It's all fun and games....

[xray]

Tragedy at LeMons.

Very sad to see such a lighthearted event suffer a fatality. reports are still developing, but here's a brief on the event:

http://jalopnik.com/389296/tragic-death-reported-at-altamont-24-hours-of-lemons-race

Thoughts and prayers are with Mr Summerfield's friends and family.

[e_racer1999]

that's so sad to hear.... thoughts to the family

[gira]

Very tragic indeed. You know, I just saw an advertisement for this event a couple months ago and safety is the very first thing that came to my mind. I am not implying the driver was inexperienced or the car lacked the standard safety gear. My thought was when you start with a clunker you might not have the safest car you could have, and you also might tend to not prepare yourself mentally enough for the seriousness of the event. I have been racing long enough to know of two events where the driver was determined to have a catastrophic debilitating health issue that caused serious injury or death while on the racetrack.

The positive is that these people passed doing something they love.

Greg

[xray]

I hear you, Greg...but some video clips I saw showed these cars not at any significant racing speed. Maybe 60mph. From what I read (GRM, LeMons website etc) the tech inspection appeared serious about safety, and the CHP said (via reports on the LeMons website) that the car was functioning normally, and appeared in good condition at the moment of impact. If the driver passed out, that's more a health issue (water intake, driver cooling, prior medical conditions) that may not have come to light in a sprint-type event.

I hope it doesn't have repercussions for GRM $200X challenge, BABE rally and next year's LeMons. I like those grassroots events!

[gira]

Steve,

Yeah, those are great points. I just hate seeing or hearing of people getting hurt like that. The physicals they make you get in SCCA are fairly rigorous. If you have any heart problems you have to get special clearance.

Hey, If you ever hear of anyone with a good car for the GrassRoots challenge, lemme know. I want in on a good idea.

Greg

[DougN]

Jalopnik reports stated that the reported cause of death was heart failure, rather than anything mechanical or safety related.

[xray]

Well....on a pathologist's COD sheet, everyone's proximate cause of death is cardiovascular collapse/heart failure. What we don't know are the factors that precipitated the CV collapse. Dehydration, fatal arrhythmia, atherosclerosis and coronary ischemia? Stroke?

PS---do you have a link? Just tried surfing jalopnik with no luck.

[xray]

Steve,

Yeah, those are great points. I just hate seeing or hearing of people getting hurt like that. The physicals they make you get in SCCA are fairly rigorous. If you have any heart problems you have to get special clearance.

Hey, If you ever hear of anyone with a good car for the GrassRoots challenge, lemme know. I want in on a good idea.

Greg

I'd also like to do a GRM challenge car, but I fear all efforts pale in comparison to last year's winner...The team (Cheapparal) made a C4 corvette with an Abrams tank blower on it to improve downforce to like 1000lbs! Hard to beat a bunch of gearhead engineering types, but it'd be fun to try!

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/challenge/build-diary/