Fatality in a time-trails event...
09-27-2005, 12:24 PM
#31
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Sounds "exciting"...
Turns 1 and 2 at CA Speedway made for some good pucker moments while running with the spec trucks during Friday's practice in March... I could only imagine how they get during the first couple laps of a race. That infield is so slippery that I wouldn't want to be all bunched up with a bunch of tube frame cars with interchangable body panels 
My car is getting some TLC in the wiring dept. Marc has the dash out and he's weeding out the front half of the wiring harness. We'll also be taking the opportunity to finish up the last of the safety stuff to get the car certified.
My car is getting some TLC in the wiring dept. Marc has the dash out and he's weeding out the front half of the wiring harness. We'll also be taking the opportunity to finish up the last of the safety stuff to get the car certified.
09-27-2005, 12:34 PM
#32
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you can't run Grand Am can you?
Last year Bob Lee asked if I wanted to run Istook's S4 at CA Speedway at the end of the year "because the car wasn't going to be legal anymore" or was that just how he had it setup?
09-27-2005, 12:38 PM
#34
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Yeah, I've heard RTR likes to build their cars trackside.
There is NO way I'd run my car in a six hour enduro. I think it stands a reasonable chance to finish the race but I would need many parts on the car that I don't have (oil cooler, bbk). Not to mention I have probably the most powerful engine in IP and it wasn't cheap. I'd hate to grenade it in a race that doesn't mean anything.
Regarding the 90 minute enduro, I'll keep you in mind. PBOC has a stupid rule regarding enduros, co-drivers split all enduro points. Because of this, if I'm pursuing a pboc championship I would need to be the only driver. In BMW, the driver who's in the car longest (or who starts maybe) gets all the points.
Regarding the 90 minute enduro, I'll keep you in mind. PBOC has a stupid rule regarding enduros, co-drivers split all enduro points. Because of this, if I'm pursuing a pboc championship I would need to be the only driver. In BMW, the driver who's in the car longest (or who starts maybe) gets all the points.
09-27-2005, 04:10 PM
#36
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here's a different article with the facts corrected...>
Area doctor dies in race crash
Adam Zimmerman of Allentown was in an amateur event Saturday in Connecticut.
By Ann Wlazelek
Of The Morning Call
A 36-year-old family doctor who lived in Allentown, practiced in Phillipsburg and this year became a school physician for the Palmerton Area School District died Saturday afternoon pursuing a hobby he loved â€" sports car racing.
Adam Zimmerman died in a Connecticut hospital about a half hour after his European-made ''Radical'' race car collided with the back of a car that had crashed into a guardrail and spun into his path on the 1.5-mile track at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn.
Unlike oval racetracks, road circuits curve left and right, taking drivers up and down hills at speeds that can exceed 100 mph.
Race officials and state police from Canaan, Conn., said the crash happened at 4:50 p.m. near the end of the race on a climbing right-hand turn. Unlike oval racetracks, road circuits curve left and right, taking drivers up and down hills than can exceed 100 mph.
According to officials, the car did not ignite and Zimmerman was not ejected, adding he was strapped in with five or six safety harnesses. He was pronounced dead at Sharon Hospital at 5:24 p.m. The other driver, Phil Johnson of New Haven, Conn., walked away with bruised ribs.
''It was a freak thing,'' Trooper John Green said, adding that Zimmerman may have died from a head injury akin to the one that killed NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt in 2001. The case will remain open until the cars can be inspected for mechanical problems, Green said, and toxicology test results come back.
The race was a private one-hour endurance event for about 30 members of the Eastern Motor Racing Association on a track considered one of the most prominent road-racing circuits in the Northeast. Zimmerman, a veteran amateur, had raced at Lime Rock many times in the seven or more years that he had pursued the sport.
"He was passionate about anything he did," said his wife of 11 years, Debbie. She said he began racing while training to be a doctor.
Those who compete in amateur racing do it for "the joy of competition, pleasure of driving and for trophies," said Steve Potter, Lime Rock general manager.
Zimmerman, in fact, captured first-place in a Poconos endurance race in August 2004 and again last month, according to Bob Hill, chairman of the Eastern Motor race club. He also raced at Watkins Glen in New York.
Saturday's race was not open to the public and Zimmerman's wife and children, Joshua, 6, and Giselle, 3, did not attend. They heard about the accident from members of Zimmerman's pit crew.
After graduating from Rutgers University and receiving his medical degree from the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Zimmerman completed a three-year family residency at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg in 1998.
He worked for Warren Medical Associates for a year before opening a private practice at 422 Coventry Drive, Phillipsburg, and was a member of the medical staff of Warren and Easton hospitals.
In June, the Palmerton Area School Board named him school physician for 2005-06.
Zimmerman also started a CPR training business, did public speaking and cared for members of their synagogue, Congregation Sons of Israel.
"He had a type A personality," his wife said.
Lime Rock Park opened in 1957, operates 200 days a year and last saw a fatality in 2003, according to a park spokesman.
Adam Zimmerman of Allentown was in an amateur event Saturday in Connecticut.
By Ann Wlazelek
Of The Morning Call
A 36-year-old family doctor who lived in Allentown, practiced in Phillipsburg and this year became a school physician for the Palmerton Area School District died Saturday afternoon pursuing a hobby he loved â€" sports car racing.
Adam Zimmerman died in a Connecticut hospital about a half hour after his European-made ''Radical'' race car collided with the back of a car that had crashed into a guardrail and spun into his path on the 1.5-mile track at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn.
Unlike oval racetracks, road circuits curve left and right, taking drivers up and down hills at speeds that can exceed 100 mph.
Race officials and state police from Canaan, Conn., said the crash happened at 4:50 p.m. near the end of the race on a climbing right-hand turn. Unlike oval racetracks, road circuits curve left and right, taking drivers up and down hills than can exceed 100 mph.
According to officials, the car did not ignite and Zimmerman was not ejected, adding he was strapped in with five or six safety harnesses. He was pronounced dead at Sharon Hospital at 5:24 p.m. The other driver, Phil Johnson of New Haven, Conn., walked away with bruised ribs.
''It was a freak thing,'' Trooper John Green said, adding that Zimmerman may have died from a head injury akin to the one that killed NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt in 2001. The case will remain open until the cars can be inspected for mechanical problems, Green said, and toxicology test results come back.
The race was a private one-hour endurance event for about 30 members of the Eastern Motor Racing Association on a track considered one of the most prominent road-racing circuits in the Northeast. Zimmerman, a veteran amateur, had raced at Lime Rock many times in the seven or more years that he had pursued the sport.
"He was passionate about anything he did," said his wife of 11 years, Debbie. She said he began racing while training to be a doctor.
Those who compete in amateur racing do it for "the joy of competition, pleasure of driving and for trophies," said Steve Potter, Lime Rock general manager.
Zimmerman, in fact, captured first-place in a Poconos endurance race in August 2004 and again last month, according to Bob Hill, chairman of the Eastern Motor race club. He also raced at Watkins Glen in New York.
Saturday's race was not open to the public and Zimmerman's wife and children, Joshua, 6, and Giselle, 3, did not attend. They heard about the accident from members of Zimmerman's pit crew.
After graduating from Rutgers University and receiving his medical degree from the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Zimmerman completed a three-year family residency at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg in 1998.
He worked for Warren Medical Associates for a year before opening a private practice at 422 Coventry Drive, Phillipsburg, and was a member of the medical staff of Warren and Easton hospitals.
In June, the Palmerton Area School Board named him school physician for 2005-06.
Zimmerman also started a CPR training business, did public speaking and cared for members of their synagogue, Congregation Sons of Israel.
"He had a type A personality," his wife said.
Lime Rock Park opened in 1957, operates 200 days a year and last saw a fatality in 2003, according to a park spokesman.
09-27-2005, 06:25 PM
#38
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It goes well beyond...
limited venues for sports racers / formula cars. There are significant dangers to any track activity and that is magnified by big differences in weight and/or speed. Amateur racing is a mix of many classes of varying capabilities. A 900lb DSR on track with a 3000lb sedan is dangerous. So is a GT-1 (Trans-Am car) doing 160 mph passing a sprite doing 105 mph. These are the realities of sports car racing. Groupings are made to try to minimize this, but it is up to the driver to avoid groups/groupings that they do not feel are safe.
09-28-2005, 03:22 AM
#39
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Same age as me and kids are the same age....dammit.
That's all I think about when consider my own injury on a track. How stupid would I be to leave behind my two kids for a frikkin' hobby?
09-28-2005, 06:21 AM
#40
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IIRC, WC TC/GT uses the last production date + 5 years.
Which would give the B5 S4 eligibility through the '07 season. Too bad it needs another 200lb. diet, 200 more ponies and another half inch of tread to be competitive.