US Radical Prosport driver killed
Discussion
Here's a newspaper account.
A tragedy in the community, Adam was wearing a HANS at the time:
Area doctor dies in race crash
Adam Zimmerman of Allentown was in an amateur event Saturday in Connecticut.
By Ann Wlazelek
Of The Morning Call
A 36-year-old family doctor who lived in Allentown, practiced in Phillipsburg and this year became a school physician for the Palmerton Area School District died Saturday afternoon pursuing a hobby he loved — sports car racing.
Adam Zimmerman died in a Connecticut hospital about a half hour after his European-made ''Radical'' race car collided with the back of a car that had crashed into a guardrail and spun into his path on the 1.5-mile track at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn.
Unlike oval racetracks, road circuits curve left and right, taking drivers up and down hills at speeds that can exceed 100 mph.
Race officials and state police from Canaan, Conn., said the crash happened at 4:50 p.m. near the end of the race on a climbing right-hand turn. Unlike oval racetracks, road circuits curve left and right, taking drivers up and down hills than can exceed 100 mph.
According to officials, the car did not ignite and Zimmerman was not ejected, adding he was strapped in with five or six safety harnesses. He was pronounced dead at Sharon Hospital at 5:24 p.m. The other driver, Phil Johnson of New Haven, Conn., walked away with bruised ribs.
''It was a freak thing,'' Trooper John Green said, adding that Zimmerman may have died from a head injury akin to the one that killed NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt in 2001. The case will remain open until the cars can be inspected for mechanical problems, Green said, and toxicology test results come back.
The race was a private one-hour endurance event for about 30 members of the Eastern Motor Racing Association on a track considered one of the most prominent road-racing circuits in the Northeast. Zimmerman, a veteran amateur, had raced at Lime Rock many times in the seven or more years that he had pursued the sport.
"He was passionate about anything he did," said his wife of 11 years, Debbie. She said he began racing while training to be a doctor.
Those who compete in amateur racing do it for "the joy of competition, pleasure of driving and for trophies," said Steve Potter, Lime Rock general manager.
Zimmerman, in fact, captured first-place in a Poconos endurance race in August 2004 and again last month, according to Bob Hill, chairman of the Eastern Motor race club. He also raced at Watkins Glen in New York.
Saturday's race was not open to the public and Zimmerman's wife and children, Joshua, 6, and Giselle, 3, did not attend. They heard about the accident from members of Zimmerman's pit crew.
After graduating from Rutgers University and receiving his medical degree from the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Zimmerman completed a three-year family residency at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg in 1998.
He worked for Warren Medical Associates for a year before opening a private practice at 422 Coventry Drive, Phillipsburg, and was a member of the medical staff of Warren and Easton hospitals.
In June, the Palmerton Area School Board named him school physician for 2005-06.
Zimmerman also started a CPR training business, did public speaking and cared for members of their synagogue, Congregation Sons of Israel.
"He had a type A personality," his wife said.
Lime Rock Park opened in 1957, operates 200 days a year and last saw a fatality in 2003, according to a park spokesman.
>> Edited by NASA racer on Wednesday 28th September 01:20
A tragedy in the community, Adam was wearing a HANS at the time:
Area doctor dies in race crash
Adam Zimmerman of Allentown was in an amateur event Saturday in Connecticut.
By Ann Wlazelek
Of The Morning Call
A 36-year-old family doctor who lived in Allentown, practiced in Phillipsburg and this year became a school physician for the Palmerton Area School District died Saturday afternoon pursuing a hobby he loved — sports car racing.
Adam Zimmerman died in a Connecticut hospital about a half hour after his European-made ''Radical'' race car collided with the back of a car that had crashed into a guardrail and spun into his path on the 1.5-mile track at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Conn.
Unlike oval racetracks, road circuits curve left and right, taking drivers up and down hills at speeds that can exceed 100 mph.
Race officials and state police from Canaan, Conn., said the crash happened at 4:50 p.m. near the end of the race on a climbing right-hand turn. Unlike oval racetracks, road circuits curve left and right, taking drivers up and down hills than can exceed 100 mph.
According to officials, the car did not ignite and Zimmerman was not ejected, adding he was strapped in with five or six safety harnesses. He was pronounced dead at Sharon Hospital at 5:24 p.m. The other driver, Phil Johnson of New Haven, Conn., walked away with bruised ribs.
''It was a freak thing,'' Trooper John Green said, adding that Zimmerman may have died from a head injury akin to the one that killed NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt in 2001. The case will remain open until the cars can be inspected for mechanical problems, Green said, and toxicology test results come back.
The race was a private one-hour endurance event for about 30 members of the Eastern Motor Racing Association on a track considered one of the most prominent road-racing circuits in the Northeast. Zimmerman, a veteran amateur, had raced at Lime Rock many times in the seven or more years that he had pursued the sport.
"He was passionate about anything he did," said his wife of 11 years, Debbie. She said he began racing while training to be a doctor.
Those who compete in amateur racing do it for "the joy of competition, pleasure of driving and for trophies," said Steve Potter, Lime Rock general manager.
Zimmerman, in fact, captured first-place in a Poconos endurance race in August 2004 and again last month, according to Bob Hill, chairman of the Eastern Motor race club. He also raced at Watkins Glen in New York.
Saturday's race was not open to the public and Zimmerman's wife and children, Joshua, 6, and Giselle, 3, did not attend. They heard about the accident from members of Zimmerman's pit crew.
After graduating from Rutgers University and receiving his medical degree from the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Zimmerman completed a three-year family residency at Warren Hospital in Phillipsburg in 1998.
He worked for Warren Medical Associates for a year before opening a private practice at 422 Coventry Drive, Phillipsburg, and was a member of the medical staff of Warren and Easton hospitals.
In June, the Palmerton Area School Board named him school physician for 2005-06.
Zimmerman also started a CPR training business, did public speaking and cared for members of their synagogue, Congregation Sons of Israel.
"He had a type A personality," his wife said.
Lime Rock Park opened in 1957, operates 200 days a year and last saw a fatality in 2003, according to a park spokesman.
>> Edited by NASA racer on Wednesday 28th September 01:20
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