[BOUNCE vintage-race@Autox.Team.Net: Non-member submission from [Jackson
Zimmermann <jzimmerm%acva@mail.co.albemarle.va.us>]]
Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 16:48:29 -0400
From: Jackson Zimmermann <jzimmerm%acva@mail.co.albemarle.va.us>
Subject: RE: Fatality
I was a spectator at the Jefferson 500 at Summit Point. The driver was
in a silver Chevron B21(? I have a difficult time in telling the
difference between the B19 & B21) #221 (I believe that his name was Mr.
Legat). I left the track before he was pronounced dead, but the accident
was very serious and when they called off the medivac chopper, there
seemed to be little hope... I didn't see the accident, however I was
only about a 150 yards away from the location and spoke to several people
who were witnesses. There were a fairly wide variety of cars on the
track. Exiting turn 2 (the end of the 180 degree corner at the end of
the straight) there were two cars trying to pass a slower car (none of
these cars were really racing for position, just passing much slower
traffic) and they touched with massive consequences.
The cars involved were #221, a silver Chevron B21, which was very, very
fast as many Chevrons are, and #43, a white with motorsports stripes BMW
3.0 CSL batwing coupe (not exactly a slow car, but these are two very
different beasts in cornering and acceleration). The situation, as it
appeared when I was watching before the incident, was that the CSL
entered turn 1 a fair amount ahead of the Chevron that was catching up to
lap him (for the second or third or more time). In front of the CSL was
a significantly slower big block early '70's Corvette #100, that the CSL
was interested in lapping for the second or third time (this was an
enduro race). When the CSL entered into turn 1, he was looking to pass
the Corvette on the short straight between turns 2&3. The Chevron was
also close enough to think about passing both of them in the straight
before turn 3. This is where my personal view ended and I'm just passing
on the views of others looking at the straight between turns 2 & 3. The
Chevron was right on the CSL's tail through the end of turn 2 and made a
move to pass both the CSL and the Corvette. The CSL couldn't see the
significantly smaller, lower Chevron that was beside him and moved over
to pass the Corvette. The Chevron tried to complete the pass by moving
further over and accelerating, but was nicked in the rear by the CSL.
The Chevron was immediately airborne and went into the trees/dirt bank at
over 100mph, he never had the time to hit the brakes after he was
tapped. The CSL also got loose and went off course into the trees/bank
at high speed. The Corvette continued on, uninvolved in the incident.
The Chevron hit the bank and trees, virtually disintegrating the front
end. The CSL traveled up and on top of the bank after snapping some
trees and lodged itself on top of the bank. (If anyone has another
account, I would be very interested in hearing it as I only talked to 2
people who actually saw the contact and they said it happened in an
instant)
The emergency response (an advanced life unit and a rescue unit) were
there _very_ quickly and went to work. The SCCA corner workers were
great. The crowd was very, very concerned. There wasn't a lot left of
the Chevron. The driver of the CSL emerged from the car, but collapsed.
He was shaken up pretty badly, but was ok on the whole. The corner
workers cleared out a space for the medivac chopper while they cut the
driver out of the wreckage and put him in the advanced life unit.
Reports were that he was not breathing and the workers were looking very,
very serious. Then they called off the medivac... They lifted out the
wreckage, the rear of the Chevron was virtually intact, the front was
not. It was unclear whether or not they had to cut the car in half to
get the driver out, but it was in two pieces with a very compact front
end. I'm not sure about the design of the Chevron steering column, but
it did not appear as if it compressed or broken.
Personal Commentary:
Many of the spectators viewing the scene were very upset, vintage racing
is supposed to be "safe" (in terms of life threatening) and things like
this aren't supposed to happen. I know that my vintage racing
aspirations underwent significant thought/review in my 3 hour drive home,
all last night, and today. I know that racing is an inherently dangerous
sport (I'm a former kart racer who quit due to safety/bad driving
concerns in that sport), however I've never seen anyone with more than a
broken bone at a vintage race and that was a one car accident. The
chance of something going wrong is there, however death at a vintage
event is almost unheard of...
In the 20/20 vision associated with hindsight, I concluded that there was
probably some brain fade on the track (the Chevron should not have tried
to pass two cars at once and the CSL should have known/looked for the
Chevron that was so much faster than he was since he probably saw it a
ways behind him while he was on the straight), but there were other very
significant contributing problems as well. There was too great of a
speed differential between the classes of cars on the track, the
cornering and acceleration in the sports racers is so great that its hard
for production car drivers to comprehend how fast they catch up. Not
only was the speed differential too great, but the sizing was a problem.
It would be hard for drivers of big production based cars to see the
smaller, significantly faster sports racers. There needs to be more
careful examination and discussion of size and speed when looking at
classing rather than basing it on age/date as was done at this event.
The Chevrons (there were several) were lapping traffic at an astounding
rate.
Older sports racers, without significant improvements to their safety
equipment (i.e. a substantially improved cage) can never survive a wreck
of the type that happened. I also realized that to install a massively
improved cage in something like a Chevron B21 would require significant
work & modification which may result in substantial cosmetic and
engineering changes probably undesirable in a car as valuable as a
Chevron. While safety is not something that is scrimped on, there is a
limit as to what can be done to the cars without substantially modifying
the character of the older sports racers. I do wonder how hard it would
be as a minimum to install collapsible steering columns in a lot of these
older cars.
I know for sure that this event changed my perspective on fast sports
racers (which I have always admired, but could never hope to afford) and
cars that cannot support a monster cage. I doubt that a Mini, Sprite,
Spitfire, etc. with a top notch cage in a similar accident at their
_relative_ speeds would have resulted in anything more than relatively
minor injuries at worst. The badly damaged, yet intact, CSL spoke highly
for production car/big tube cage car durability even in a fairly high
speed crash. A big cage and/or low speed is needed to ensure crash
survival and vintage sports racers typically offer neither.
I, and I daresay the crowd, feel intensely sympathetic for the family of
the Chevron driver. I know that everyone who was there cannot get it off
their minds, the look of the workers, and who we assumed to be the
driver's sobbing wife. I never want to see a scene like it again. It
affected me greatly. I can't help but wonder if a different grouping of
cars would have made for a safer race which may avoid incidents such as
these.
Jackson Zimmermann
jzimmerm@mail.co.albemarle.va.us
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