Fatal accident at open track day.

[Q ship]

I hate to bring this news here, as I have become a junkie for track events. Two people were killed at a Ferrari owners club track day, the details can be found here and here. This is a really tragic thing, and as with any accident such as this there is a lot of incorrect info floating around on the web.



I guess where I'd like to see this go on this board is an appreciation of how dangerous high performance driving can be, and that we need to take our vehicles and our driving with the utmost respect for ourselves and others. As tragic as this is, these men were at a track and did not endanger others as street racers do. Terrible things happen, we need to protect ourselves and others as well as we can.

Godspeed, gentlemen.

[MrQuick]

Damn that sucks,

IT WAS NOT BEN'S FAULT!!! THE ORGANIZER HAD PICKED THE 150MPH ZONE AS THE ENTRANCE TO THE TRACK AND THE F-CAR DRIVER PULLED IN FRONT OF HIM NEAR THE END OF THE STRAGHT. THERE WERE NO CORNER WORKS AND NO FLAGS!!! HE TRIED TO AVOID HIM AND SPUN OUT AND HIT THE WALL AT NEARLY THAT SPEED

could have been avoided.
You gotta drive like your and fellow racers life is in your hands, cause ultimately it is...

[69Rathead]

Very sobering indeed...my prayers go out to the victims and the families they left behind.

[Steve Chryssos]

What a tragedy. The passenger was a newlywed of only 30 days. The marshall definitely screwed up, but other obstacles could have presented themselves like a stalled or spun vehicle.

[Steve1968LS2]

:(

Tragic.. people assume "open track" days are completly safe when in fact you need to be just as careful.. a tragic loss indeed.

[CarlC]

Sounds like it was a combination of human errors that all led to a very sad ending.

After seeing some video footage of Fontana taken by novice drivers like myself, I decided that place was not for me in the Camaro. It's narrow, lots of walls, and little room for error.

Buttonwillow and Willow Springs are nice since there is ample time to tell when someone is entering the track. There's also lots of side-to-side room at the track entrance to stay out of each others way. It seems this is not the case with this Fontana track layout.

The Ferrari driver also may have been intimidated and/or nervous, leading to deadly driving errors. Combined with a potentially non-forgiving track ingress, things got very ugly.

Track events are only as safe as the participants make it. It's OK to piss others off, or just say no, if it means being safe. Going home in one piece is the only way it becomes fun.

[Salt Racer]

...I guess where I'd like to see this go on this board is an appreciation of how dangerous high performance driving can be, and that we need to take our vehicles and our driving with the utmost respect for ourselves and others. As tragic as this is, these men were at a track and did not endanger others as street racers do. Terrible things happen, we need to protect ourselves and others as well as we can.

Godspeed, gentlemen.

I agree. Motorsports are inherently dangerous. You're controlling a hunk of metal at least ten times your weight with 1,000 times or more power than a human is capable of generating, at over five times the speed a human can reach on his feet. You can't take it for granted.


The following quote may or may not be one of those incorrect info, but assuming this is true, here's my observation. It's not to blame anyone, but to assess what can be done to prevent a tragic event like this in the future when you (and I) go out to the track next time.

What happened with the pit marshall:

Marshall saw the GT coming and gave the Ferrari owner the "GO" Ferrari guy hesitated.. looked back at the track.. passenger was shouting "GO".. then marshall says "STOP" and the Ferrari guy takes off.

Now: If the GT was moving at 165+ and the pit marshall wasnt familiar with cars generating that kind of speed (I'm doubting he was a CA Speedway employee) I could easily see how a split second hesitation on behalf of the driver could really mess things up.

#1. Whether the marshall was an employee of Cal Speedway or not, any driver on track need to follow track marshall's instructions without a question. You just have to trust them. The Ferrari driver should not have hesitated.

Let's say the GT was indeed going at 165mph, and the F-car driver took off 3 seconds later from the marshall's go sign. I assume constant speed for the sake of simplicity, and that the F-car merged onto the track right in front of the GT. 165mph is 242 ft/sec. If the F-car driver took off as soon as he got the Go sign, the GT would have been 726 feet behind where he was when the incident happened. That should have given the GT driver enough time to react (I think those cars are actually capable of stopping from 150ish in 720 ft).

#2. From #1, I get the feeling that the Ferrari driver was in the wrong run group, or that this particular group was for people with not much track experiences.

You CANNOT let your stupid ego get in your way, and think that you have to run in one of faster run groups. Even if you have a really capable car, stay in an appropriate run group for your experience.


#3. If the latter was the case, it's not a good idea to let those people go flat out in a 605-hp Carrera GT, and the marshall should have waited to give Go sign until the track was clear.

This has more to do with the event organizer. It may not be a bad idea to attend the events run by experienced organizers.

#4. It's not a good idea to go flat out in a Carrera GT without proper safety equipments, whether that have helped or not in this particular case.

You absolutely cannot skimp on safety equipments, especially when you have a fast car. Even for casual OT events, I'd consider stuff like neck donut, Nomex underwear & socks, fire extinguisher, etc.

[Mean 69]

I haven't seen this track configuration run, but I do know where this happened, after the hairpin, and after the chicane that is after it. YOu can get a really good vantage point of this part of the track on the bridge that brings you to the infield. I can tell you, this is one VERY fast part of the track, and it has a serious brake-to-turn at the end of it. I can't imagine entering/leaving the track in this area for the pits, but it sounds like that is where it is. It is tragic, and a shame, that this occurred, for whatever the root cause.

I can only hope that we never read about one of our own in such context, it is terrible when it happens to anyone. Hopefully this will further open the eyes of folks, it doesn't sound like the driver of the GT was just some rich yahoo, he seems to have been pretty experienced. Things happen very fast at speed, all of you guys be careful. And make sure your equipment is safe, triple check everything, every event, every session.

Man, so sad.
Mark