NASA racer

this thread suggests it was a closing speed problem on a car being let out of the pits.

You can also get an idea about just how many folks he new and in what high regard he was held as a person.<ul><li><a href="http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&amp;threadid=27660&amp;perpage=1 5&amp;pagenumber=4">http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&amp;threadid=27660&amp;perpage=1 5&amp;pagenumber=4</a</li></ul>

AudiJon

Gravel traps are not the best solution.

Krisko

I'd rather hit 40 feet of gravel than a wall.

D all over

close to the track, just that a gravel trap isn't the last word in track safety and pose problems of their own sometimes.

Krisko

It would require a retro fit of thousands of feet at dozens of tracks. Future tracks should definitely incorporate both Safer barriers and lots of run off.

AudiJon

other than sometimes catching it the wrong way and sending it flipping out of control. Duncan understands what I'm saying.

Oh, and assuming I didn't have a brake failure, I'd rather have 50 extra feet of asphalt to slow down (even if I was spinning).

AudiJon

A skippy instructor who was driving an HSR Indy Light at Road America a few weeks ago had something on the car break going into the kink and hit the wall hard, suffering nearly identical injures as me, plus a few bones that I didn't break. Is it really too much to think that a SAFER barrier their isn't feasable?

Just one example...

Also, tires are cheap.... hell they're free. Tire walls, if setup correctly are a HUGE benefit to an out of control racecar, destined to impact something in a big way. Rubens Barrichelo's susepension failure last year comes to mind. It failed under brakeing at the end of a long straight and he went straight into a deep (key word here) tire wall at a frighteningly high speed. Car = destroyed, but the important part... Rubens = walked away.

Krisko

And it appears if that Carrera GT hit tires instead of a wall the occupants might have survived.

Nogaro

And even if I do flip I feel safer in gravel.

Those things are kind of like those kids "plastic ball pool" its very soft!

FamilyCar

total conjecture of course, but give the relative integrity of the CGT, some sort of catastrophic spinal injury is surely a possibility. I know I started looking more closely at the HANS and Isaacs devices, R3 too. I mean no disrespect to Mr. Keaton or his friend, neither of whom did I know, but in the wake of this kind of tragedy we owe it to ourselves _and to them_ to re-think how we hold ourselves and fellow drivers accountable for personal safety. I'd read that he was an active and thoughtful contributor particularly on the carrera GT portion of the Rennlist board. From that I know he loved the sport. So I for one am no longer going to blithely leave it to the instructors/club leaders to make the events safe and fun. I'm going to eyeball the corner workers to make sure _I_ feel like the're super attentive. I'm going to make sure I feel the track steward knows more than I do and that the're feeding the track in a manner appropriate to my run group, so that I and the drivers around me can pit out with conviction. I'm going to chit chat more with my fellow drivers who're entrusting their lives with me and with whom I am entrusting my life. I want them to know which guy I am when they go to pass or when they decide to point me by. I'm going to speak up more when there's questionable track behavior, which I admittedly tend to just ignor for risk of offending. I'm going to help newbies when I can and learn from everybody. In short I'm going to keep loving the sport I love, but I'm going to _remember_ do everything as if my life depends on it, because it does.

My condolences to all those who are experiencing loss.

Pat aka Familycar
(02 Lake Silver Audi TT, 93 Porsche RS America)