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RIP To A Fallen Racer


wagner

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I wonder if thats the end of the import face off events.

 

Well, they are going to have some serious problems after this.

 

The guy was going WAY to quick to only have a 6 point cage, no EMS on site, and the death could get them dropped by whoever was doing their event insurance.

 

Bottom line, gear saves lives. If you are going quick enough to require it, put it in the car or don't run. It only takes one time for something to go wrong.

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Sad deal for sure.

 

What is it about guard rails that make them worse than concrete walls? I've seen on every racing site I've been to, a post about tracks with rails. I'm only asking because 2 of the 3 tracks we visit have guard rails. Is it something someone with a slower car needs to worry about?

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Sad deal for sure.

 

What is it about guard rails that make them worse than concrete walls? I've seen on every racing site I've been to, a post about tracks with rails. I'm only asking because 2 of the 3 tracks we visit have guard rails. Is it something someone with a slower car needs to worry about?

 

Any car or bike should worry about guard rails for the following things I've seen:

 

-They won't stop a high speed impact, i.e. anything over 60 mph.

-They will rip a car apart like a cheap beer can.

-They will kill a bike rider much easier

-They will send a car flying more often.

-The posts that hold them in the ground do crazy damage.

 

I have seen cars hit concrete walls and total the car, but do a lot less damage to the driver.

 

My family knew the racer killed at Thompson a few years ago in a terrible accident that was one of the worst I've ever seen. If the heart attack would not have killed him, the guard rail coming into the car would have.

 

Just do what you can to be safe guys, please, it really is not worth the risk. Wear your gear and don't think "it will never happen to me" because that mindset will get you hurt.

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While not drag racing, a rendered representation of what happened to Robert Kubica's car in a rally race is all you need to see to never want to be near a guardrail again in your life.

 

 

TL;DW/R Kubica nearly lost his hand when the guardrail broke, penetrated the car, and nearly cut his arm off. He also had fractures of his shoulder and leg as well as massive blood loss.

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I heard a story about a a guardrail installed improperly on the highway. Lady hit and it kabob-ed her inside the car. The guy telling the story was an investigator and inspecting the car on a lift. He got a face full of innards after pulling on a floor pan.
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Sad to see but knowing how many of the cars that show up for these events are held together with twine and bubble gum not all that surprising. Hopefully this isn't the end of the IFO series but I imagine there are some serious questions to be answered for future event safety.
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Sad to see but knowing how many of the cars that show up for these events are held together with twine and bubble gum not all that surprising. Hopefully this isn't the end of the IFO series but I imagine there are some serious questions to be answered for future event safety.

 

 

There are people trying to say that the 6 point had nothing to do with it, that it was the bad seat mount and floor failing that did it.

 

I'm not a chassis guy, but I'm pretty sure if this car would have had the correct 10 or 12 point in it, this guy would be sore, but not dead. Mike Brown hit the wall last year, head on, at almost 140 mph, had the seat bracket fail, and all he had was a busted ankle and jacked up back.

 

The lack of front down tubes and a bar across the them is what caused that car to fold up like that and I'm willing to be that is what lead to the seat failure. To me it also looked like the seat was just bolted to the floor with no support tied to the main hoop, again that is not good.

 

Well, the IFO is going to get screwed on this deal no mater what the e-experts try to tell you. They had someone get through tech that should not have, ran speeds and et's he was not supposed to, and a tragic event happend.

 

The insurance company and lawyers are going to break one off in them for sure.

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There are people trying to say that the 6 point had nothing to do with it, that it was the bad seat mount and floor failing that did it.

 

I'm not a chassis guy, but I'm pretty sure if this car would have had the correct 10 or 12 point in it, this guy would be sore, but not dead. Mike Brown hit the wall last year, head on, at almost 140 mph, had the seat bracket fail, and all he had was a busted ankle and jacked up back.

 

The lack of front down tubes and a bar across the them is what caused that car to fold up like that and I'm willing to be that is what lead to the seat failure. To me it also looked like the seat was just bolted to the floor with no support tied to the main hoop, again that is not good.

 

Well, the IFO is going to get screwed on this deal no mater what the e-experts try to tell you. They had someone get through tech that should not have, ran speeds and et's he was not supposed to, and a tragic event happend.

 

The insurance company and lawyers are going to break one off in them for sure.

 

Floor failed? Regardless of a 6pt cage, that screams of corners being cut and safety is the last place that should happen in racing.

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Floor failed? Regardless of a 6pt cage, that screams of corners being cut and safety is the last place that should happen in racing.

 

Yeah, those cars are not the most sturdy so it just crumpled the floor pan. When you start cutting away all the structure and don't add re-inforcement all of that stress form impact has got to go some where.

 

The art and science of chassis design is pretty insane. A 25.3 cert cage in a drag car has tubes going all over for safety, and to make the chassis work.

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Many here are probably not old enough to remember Helmuth Koinigg, ut my father was at watkins glen when the guardrail took his head off. I was going to post a pic of it but that seems in bad taste. Guardrails are not there to protect the drivers they are there to protect the spectators from car and debris.
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Saw a in car pic of him driving the car. The seat looked to be bolted to floor. Was a good 8" away from back bar. If floor crumpled seat came loose, and with the lack of any bars on the front of the cage bad things were gonna happen. As said, if proper tech and rules were followed this might have been prevented. That may keep racers without that stuff away, but who cares? So you lose a few racers instead of an entire event, big deal.

 

Sounds like Jason was a nice guy. Sucks.

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Unfortunately with the pursuit of more and more speed for cheaper and cheaper investments these sorts of things happen. Find clapped out Honda, rust here and there, questionable metal elsewhere. Take a car designed to travel barely highway speeds and up the power 3-4x and you have a recipe for disaster.

 

Having been to IFO several times the sorts of speeds some of these budget beasts achieve are absolutely insane. And tech inspections as previously mentioned are extremely minimal. Unfortunately these sorts of events cast a negative light not only on the IFO event staff but on legal racing in general. In a sport barely holding on to viability we really really don't need this sort of PR.

 

Hopefully with those speeds and what happened inside he wasn't around for long to experience what likely was a very bad way to die.

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3 of the tracks I ran at last year had no tech. 1 of the 3 ask to see my helmet, but that was all. My car isn't super fast, but still. I'm surprised we don't hear stories like this more often.

 

Its getting to the point where it is to easy to build a fast car and people are being cheap in the wrong areas.

 

I expect the rule that allows factory cars of certain years to run without roll bars to get pulled soon, to many people are "bending" that gift.

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CRX I believe?

Not much left...

 

Two races that day, two crashes, one killed. That's a big problem.

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/community/fort-worth/w1x17i/picture67395137/ALTERNATES/FREE_1140/kansas%20crash%20march%2020,%202016

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