Crash at 74 MM

[Matt97]

I also witnessed the single seater accident this morning, horrible to see but glad to hear the driver is not seriously injured. Amazing no one was killed. The Lola in this afternoons accident is probably the worst i've ever seen a race car after an accident, hopefully the driver isn't seriously injured and makes a full recovery. For me today wasn't very enjoyable, all the stoppages and knowing people have been injured just overshadowed the day.

Regards,
Matt

Edited by Matt97 on Sunday 20th March 21:08

[bruciebonuz]

I was standing about 50 metres from the first crash on the side the car landed. It was a very strange experience to watch a car cartwheeling in the air, a wheel fly off and the car disappear from view.....we all feared the worst and it happened very early on in the day. We wandered around in a daze for a while until we heard the good news that the driver was fine but apparently broke his shoulder when he dropped out of his upside down car on releasing the belt.....how no one was seriously injured is just utterly miraculous. It really does defy belief.

I saw what was left of the can am car. It was very badly damaged and I hope the driver is ok. It was a strange day....the track action was very stop start, the weather was freezing and for me it did feel a little flat compared to last year. Given these serious accidents that is perhaps not that surprising.

[Simes205]

Seeing that car was very sobering, I've got very similar photos.
A shame as a lot of the action today was as mentioned stop / start, sadly the super touring demo was one lap.
I learnt from last year though to layer up to protect from cold.

Edited by Simes205 on Sunday 20th March 19:50

[hantsxlg]

I witnessed the lola crash and it made my heart sink. the one comment about him being out of the car made by the commentary team was never repeated and i think wrong. Given thr lack of updates and what i saw ( and didnt see) i would expect the worse news.

[Strugs]

hantsxlg said:

I witnessed the lola crash and it made my heart sink. the one comment about him being out of the car made by the commentary team was never repeated and i think wrong. Given thr lack of updates and what i saw ( and didnt see) i would expect the worse news.

We were there today, and a chap that witnessed the crash said the driver *did* get out of the car, but he noticed he was missing a boot.. I'm keeping everything crossed for him..

[ecsrobin]

Matt97 said:

I also witnessed the single seater accident this morning, horrible to see but glad to hear the driver is not seriously injured. Amazing no one was killed. The Lola in this afternoons accident is probably the worst i've ever seen a race car after an accident, hopefully the driver isn't seriously injured and makes a full recovery. For me today wasn't very enjoyable, all the stoppages and knowing people have been injured just overshadowed the day.

This shows the severity of the impact


Regards,
Matt

Agreed. Today really wasn't enjoyable and sadly out of the organisers hands.

[BenWRXSEi]

Bloody hell. Was just telling people today at the PHSS how much I enjoyed the 74MM yesterday, really shocking to read this now.

I have no idea how there was no-one in the pedestrian tunnel when the single seater flipped over - I went through there several times yesterday and queued every time. Incredibly lucky for all involved. Fingers crossed for the driver of the Lola.

[bruciebonuz]

The first crash...

http://youtu.be/021GVfHJ_YE

A miracle. Watch the tyre fly into the disabled viewing area.

[cidered77]

That Lola was in an awful state and its not a good place at all to have an accident. Considering there isn't any news and only rumour, the picture should probably be removed...

Agree a weird stop start day ... Some awful crashes, muted atmosphere after the Lola one

[Eric Mc]

The fact that the F1 crash resulted in nothing worse than a broken collar bone was a bit of a miracle. It had awful similarities to the 1955 crash at Le Mans.

[Petrus1983]

bruciebonuz said:

The first crash...

http://youtu.be/021GVfHJ_YE

A miracle. Watch the tyre fly into the disabled viewing area.

Wow - they're extremely lucky. Lord March will be on this in a big way.

It's such ashame as I thought it was excellent today, I really enjoyed it. I sat next to Ross Brawn and Derek Bell at lunch, and then next to Gordon Murray whilst watching music!

I hope there's some good news for the Can-Am driver, I watched it from the inside field and it looked fast going in, but my vision was blocked from the 'impact' - thankfully.

[Cfnteabag]

I was there today with a friend and never saw the first crash, I think we were outside waiting for our tickets. Did wonder why the tunnel was closed.

We didnt see the lola crash but did see the green car come into the pits with the driver groaning, then we saw the bent steering wheel and damaged windscreen. Apparently the bonnet (if that is what it is on these cars) flew up and smashed the windscreen, bent the steering wheel and bounced off his hand and head on the way passed! Luckily he didnt seem to be badly injured.

As regards the Lola crash I hope the driver is ok. We saw the air ambulance come in and it was quite a long time before it flew off again and the damage to that car was breathtaking in its severity!

[steve2]

We were about ten feet from the disabled viewing fence and I still have the image of the somersaulting car with the drivers hands up in the air in my head .
I saw the wheel coming through the viewing area and heading for us and thank god it hit the fence as with two big lumps of metal attached to it it would have scythed through everyone , so glad that the driver is ok as we thought the outcome would have been a lot different, we had left before the Lola crash but hope he will be ok.not the best day

[bassett]

I was only a fence away from the initial impact in the first race this morning and that st me up for a good while and I definitely wasn't going to stand in the same place for the rest of the day. The speed which it happened and the distance the car travelled seemed impossible. I didn't hear any updates all day although there might have been some but you know race venues are always difficult to hear thing so I'm glad to hear the driver is ok.

With the can-am driver later on it was a way off from where I was standing but it didn't look good and the car looked much worse when up close. Updates were terrible and I felt like packing it in for the day with the cold weather not helping but stuck it out to enjoy the last few races which were thankfully carried out with no accidents all be it much shorter due to earlier over running.

[Lynchie999]

Im just hoping that this will be put down as a freak accident and that there won't need to be any changes made to the circuit (catch fences!) the only thing they could do perhaps is re profile that access road a little and maybe cover over the top of the tunnel with something...

[PompeyM3]

Lynchie999 said:

Im just hoping that this will be put down as a freak accident and that there won't need to be any changes made to the circuit (catch fences!) the only thing they could do perhaps is re profile that access road a little and maybe cover over the top of the tunnel with something...

I'm sure Lord March and his excellent team will be onto this. I agree a re-working of the tunnel to perhaps extend the tunnel itself may come about from this.

[cidered77]

PompeyM3 said:

Lynchie999 said:

Im just hoping that this will be put down as a freak accident and that there won't need to be any changes made to the circuit (catch fences!) the only thing they could do perhaps is re profile that access road a little and maybe cover over the top of the tunnel with something...

I'm sure Lord March and his excellent team will be onto this. I agree a re-working of the tunnel to perhaps extend the tunnel itself may come about from this.

I know the single seater crash will get the headlines because of the videos online- but Woodcote is a 100mph corner with practically no run off. I tested at Castle Combe on Thursday, and the ratio there between "speed to run off" is about as tight as you'd like - but Goodwood take it up (down?) a level. There is space to move the bank backwards and add a double tyre wall - I'd rather they spent the money there and just closed the tunnel during races and write that one up as a freak. Alternatively, cars that fast shouldn't race competitively there, which nobody wants.

A lot of talk about how modern circuits with massive runoffs are taking away the sport's edge, etc etc - but as a driver, i want the risks to be managed, and as a spectator, i don't want to have to spend the next day trying to find out if the poor can-am guy is OK (and his family don't want to be in hospital with him either!!). I really hope he is OK- accounts of him walking to the ambulance whilst improbable are very encouraging. Fingers crossed.

[samoan attorney]

First off I was not at Goodwood yesterday so this is secondhand news. However I was speaking this morning to a senior marshal who was on the scene. He said that the driver of the Lola did walk away from the car, though very shaken and obviously in need of medical attention. That is as much as he could tell me.

The Air Ambulance was apparently called for another driver who had a suspected heart attack.

Let us hope that all of those involved make a full recovery.

[Petrus1983]

I've just heard from Goodwood, at the moment there's no update on the Lola drivers condition beyond he's still in hospital.

[df76]

http://www.chichester.co.uk/news/local/driver-airl...