MJM

Australian V8 Supercars, driver walks away thankfully!

Matt

Short-Throw

Is that normal to have the safety crew come up the rear of a start?

Halon would not have suffocated this one.

wallyman424

yeah it is, when we used to do standing starts they'd have a tow truck hanging out behind the field.

Falcon

Damn, I hated those standing starts. The fans, OTOH, loved them because something always went wrong.

MJM

This was a freak incident, and you can see that the safety equipment / rules / procedures kept everyone safe.

The Aussie V8 Supercars is a great series. Imagine the fan base of NASCAR but running all road courses and street races with F1 style qualifying and heat races over the course of a weekend. I highly recommend checking them out in person.

Or watch it on Justin.tv if you can't make it to Australia.

Matt

Loco Vette

Foly Huck! Buncha there.

Guy with the extinguisher coulda run a little faster, MHO

Everett Ogilvie

I am hooked on watching this series - incredible racing.

BrianCunningham

fatbillybob

To me that is an unacceptable fuel cell failure. I would love to be a fly on the wall when that tank is evaluated. The question is was it a tank failure encouraged by other aspects of car design or just a tank failure. Cells have ballistic bladders and foam in them plus the metal exterior sitting in a protected area of the car to reduce this problem. I would not be surprised if there was an unknown sharp protrusion that speared the cell and split it open.

Webz

Best series out there IMHO.

OKsweetrides

If they are based on production cars... The G8/Commodore had the fuel tanks between rear seat and trunk if I recall.

fatbillybob

Sure but there is usually a way to mitigate. An example current c6 r design post dale ernhardt fire in c5 r years ago

KBow_Photo

There was one event last year, a street course where it started to pour and pretty much all the leading cars crashed on the back stretch.

dvandentop

insane racing wish we had something that amazing here in the states.

would be fun to plan a trip down there next winter time to see one of these!

40YRW8

It looked to me that the car that hit him had built up his speed to about 60-70 mph. The rear sheet metal folded back around the impact and disguised the fact that the front of the second car penetrated his cage almost all the way to the main hoop right behind the driver seats. I don't think anyone will fault the cell or it's placement. I wouldn't have expected any kind of cell would have survived this impact. Perfect storm combination but the combination of his other safety equipment kept this horrible accident from becoming a tragedy. We don't know the severity of his burns but the impact alone could have done a lot more damage that appeared here. The combination of safety equipment helped him to be very lucky to survive. I sure hope he is OK.
Gary

varkwso

Having been in a cockpit fire - notice the driver trying to get his hot azz gloves off...

Better they burn then you though! The heat deposited on the outside the suit will eventually migrate through. You will be amazed how fast you can come out of your suit.