m2cupcar

iTrader: (5)

video

IMO - the guy in the beemer paid the price for pinching down on the GTO in the straight. The goat had the run, and if the beemer wanted to block he should have done it before the gto got there. But the worst part is the fact that track management left the ground that uneven, that close to the track. It almost looks as though there was a ramp hidden the grass, intended to launch the car.

getsidewaysd1

Dammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

2002rsr

did not see that coming

Loki047

iTrader: (6)

anyone else think the ramp in the grass was a bad idea?

roman

That hurts. Wheel to wheel racing has its downfalls

steelrat

That almost looks like a dukes of hazzard.... just missing the "yeeeeehaaaawww"... and of course the ending.....

That's nuts.... did the guy walk? Or at least survive?

Dave,

m2cupcar

iTrader: (5)

word is the "ramp" was a by-product from repaving they'd done on the track earlier... oops.

kung fu jesus

iTrader: (1)

the driver walked away. his sub belts and harness bruised him up, but his HANS device saved him.

Al Hounos

That's ridiculous. Somebody better be in big trouble.

druz

iTrader: (2)

From the Grand Am site:

Hand Recounts Events Surrounding Spectacular Crash at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio (June 25, 2006) -- No. 21 Matt Connolly Motorsports BMW M3 driver Joey Hand, who was involved in a spectacular, end-over-end crash while battling for the lead with Paul Edwards in the No. 64 TRG/iRise Pontiac GTO.R late in Saturday's EMCO Gears Classic presented by KeyBank at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, was released from Mansfield/MedCentral Hospital at 12:40 a.m. ET.

All x-rays and CAT-scans were negative, and Hand was back at Mid-Ohio on Sunday morning as teams made final preparations for the Grand-Am Cup 200 on Sunday afternoon. Hand was scheduled to co-drive the No. 97 Turner Motorsport BMW M3 with Anders Hainer, but will be replaced in the car by Nic Jönsson. What follows below is Hand's account of the accident itself and its aftermath. Saturday's Grand American Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Special Reserve EMCO Gears Classic airs on SPEED Channel this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. ET.

Q: How did the incident happen?

HAND: I was leading, obviously, and we came up on some lapped cars and we went two or three wide. I went to the inside and kind of got held up on my run off the Keyhole (Turn 2). I went to the inside and Edwards got a run on me. I defended way to the inside, right to the grass, and he never took his foot out of it. He got into my right rear and kind of lifted the car up a bit. I got a little wheelspin and it turned me into the infield.

It was no problem, I got the car straightened out and it was all good, but there's a crossover road in the middle of the track that is new. It has a really big elevation change to the road from the grass and when I hit that, the car got launched and scooped the nose. It went really high and it landed nose-first, missed the tail, then nose-first, missed the tail, like, eight times or something.

I was conscious for the whole thing. I felt every one. I mean, I was sure I was going to be badly hurt. I was like, 'Oh, this is bad.' My big concern was--I thought, 'The worst thing that can happen to me is to get hit by another car sliding across the track upside down.' That's what I was really worried about.

When it was all said and done, I came to a stop upside down. I was still in the seat, and the first thing I noticed was my right shoe was off. I blew my right shoe off and my right glove somehow. I unbuckled myself and fell down out of the car onto the roof. There was fuel running down my back and into the roof of the car, and oil and stuff. The corner workers were yelling to get out of the car because it was going to catch fire, and I couldn't get out because my HANS device was stuck in the window net, and the window was smaller than normal.

I went back in and tried to get my helmet off and then they called me back out again, and then they finally got me out with my HANS and everything on. I just climbed out and laid against the wall. We were too close to the car, still, so they dragged me up the way and worked on me from there.

Right now, I'm just pretty lucky, I think. When I was hitting every time, I thought it was sure that I was going to have broken legs and arms and stuff. But right now, all I've got is a badly-bruised right elbow and really sore back and neck, left foot, right groin and things like that hurt.

All-in-all, I can walk up and down pit lane and I really did not think I was going to be walking. I didn't think I'd walk out of the hospital last night, for sure. I got out of the hospital at about 1:00 in the morning and went straight to Steak 'n Shake and got myself a chocolate shake and a double Steak 'n Shake burger with fries and chili.

Q: What was going through your mind when all of this was happening?

HAND: I can remember vividly the first two or three landings, but it knocked the wind right out of me. Every hit was just hurting. I could feel the belts and I was just way up in the belts. Absolutely the main thing going through my mind was I was worried I was going to get hit by another car. That's what I was worried about.

I'm just glad all the guys behind me were smart enough to get it whoaed-down and they missed all the wreck. Nobody clipped me again. Otherwise, I was just assessing the situation. I've been in a lot of wrecks, unfortunately. Well, not a lot, but a couple big ones, and when that stuff is happening you kind of assess the situation quickly.

I moved my legs; I knew I was okay there. Since I already have a back issue, I figured, 'Well, hopefully my back doesn't get hurt again.' I moved my feet, and I was good. I noticed I didn't have a right shoe, and that was kind of intriguing to me. I knew that my groin area was hurting, because when I came to a stop, I was hanging by my sub belts and my lap belts, pretty much.

After that, the first thing I started thinking was, 'Hey, this feels like fuel and oil. This is going to catch fire. I need to get out of here.' The window net was still up, I mean, it was just a mess to get out. Then, you start panicking. Fire makes you panic, and that's obviously the worst thing for any race car driver is fire. I thought, 'Boy, this would be icing on the cake. Wreck huge and then catch on fire and burn to the ground.'

When it was all said and done, people were asking me, 'Am I upset about the whole deal?' Well, yeah. I was winning the race in a car that nobody thought could win, with a team that didn't think it could win. Everybody came through, the pit stops were good, the strategy was great, (co-driver) Chris (Gleason) did a great job, and we had a chance to win the GT class for the first time this year in a BMW, and it just got turned around. It really is a racing incident.

The only thing I could say about Paul Edwards is that I wouldn't have drove it in there, I would have lifted. But when it's all said and done, I was defending my line, he was trying to pass, there's two laps to go or whatever, and it was pretty much a racing incident. But I would not have done it to him.

Q: What do you think prevented really serious injuries from happening to you?

HAND: Number one, right from the get-go, BMW Motorsport builds these cars with a roll cage in them. They come to PTG that way, and then PTG reinforces and does even more stuff to them. Number one, I think the guys at PTG, the fabricators, especially James Stevens, I know for a fact that I'm going to give him a hug, because these guys weld this cage together and it withstood a wreck it shouldn't have withstood as far as everybody's concerned.

That's a big thing, and also the preparation by the Connolly guys. I mean, the belts stayed intact, the seats stayed intact and all the safety equipment stayed intact. If you don't have that stuff, you don't survive or you don't come out walking away. The preparation from PTG to Connolly is probably what saved me.

Q: What about the HANS Device?

HAND: That's number two for me and the HANS Device. That's the second time the HANS Device saved me. They said there's no way I could have survived the impacts without the HANS Device. It saved me again. In (a Toyota Atlantic car at) Milwaukee it saved me and here it saved me. I won't drive without it if I have a chance. Not many people can say that they hit hard enough to have a HANS Device save them twice. Whatever, we'll go on.

Q: Were you scared?

HAND: This was probably the most scared I've been, when I was thinking I was going to catch fire. That's a really bad thing. Otherwise, I wasn't that scared. I think I'm pretty good at surviving. I always tell my wife, 'The key is to survive, right?' Survival came into account immediately.

I was like, 'I've got to get out of here.' As soon as I came to a stop, I was like, 'Forget it, if I've got a broken leg or whatever, I'll drag myself out of here.' A lot of stuff didn't feel good, but I was like, 'It doesn't matter at this point. My arms are working and I'm going to drag myself out of this car somehow. I don't want to burn to the ground with it.' At that point, I was a little bit scared. I panicked a little bit.

But then, once I got out, I was like, 'I'm good. At this point, I'm good.' That was until they wanted to Life Flight me because they thought I had internal injuries. Then, I started thinking, 'Do I have internal injuries? I don't know. Maybe I do feel something.' I had an IV in both arms and was just going crazy.

Then they cut all my clothes off, which, everything was by procedure and I want to thank all the people out there, because they were right on the spot. They did everything right as far as I'm concerned. They cut all my clothes off and then they hosed me down with a fire hose (out of concern that he was soaked in fuel), which I thought was the funniest thing of the whole deal. I was laying out there, butt naked, hosing down 200 gallons of water with a fire hose in the rocks.

Q: How do you feel this morning?

HAND: This morning, I didn't take any Motrin or anything, which is what they prescribed me, and I've got pretty big back and neck pain. My right elbow, my right groin, I'm pretty much just sore everywhere. Really, my head's feeling better and everything feels fine. I had no concussion. I was cleared on the CAT-scan. There were no problems on the CAT-scan and no problems on x-rays. I'm good to go, but I'm not going to race today in the Grand-Am Cup race. The doctor there cleared me for next week.

m2cupcar

iTrader: (5)

Yeah- "defend way to the inside", BUT he never got to the grass, the GTO was already at the grass. This reminds me of when I'd just started racing. I finally got my video camera hooked up in the car. I remember looking at my first race on video. I was absolutely embarrassed to see my driving. The difference between what I thought I was doing (and telling others I was doing) vs. what I was actually doing was HUGE. That was one of the most valuable learning tools for driver improvement no doubt.

This testimony makes paying $900 for a hans device sound like a pretty good deal- eh? Mine is on its 3rd season.

kung fu jesus

iTrader: (1)

i have a good friend i used to race his car with who was a psychologist who specialized in closed-head injuries. during his tenure at michigan state, he was heavily involved in the HANS device development. it's his proudest achievement. he lives in knoxville now and i still keep in close contact. he is probably one of the most genuine people i have ever met. we talked on and off about doing another race car. his 2 y.o. son and my recent marriage have sort of quelled the discussion, but it's somthing i consider from time to time.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

I've seen that car before it crashed!





It's true what the drivers says about the roll bar built in from the BMW factory:






They also have one badass turboed engine that was in the process of being de-tuned as it made too much power for the driver to handle:

UofACATS

iTrader: (1)

/\ /\ That turbo 6 made too much power.. wow.
Nice pics, btw.

for that cage

"That's the second time the HANS Device saved me."

Unbelievable.

kung fu jesus

iTrader: (1)

some of the older m3s are boosting at between 500-1000hp. i don't know the particulars, but it's incredible. reminds me of the supra without the bloated car that surrounds it.

mxv

iTrader: (4)

:gay:

wildfire0310

iTrader: (1)

Wow he got luckly no one hit him and that he did not land on the top of the car between flips.

That was crazy but like I said when I laid out my motorcycle, "**** happens, as long as we all walked away, it will work out."

Philip

GTO>BMW

Loki047

iTrader: (6)

The second I saw you posted I knew it was going to be about that.

jeffsl

from looking at the video, and reading the following rule from the SCCA Pro Racing rulebook:

"1.7.16.6: Safe Pass
The responsibility for the decision to pass another car rests with the overtaking driver. However, this will not relieve the overtaken driver from the responsibility for the safe passing of the other car. The overtaken driver shall not block. Any driver who fails to make use of his rear view mirror, or who appears to be blocking another car seeking to pass, may be black flagged."

i think the original statement:

"I went to the inside and Edwards got a run on me. I defended way to the inside, right to the grass, and he never took his foot out of it. He got into my right rear and kind of lifted the car up a bit. I got a little wheelspin and it turned me into the infield..."

could more accurately be written as:

"Edwards got a run on me. I then went towards the inside in an attempt to block, but because I didn't realize he was already on his way to passing me on the inside, I never made it to the grass. Instead, I got into his left front and it kind of lifted my car up a bit. I got a little wheelspin and it turned me into the infield. Luckily for me, he lifted and I got the car straightened out as I went into the infield. If he hadn't lifted, I would have gone completely sideways before leaving the asphalt and ended up hitting the crossover road sideways. Who knows how many times I could have rolled?"

"The only thing I could say about Paul Edwards is this: Thank you. I gratefully thank him for not keeping his foot in it after I made contact with him. When it's all said and done, I was attempting to defend my line, he was trying to pass, there were two laps to go or whatever, and it was pretty much a racing incident. It could have happened to any other driver trying to make the same pass."