I agree with what all of you have said. However, I believe that if that was the day that he was supposed to leave us and if he did not have that accident, that something else would have happened. It could have been on the way to the hotel or in the shower. Pavement racing does have more risks but the races are more often and there are more tracks to do it at.
Tom,
I KNOW you are 110% about safety.
You are the one who insisted on coming to my garage after i "finished" Greenie in mid 2010, and meticulously spent several hours, checking every nut, bolt, set up from end to end.
I love you like a Brother, and 110% respect your beliefs.
But I don't agree that the dramatic difference in deaths/life threatening injuries on asphalt in comparison to salt is simply fate. (maybe i miss-understood yr post?)
Scott Guthrie's rack up of asphalt vs salt stats was an eye opener for me.
I may even take back all the Scott bashing
i've posted in appreciation of his insight.
(OK, not ALL, but most...
)
So what to do about it?Certainly NOT quit asphalt LSR.
Certainly YES look for opportunities to make asphalt LSR safer
Some things are obvious e.g. make the traps 110% visible.
Make em so obvious a blind man couldn't miss em.
Donna Timney's recent accident highlights the problem, but ECTA is not the only venue with this issue.
When Mojave switched directions, i went through the traps TWICE, never saw them.
On the 3rd pass i hugged the right side of the track and finally saw the cones at the traps.
Noonan also had a hard time seeing the traps and proposed, as a temp solution, erecting an EZUp at each side of the finish line.
This was a temp solution and not recommended as SOP (who wants to run into an EZUp), but was WAY safer than not seeing the finish.
salt vs asphaltTim Chin (smartest man in the world) offers that the lower coffecient of friction on salt may be part of Bonneville's excellent safety record, i.e. slide vs grip and highside.
One set of conditions at Bonneville vs 5+ asphalt tracks is likely an issue.
Also Bonneville has had 50 years to work on safety vs asphalt 15 years.
Path ForwardThis IS NOT about adding a 4th tech inspection at Wilmington (IMO 3 is too many)
This IS about basic hazards structural and procedural.
In any event, I feel strongly we should systematically identify risk areas and mitigate them.
Karl
(...sanctimonious preaching over, Karl looks around and nods at the cheering crowd as he steps off his soap-box...)