Hey y'all,
WHen I saw the Earnhard incident, I had a flashback. I've been in 2
racing accidents in my years on the track. Back in 1993, racing an ITB
Scirrocco at Blackhawk, I was T boned by a 5.0 Mustang that had lost
it's brakes, left the track, slid through the grass and back onto the
track. It caught the VW in the passenger side, totalling it. I turned my
head and watched the Mustang as it impacted (hard). My neck was turned
to the right, and from that moment on, I've had neck problems, and when
I roll my neck it sounds like snap crackle & pop. After that incident, I
purchased a neck collar.
When I had the infamous suspension failure in my Sprite at Mosport this
summer, I was doing at least 100 when the right front wheel decided to
part company with the rest of the car. The concrete wall I hit was
protected by a layer of tires, but the impact still toatalled the car,
and flipped it 2 1/2 times.What occurred to me was that Dale Earnhardt
hit that unprotected wall at 70 mph faster than my impact, and did not
have the benefit of a tire wall to cusion the blow. But then again, he
was in the latest greatest safest race car in the world, and I was in a
40 year old shitbox Sprite.
I knew when the flipping stopped and I ended upside down, but able to
wiggle my fingers and toes, that I was very fortunate. I was walking,
talking, and smartingg off (as usual) that evening. The next day, the
toll of my fractured ribs and bruised internal organs was evident, and
I was sore as hell for weeks.
I thought of Dale Earnhardt taking the pole at Watkins Glen the week
after breaking his collarbone and sternum a couple of years ago. That
guy was one of the toughest son of a bitches on the planet.
WST
MHKitchen@aol.com wrote:
>
> To all:
>
> I hope the lesson we all learn from this is to wear/use the best safety
> equipment you can afford. Several years ago I started wearing my horsecollar
> religiously after seeing the slo-mo video of the Alfa/Lotus 7 incident during
> my race at Palm Springs.
>
> Once the HANS device is commercially available, I think we should all also
> consider it.
>
> We don't know what the details of Earnhardt's incident were just yet, so we
> don't know if something else would have helped, or not. I know that I
> wouldn't get in a race car in an open-faced helmet, however.
>
> Regards,
> Myles H. Kitchen
> 1965 Lotus Cortina Mk1 #128
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