I got this off another forum....
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Followup on the corvette autocross accident.......
Posting IP Address: 63.203.72.114
Posted by bitrbo on 2000-07-12 23:06:48:
Here is a follow up......it was posted on the Audi4 list.
> Ok gang, let me give a little background info on this clip. This
> accident happened last year during our annual Corvette Caravan to
> the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green Kentucky. An autocross course
> was setup on a small section of parking lot at the Corvette assembly
> plant by a few of the local Corvette clubs. This was a Saturday and
> Sunday event. And I had every intentions of running both days since
> they said we would probably be able to get 6 or more runs in each
> day. I actually ran the course on Saturday. This accident happened
> on Sunday.
>
> After walking the course I could clearly tell that the course they
> set up was to large for the lot space and set too close to the
> curbs. It was easy to see that a novice could get into trouble
> rather easily. I made two runs on the course and decided that I
> wanted no part of this particular autocross. There were three main
> reasons. One, was that a few of the course workers were sitting down
> at their stations! The second was that the sweeping turn before the
> slalom had a patch of oil that couldn't be avoided the way they had
> the course set up. No amount of kitty litter (or whatever it is they
> used) seem to clean it up. Every time I came through that turn I
> would get squirrelly going into the slalom and have to slow down to
> keep from losing control (oil on my tires?). The third was that the
> slalom was setup parallel to the curb and maybe a car length and a
> half away from the curb. The blue vette in the clip lost control
> midway through this slalom section, jumped the curb and hit the
> worker who, according to spectators I had asked that witnessed it
> first hand, had been sitting in his folding chair and was trying to
> get up and out of the way when he got hit.
>
> Anyway, I decided to go and a least watch the Sunday autocross
> before I left to come home and I must have arrived at the site maybe
> a minute or two after the incident and a few minutes before the
> paramedics arrived. The worker was unconscious but still breathing.
> From the video it looks as though he was already standing but I
> think if you look closely you will see what I think is a red folding
> chair go flying in the air. Still no real sure if he was actually
> sitting, I can only go by what I was told by a few people at the
> site.
>
> Now let me tell you a little about Corvette events. Just as we have
> SCCA the Corvette clubs have NCCC. This event was NOT an NCCC
> sanctioned event. However it was setup by clubs that normally do run
> NCCC events. Just like we setup an autocross for the Year One group
> at Commerce recently. Even though it was not SCCA sanctioned we
> still stuck to our rules and safety methods. So what I'm trying to
> say is that workers sitting down at their stations seems to be the
> norm at NCCC events. Why is this? Well, NCCC events do not have a
> run/work order. Drivers who enter these events are under no
> obligation to work! This is handled by volunteers of the hosting
> Club. So these volunteers are asked to work a station for hours on
> end with little if any relief. I'll have to admit, I'd be tempted to
> take a chair and umbrella myself! However, being a little wiser now
> I wouldn't dare be a volunteer.
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