[Fot] Sad news from Road America

[WILLIAM TOBIN]

    Hi all, a couple things come to mind here.
    First, most vintage groups require towing eyes on the cars, front and rear. They should be clearly visable and marked; Pegasus and others sell "Tow" decals. Paint the tow eyes a contrasting color for easy ID. Make the holes  2" in diameter for easy hookup. Put two front and two rear and use them for tiedowns. Jack Woehrle of SVRA put out a couple of rants, justifiably so, a couple years ago on their web site about tow eyes.
    Make it quicker and easier for the safety crews to hook up and go; may save another incident like this one.
    Nextly, as far as I know, nobody has gone from vintage to F1. Are we getting too serioius about winning? Just a thought. Vintage is supposed to be about having fun; losing our fellow drivers doesn't fit that description. Drive your cars hard but remember that those other guys are probably your friends.
    And the HANS is a great investment.
    Hope I didn't offend anyone; not the point.
    Take care, Bill   ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: BillDentin at aol.com 
    To: susank at 141.com ; fot at autox.team.net 
    Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 9:06 PM
    Subject: Re: [Fot] Sad news from Road America


    Jim Austhof's is sure getting a Baptism of Fire.  His description, of course, is accurate, as is his counsel concerning the Hans devise.  Not sure it would have been quite as effective in this case because of the 'side impact', but there certainly would have been increased stability.  Vintage racing is not a high speed parade.  Its risks are serious.  The biggest thing I was reminded of is the fact that when we race we make a lot of split second decisions.  And we don't get to do them over.  Serious stuff!

    I had raced many laps with Dr. Surjit Hermon.  In my opinion, he was very conservative, raced at 8/10ths, and was particularly courteous to other racers.  I was in that Friday practice session as well, and have to assume he may have missed a waving yellow and standing white at the Thunder Valley worker station.  You can't see the apex to 13 coming up that hill, and I suspect he was surprised by the commotion and lost control of his car.  So sad these things should happen.

    As such, we choose not to do the 'missing man' pace lap in honor of Jack Drews on Sunday morning.

    Bill Dentinger


    In a message dated 9/22/2008 7:44:57 P.M. Central Daylight Time, susank at 141.com writes:
      This was on the MGVR Yahoo list:

      *****************************

      I have sad news to report from the Vintage Fall Festival at Road America 
      this past weekend. We have had another fatality in the vintage racing 
      community. We lost driver Surjit Hermon on Friday afternoon in an 
      incident near turn 12 (under the now non existent Billy Mitchell 
      bridge). Surjit lost control of his Eastlake 11, skidded right-left- 
      right and impacted a Mini Cooper which was well off course and in the 
      process of being hooked up for a flat tow. The safety workers had to run 
      for their lives when they looked up from trying to find a attachment 
      point for the flat tow and saw a skidding car coming at them.

      My second weekend as a Driver Committee Chairman - second fatality!

      Watch your flags, remember the 80% rule, and if you were contemplating a 
      Hans device let this be a warning.

      Jim Austhof
      Red #1 MGB

      *****************************

      Susan

      -- 
      ** Oh, I would just KILL for a Nobel Peace Prize! **

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