[Healeys] Welch's death

[Michael Oritt]

Without knowing any details of the accident if you consider that open-wheel
formula cars, or for that matter most sports racers such as the Elva MK IV
that I race, have little or no protection for side intrusion.  At last
weekend's PVGP races at Schenley Park a Lotus 23B in my race group--really
not very different than the Lotus 18 that DW was driving--hit a pole
amidships on the right (driver's) side and was all but torn in half with
the driver going to the hospital with serious injuries.

It does no good to indict vintage racing in general or UK racers in
particular--all of the HANS devices, roll bars and harnesses in the world
will do no good if the driver's compartment is penetrated.  Racing remains
a dangerous sport.

Best--Michael Oritt


On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 2:45 PM, Healey Bruce <healeybruce at roadrunner.com>
wrote:

> How terribly tragic and sad.
>
> Bruce
> Brea, CA
> 1960 BN7
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Healeys [mailto:healeys-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of
> editorgary at aol.com
> Sent: Monday, July 28, 2014 10:36 AM
> To: healeys at autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: [Healeys] Welch's death
>
>  The news of the death of Denis Welch is an unbelievable tragedy. The idea
> that someone would actually get killed in a vintage racing accident is so
> unlikely that we really have to ask what happened. I hope that vintage
> racing organizations all over the world are asking for details on Welch's
> death to learn whether it might have been prevented by better safety
> equipment (English drivers often choose not to equip vintage race cars with
> modern style roll bars, and even safety harnesses because they aren't
> "period"), less aggressive driving and more active stewardship (English
> racing has a deserved reputation for being more aggressive than what we
> tolerate in the U.S.), bad track design, or just the luck of the situation.
>
> To have a driver of this level of
> experience die in a frequently raced style of race car is just
> unacceptable.
> G.
>
>
>
> Gary Anderson
> Editor-in-Chief, The Star Magazine
> Mercedes-Benz Club of
> America
> Editor at Large, Austin-Healey Magazine
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