Drag racers?

[martind]

Bit of a better report from the BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/no

BBC said:

A spokeswoman for Bedfordshire Police said the object was projected into the crowd when the car opened its rear parachute.

It is not clear whether a piece of the vehicle sheared off when the parachute opened or whether it was a piece of debris from the track that flew into the crowd.

[hornet]

Ian V said:

Just found this link to the incident on Sunday :www.rushdentoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=661&ArticleID=1760619

The report seems a little incorrect as there was no crash, but there was a cloud of smoke as he went over the line. I assume the engine or blower let go?

My thoughts go out to the family of the spectator. I am very surprised that there is no such message on either the Santa Pod or Eurodragster website.

There's an editors note on Eurodragster regarding the incident. The BBC report says SPR can't comment until the police investigation is complete, which seems fair enough.

Short of encasing the whole strip in bullet proof plexiglass, I really don't know what could be done to prevent this sort of incident. Catch fencing would get big debris, but wouldn't catch the shrapnel. Presumably the track conforms to all the required safety specs, otherwise they wouldn't be able to host FIA events? Just seems like a very tragic freak accident.

[jalopyjoe]

Although I have every sympathy with the family and friends of the victim I think it has to be regarded as a freak accident. We were sitting on the bank at about half track and the finish of that particular race looked very unspectacular, although Danny Cockerill lost the blower belt. As for debris fencing, well I can remember numerous wheels clearing that at both Brands and Sneterton and more spectacularly a touring car at Donnington. Hopefully we wont see a knee jerk reaction to this tragic accident and common sense will prevail.

[Furyous]

Please note, we now have a nice new shiny Drag Race forum in the motorsport section.

Cheers

F