fracture.

Please do not use these type of neck supports- I didn't know better and am lucky to survive looking back at the incident.

The good news is that I had a full recovery after wearing an Aspen collar for 3 months straight.

Unfortunately my friend who also competed in Time Trial C with me was killed within a month at Summit Point when his rear disk disintegrated at the end the front straight and he went into the wall sideways with no HANS or Halo seat.

I think Halo seats, HANS and safety nets on both sides of your head is the best safety system to prevent neck and head injuries.

I now have a fully caged race-car with an FIA Racetech Halo seat and integrated back brace.

gums

This is getting almost morbid, although quite important.
A piece on recent fatalities appears in this week's Autoweek, as well.

007DT

This is sad news....

Its strange how naked you feel in a car without safety equipment you've become accustomed to driving with them.. i.e.. After having a full caged car with halo seat, nets, HANS etc. I took my RS on the track and w/i a few laps wanted the hell out of it because it has none of these safety devices.

stownsen914

How very sad ...

http://www.auto123.com/en/racing-new...campaign=feeds

GuyIncognito

sad news. RIP.


not really relevant but unclear in the article, was this a road car or a GT3 Cup car?

TXE36

You know, if all this stuff had been going on when I started this track driving thing I don't know if I would have stayed with it. I do know my wife would not have liked it.

You know it's bad when posters just start tacking onto existing R.I.P. threads to add to the count. We need a lot more time between R.I.P. threads if they can't be totally eradicated.

Prayers for all involved. Now back to reconsidering a halo seat for a dual purpose car. I wish they made a removable halo for street/track cars.

-Mike

gums

Good God, only 39 years old.
Sounds like a DE incident, too.

al@cpt

RIP