Jimbo951

One of the issues here was crowd control / fencing.

There were two fences. A 8' debris fence and 10' back a 4' rusted, spectator control fence (all dimensions are estimated from pictures). The car landed in the "safety zone" between the fences.

It appears spectators were in that zone. If you look closely at the video, the camera is in that zone... as the car flips, the camera is looking through the newer debris fence.

And here:

https://twitter.com/alexgarciaGV27/s...414656/photo/1

You can see a lawn chair underneath the car... not good.

Either spectators jumped the fence, or it was in poor shape with gaps in it.

ir_fuel

TXE36

Am I the only one that thinks it's just nuts to have spectators that close to the outside edge of a corner located at the end of a high speed section? Seems like the airborne part isn't even required to be dangerous here, just tagging somebody at that corner entry could do the same thing.

Also noticed that the car went *around* the cameraman. He is lucky he didn't get a *real* close shot of it.

-Mike

ir_fuel

You could also consider it nuts to race on a track with average speeds above 120mph with zero run-off.

That's the Nordschleife. Unthinkable in the "land of the free (and attorneys)".

Larry Herman

It is certainly a shame that spectators get injured watch any sport, and anyone bypassing ANY safety fencing for a better look is putting themselves at much greater risk.

That said, since this is a technology problem as well as a track issue, maybe they ought to think of some sort of proximity sensor that would instantly cut engine power if the front of the car was any more than 4 or 5" above the surface of the track. As long as the rear tires were still in contact with the track, the front should hopefully come right back down. Just a thought.

Phokaioglaukos

I disagree that it's an issue with the track. The track is the track and that is where the VLN races. The error is in designing the cars or driving them so as not to fit the track. Whether that is more front axle downforce, less rear axle downforce, less speed at that point or otherwise I cannot say, but I'd hate to see the racing surface changed because of such incidents.

GTgears

I think this signals the end of the GT3 era at the Ring. I think the temporary ban during the investigation may very well result in the long term removal of the fastest cars from the VLN.

Veloce Raptor

That would be simply idiotic. Look at this new video--the fault lies with the ORGANIZERS for putting spectators there...of all places...

ir_fuel

That video was posted a couple of posts above yours

ir_fuel

Talking about spectators: Considering the high speeds at that track, wouldn't a lot of the track simply be "off limits" for spectators? In case of a collision cars can do weird things at high speed, no matter the track layout.

Jimbo951

I was shocked by the latest video. I assumed the car simply flipped over the fence and landed on a spectator.

Instead it looks like it jumped the first fence then then cart wheeled down the fence line, between the debris fence and inner spectator fence. IMHO, they were very, very lucky there weren't more fatalities.

GTgears

Some food for thought:
http://bridgetogantry.com/2/index.ph...t-it-all-means

ProCoach

Very good commentary, IMO

gums

Seems they're pulling all these vids down

gums

There were quite a few backflips at Lime Rock. Posey left his car up in the trees once. John Morton destroyed a Nissan GTP. That's why they added that inner chicane. Now I'm worried for our Club Race, as last year the leading Cup cars were all doing wheelies back there.