Imagine if we all drove at 80mph, three abreast, yards apart jostling for position with 40ft lorries, coaches and loons in repmobiles trying to get to their next sale; separated by a flimsy metal barrier with the same coming in the opposite direction!
Now that would be madness; imagine how many would die in a year if we let this happen.
I agree ,Originally Posted by Go Big
Racing is controlled and marshalled. First aid on site......crash on the m1 (a lot more likely) and your on your own for quite a while,
wow, how lucky was that?! Hope they both get well soon and shake it off asap..
Over here (in Spain) a stunningly high number of 33 deaths in traffic accidents over 2015 Easter alone because of a great many extra displacements to see religious processions: Just a footnote in Monday's newspaper, never mind a collective international 'I am motorist' mourning protests...
Chap in the 1st vid is one of my best mate's Dad's. I've known him for 20 years.
He has more injuries than just a broken collar bone.
Poor chap was just minding his business when he got side swiped by the other car and almost killed.
A few pro driver folks who have reviewed the video, said it is a miracle he wasn't killed, given that any landing or roll onto the top of the car would have taken his head off.
If you watch the video again now, knowing that the car has zero head protection for the occupant, you realise just how lucky he was.
Last edited by mr noble; 24th March 2016 at 11:00. Reason: SPAG
Just as a layman watching the video, I agree it was a miracle he wasn't killed.
That was a VERY nasty crash.
It does demonstrate just how far motor racing has come in terms of safety, even since the 70's/80's, let alone when these cars were produced.
I take my hat off to the drivers who still race these cars to their full potential. They must have (huge) balls made of steel!
I hope the driver makes a full recovery.
It's equally a 'miracle' that there wasn't anybody in the pedestrian tunnel at the time (or that nobody got hit by the flying wheel).
This was the first race of the day. If the same crash had happened during one of the later races (when many more people had arrived at the circuit), the outcome could have been far more horrific. Thankfully it wasn't.
It's good that both drivers escaped relatively lightly, and that no spectators were injured, or worse. The car that finished up in the tunnel brought back memories of Alan McNish's crash at Donnington when he was in F3000, and parts of his car, including the engine, finished in the pedestrian tunnel after a collision, killing a spectator. Goodwood must be breathing a very heavy sigh of relief.
Motor racing is dangerous, and Goodwood is a very fast circuit - it's highly unlikely that any crash at Goodwood will be a small one.
Goodwood has become the pre-eminent circuit in the world for Historic racing, to the extent that many of the cars that now race there at the Revival and now the Members' Meeting, are "Goodwood Specials" and can produce lap times that the drivers who raced them there back in "the day" wouldn't recognise. They may all have the requisite FIA papers and be eligible for the classes in which they compete, but some of them are rather more equal than others, to paraphrase George Orwell.
A car which has achieved good results at Goodwood is often far more valuable than one which is, shall we say, rather more authentic but finishes sixth in class. As always, modern suspension components, brake materials and tyres will make a difference, but so will other, more specialist preparation.
I love Goodwood, and historic racing. When the sun is shining and the air is filled with the heady aromas of Castrol R and hot brakes there's no finer place to be. But the racing has started to become rather less than authentic, and has become more about spending vast amounts of money to achieve results which the cars may not have been capable of in period.
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