Huge accident at Brian Redman Challenge

[Donny Brass]

http://www.pbase.com/atrltd/bric2005

Historic Racing at Elkhart goes terrible wrong.........

[DarrenX33]

Holy Cow! I usually go to that race but this year I told my friends I couldn't make it. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

[Charley Lillard]

I think Colin was there with his 69 Trans Am he got from Jim Mattison and I think I see his car in the pile up.

[DarrenX33]

Arrrgggh! I noticed that TA. I hope he is ok. Anyone hear from him? http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

[sYc]

Dang.. just looked at all the pics, unreal. Hopefully Colin and the other drivers are OK.

To be that many involved, wonder if it happened at the start of the race.

[Donny Brass]

all I have found is:

I was across for the start finish line as the green was about to come out and heard a car loose control. I was directly across the pit lane when this happen. Several cars checked up into one another under wide open throttle. The approach to the start finish line is up hill and I don't think these guys could see what they were heading for. Last report was no life threating injuries. I believe about 16 cars in all were destroyed. Hope all the drivers are ok, but what a bad day for many at a fun event.

[sYc]

Colin'c car is listed on the entry list as #31 and white, which looks like the TA on the guardrail.

[CamarosRus]

Rich Gregory's Email had the following..............

"They can even have “The Big One” in vintage racing. Here are a few pics from the Road America Vintage Races this weekend. There was a huge wreck in Group 6 (Camaros, Vettes, Cobras, Jaguars, etc.) as the pace car exited and the racers came up to the start line. The total carnage was 16 cars which has to be one of the largest wrecks in the history of vintage racing. This was probably more spectacular than anything I have seen in a Nascar event.



Some info about the wreck:

* Colin Comers Trans Am (#31) sitting atop the pile (bent at the firewall). He has owned it for a month or two.



* A good friend, Fritz Schiffmayer’s ’65 AC Cobra is on the bottom of the pile with two cars on top of him. We saw the in-car video from his car…DEVASTATING! ! ! A $250,000 car and all that is salvageable is the trunk deck and the engine. It took paramedics over 15 minutes to get to him and cut him out from under the other cars. His injuries appear to be minimal but you can bet he will be sore (especially at age 71). While being questioned by the paramedics, he said at some point he saw a wheel ‘zip’ past his head…they found tire tread marks on his helmet!



* The British Green ’68 Camaro atop the front of the pile (in front of the #6 car) had the subframe knocked out of it…the entire subframe is laying on the other side of the track!



Luckily there were NO serious injuries reported. Lots of lucky guys and some VERY pricey equipment destroyed."

Rich apparently took home a "best in show" award for his 69 YENKO Camaro........from the Concours at this race event.

Chuck Sharin

[Tenney]

Pretty fierce. Glad they're all okay. Upside to a bent race car is it's likely been bent once or twice before. Value lies in the legend. Again, glad they're all okay.

[Donny Brass]

whoa, anyone read the viewer comments at the bottom of the page ??

Mark 18-Jul-2005 14:06
I ran with this group last summer, and we had about 10-12 wrecks in Group 6 over the course of the weekend. I'll never go back to the BRIC - to race. The cars are all "cheater" setups, with WAY BIG horsepower, and the drivers are way too agressive. Unfortunately, the track officials and the race sponsors do little to discourage the overly dangerous driving. It has been well known for years that Group 6 at the BRIC is a bunch of wild ass, ego manics, driving cheater cars with big stroker engines and no rules racing. I hope no one was injured, but it was bound to happen sooner or later.

[Jeff H]

Wow, that's a shame to see so many vintage race cars get damaged like that. Good to hear there weren't any serious injuries.

[Charley Lillard]

It was Colin's car but he was not hurt.

[Donny Brass]

another post from the Corvette Forum:

Here is a recap from a member that was in the race.
I also read on another site that it was a real Cobra.
Seeing that Trans Am was surprising as you don't see alot of 69 Trans Ams out there. The Boss 302's are more common

those pics make me sick inside, most of them are my friends and our own C/F member BJM AND his father were involved (there is a yellow mid year roadster UNDER the Camaro and BJM is on the outside of the track in a yellow 71 roadster). I was in the second row...we came up the hill as always and as the front row accellerated the starter did NOT throw the flag, the front row let off the gas and I hit my brakes as did the Jag next to me also the third row and fourth row...someone maybe 5 rows back hit the car in front of him and that caused all of this. You are looking at a few million dollars in wrecked cars. I originally blamed the starter but was later told that the blame should go to whoever wasn`t paying attention and hit the car in front of him...I still place alot of blame on the starter and would ONLY ask him "what the hell were you waiting for"?? as it turns out the (novice) race director told ONLY the front row he wanted a 50 mph start.....these cars do not do 50 mph......redvetracr

[Donny Brass]

a racer's veiw of the accident:

YOu are wrong and have NO CLUE what you are talking about. the Cobra was real, the starter was VERY late and in my opinion caused this incident...and how do I know this you might ask...I was in the second row (p3), this all happened behind me due to a rediculiously SLOW start.......................
...redvetracr

PS: and to the rocket scientist "Mark" who wasn`t in the race because the BRIC is full of overly agressive drivers YOU ARE A PU$$Y who doesn`t belong in a race car.....remember they call it RACING not track touring or autocross around cones in a parking lot.it is flat out foot to the floor RACING at 175 mph.

[SamLBInj]

Glad no one was seriously hurt...I would imagine zero insurance coverage as it was a race.. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

[Rat_Pack]

Here is a picture of the Trans Am on top of the other cars. This was provided by William here on the board............RatPack..................

[Belair62]

Redvetracr is on our board ....looks like he escaped the carnage...glad most are o.k.....looks like the Safety crew was up to the task. http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flag.gif

[JoeG]

Is there any type of qualifying background these drivers have to have before being able too drive this course--Or is this suppose to be just a race to get the cars out for some friendly laps-???----------

[Donny Brass]

another found post:

I was the operating steward for this race. The pace car did what was the right thing to do. We gave them instructions for each group. The two pole guys admitted to running up the hill at 5000 rpm in 3rd gear. The fifth place guy was racing well before the green flag and tryed to force his way between the wall and the car in front of him. He started scraping the wall and the guy behind him checked up and the car that hit him started to spin and then it was one after another into them. I am amazed that no one was killed. All the drivers except two had hans devices.

The green flag was in deed thrown. I red flagged the race with in 3 seconds of the green. Even with the red flag the drivers in the back just keep driving into the rear. The red was shown at corner 15(the walk over bridge). The drivers just did not pay attention. All drivers were forced to attend a meeting right after the incident. They were all yelled at. Interesting that in a few classes they are not allowed to pass until after turn 1 (Historic Gran Prix) and turn 3 for Can Am. One historic Gran Prix driver was banned from their series for life due to an incident in the kink.

I have to agree that the drivers in this group are some of the most agressive drivers I have ever seen. More distrubing to me were how many fist fights started after drivers started getting out of there cars. I feel that if they were able to get out they should have been happy they could even move after a incident like this.

I was very happy with how all of our crews came together to work in the heat. We had a steady flow of water for all the rescue crews, ambulance crews and wrecker crews while they were working in over 90 degree heat. What a great team.

Mike Engelke

[budnate]

Hey Donny, link us to where your pulling this info, I think we, SYC members would like to follow along with all the posts on the subjet, a real shame of some truly cool iron.

Bud.

[sYc]

Hey, Bud, if you click on tthe link in the first post, it is at the bottom of the pics.

[Donny Brass]

Tom, only some of it is.........

I am finding links all over, trying to figure out what happened, here are a few that I have visited:

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1139524&forum_id=4

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=1139602&forum_id=43

http://www.coloradoscca.org/prodcar/view...asc&start=0 (http://www.coloradoscca.org/prodcar/viewtopic.php?t=4702&postdays=0&postorder=asc&star t=0)

[Late BrakeU2]

"[ QUOTE ]


"I was the operating steward for this race".

"The green flag was in deed thrown".

First mistake,shoulda been a wave off for ragged start.

"I red flagged the race with in 3 seconds of the green. Even with the red flag the drivers in the back just keep driving into the rear".

Go figure,especially since it's blind uphill,the backmarkers can't see sh%#t while listening to their spotters calling green,green..(check out the length and amount of skids for the auger effect).



"I have to agree that the drivers in this group are some of the most agressive drivers I have ever seen".

Agressive amateur drivers.

The front straight at Elkhart is not exactly what I'd call wide,and the wall on drivers right removes all exit stage right options when the track gets plugged-lots of contributing factors in this one..


To finish first,first you must finish..

[TimG]

I was at this race and at the start/finish line on the starting grid for the chaos. I spent the last three nights at the house of the owner/driver of the #64 black '69 Corvette and we watched some in car videos of the event last evening. He was hit by the red '65 Corvette at full speed and his car lifted completely in the air. His car then hit the car in front of him and spun. He was looking at oncoming traffic with cars going full bore. He finally ended up slamming backwards into Dick Mooney's Corvette. Bill Morrison is under the mass of cars, he seemed fine. Bill bought that car as salvage in '65 and has been racing it since. He built a sister car to this one that I owned and raced a bit. I flew in a helicopter over the holding area for all the cars, there were 18 there, most severely damaged. The Cobra and the two real 1967 Z28's with TA history were all beautiful and are toast, especially the black Z that Reggie Jackson owned. Very sad indeed.

[Mr70]

It all seems surreal. http://s.tabulas.com/ik/smilies/blue/zipit.gif

[MosportGreen66]

Is anyone else in a complete state of shock?
Was anyone hurt?

[hvychev]

Holy $hit......I am stunned! http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

[SOM2001SS]

That is horrible! It makes me sick. Glad no one was hurt bad.

[TimG]

I don't think anyone was seriously hurt. They took time to remove the Cobra driver and put him on a board. The driver of the Black Z, Jim Brady, had his arm bandaged up about an hour after the race but was walking around. Morrison was riding his golf cart around the area. He has no cage on his #77 Corvette, only a roll bar. His car had four cars on his, one up to his windshield, one to his roll bar, the Z on top of the whole mess. Collins car was on the pile also. How Morrison got out OK I'll never know. My friend in #64 was OK, not hurt at all for the hit he took. We all went to the lake to watch the sunset that evening and his right arm was certainly able to hold a can.

[lzdick]

I mistakenly started a thread in the 'Other Events' section of the Main Index. You can go there for pics of the wreck.

FYI. Yes, Colin Comer's Trans Am is atop the pile and the race was to take place while the finals of the Concours was taking place. Colin had both his Cobra and Mustang in the Concours. When his name was called as a winner, the M.C. said that he in the wreck. All of a sudden, up walks Colin to everyone's surprise. He said he had put his driving instructor in the car for the race. Lucky guy...cars get fixed better than drivers! No serious injuries but alot of damaged cars...and egos.

[Mr70]

The Link you are referring to.
Thanks for the extra pix.
http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/148998/an/0/page/0#148998

[SSJunkie68-69]

Now that the initial shock has been absorbed.....what's going to happen to this vintage rides. I am sure they will be rebuilt if at all possible. Is there any type of insurance they can get or is it strictly coming out of the owners pocket.

Is the track any way liable?

Not trying to open a can of worms but just curious.


Thoughts/comments?

[lzdick]

I know the owner of the #25 AC Cobra and he has already said he is going to restore the car...and yes, it is a real small block Cobra (CSX2***). His mechanic told us it wasn't saveable but Fritz obviously has his sights set on putting it back together.
I know of no insurance that will cover a car during a race event. I believe the repairs will come from the owner's pocket. Hope they are deep! http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[MagicRatt]

damn.....that is some crazy stuff those guys pulled off in those pics......
Rich