Club Arnage

http://www.yardsailor.com/_earnhardt/

Clip of young Dales firery crash in the alms yeasterday.
lucky chap..........

OUCH!!!!!!!

Can't help thinking the fire crew were a bit slow on the scene, but what a lucky bloke.

Apparently when he hit the wall backwards, the impact shattered the neck between the fuel valve and tank and something in the region of 1/2 of a gallon of fuel spilled and...whoosh!  Quite a weenie roast going there.  The ding-dong wasn't wearing a balaclava or fireproof shreddies hence the leg and facial burns.
Nothing like a big fire to get motor racing on the evening news.
John

Did I spot some overtaking despite yellow flags ? I think yes...

I'm no great aficionado of the rules, but I'd always assumed fireproof coveralls and balaclava were compulsory.

Glad to hear he's not seriously hurt. Rumour is he will still be racing in the NASCAR event thsi coming weekend!

JP,
Nope, firesuit, hemet, etc. are mandatory but kit like fireproof underwear and a balaclava are up to the driver.  Most of the NASCAR guys don't wear a balaclava, guess its too hot inside the cars.  Right up to the end of his career AJ Foyt used to wear leather driving gloves and Richard Petty didn't wear gloves at all!
Not very bright but they're good old boys so what would you expect.
John

Glad to see his injuries were only minor.

I guess this event will accelerate the development of the C6 racer!

When they refer to a firesuit, I assume they mean the racing overalls (as Johnny is wearing in the picture on the left) If so, are these actually fireproof, and if so, why the need for fireproof underwear as well?? Whichever, and as with the guys you mentioned with their choice of hand attire (or lack of it!) I supppose these guys know the risks involved so to a certain extent it's up to them if they want to take the risk.

I have to add that I think he remained remarkabley composed throughout the whole incident and got himself out quite quickly considering there were flames all around him (what did we do before in-car cameras). Good job too as the marshalls weren't that quick getting to him (IMHO)

jr's dad was a very vocal in his opions on the HANS neck collar and refused to wear one (invented by long time sportscar driver Jim Dowling), big shame, as it was maybe the one thing that would have saved his life.

Daft these race car drivers, if it where me I would wear the lot, then wrap myself in bubble wrap to be extra sure.

I dared to suggest the marshals where a bit tardy on another other and get flamed more than jr did. Glad it was'nt just me that thought so, this is by no means a critism, as I doubt I would be the one running towards a car that has just expoloded.

Most triple layer Nomex fire suits only offer protection for a matter of seconds. Nomex undergarments, gloves and balaclavas offer additional protection - again - only for a few seconds. Petrol (particularly racing fuel) has a very, very high burning energy, remember.
I wouldn't be so quick to blame the marshalls in this incident. I don't think they hung back - it was a very intense fire and I don't think I would have wanted to get that close to it. Not sure what happened to the 'tear-away' fuel valve system.......
Little E didn't seem too non-plussed about the situation because he had been temporarily rendered unconcious. He seemed to get his sh1t together PDQ once he'd come round!
Since making the Hans Device mandatory is many professional formulae, you'd have figured that basic fire protection for drivers was a given wouldn't you.
James Hunt used to take it all very seriously. He used to race with a Nomex 'skirt' attached to his helmet and breathing air piped-in, in case of a conflagration - precautions that would certainly have spared Lauda some of his more severe wounds.

Hi Guys,
            As Matt points out the suits provide a very short time of protection. Yes they are fireproof ie it will not burn however the HEAT is what gets through after a few seconds. Most series specify the number of layers of Nomex to be worn: so a three layer suit or a two layer suit with underwear would be equal. Three + underwear better still.
Canada Phil

Just read on a US Corvette forum that Earnhard's fuel cell had been replaced immediately before the warm-up. maybe there is more to this than meets the eye........

As Phil very well pointed out, while the driver may not be exposed to direct flame, the heat still gets through.  I remember when Gerhard Berger had his frightening accident at Imola back in '89, he suffered burns on his upper torso not from the fire directly but because the sweat that had accumulated under his firesuit turned to steam and he ended up being scalded by his own persperation.  The biggest danger in a fire is of the driver inhaling the flames, this was what inflicted such devastating lung injuries to Niki at the Ring back in 1976.  This is obviously a big danger to a driver who is unconcious or stunned as Dale was yesterday.
John

I didn't realise he had gone unconscious. Thank goodness it was only short term. If he'd have not got himself out of the car I dread to think what the outcome might have been!

Don't get me wrong about the Marshalls. I think they do a great job. I just thought that trying to get a guy out of a burning car might have figured a little higher than waving the yellow flag. I think the other drivers probably knew that with a car on fire on the track they needed to slow down and that the session would be stopped. That said, I agree Matt, I wouldn't be so keen to run towards a car that's on fire.......but that's probably why I'm not a marshall.

I met, and had a bit of a chat last year with Mike Salmon, and a nice fellow he was too.
You must have seen that amazing sequence of black and white shots, with his GT40 going up in flames, and him sitting on the tarmac in a ball of fire. (what year and what corner, anyone?). He reckoned that it was the first year that the drivers had been provided with flameproof gloves/gauntlets, but nearly all, to a man, didn't bother wearing them, and had a bit of a laugh about the whole idea of it. He went on to say that as he sat in the Ford, surrounded by fire, he looked down at this hands and was surprised to see how quickly the bones had been exposed by the flames.
Interestingly, reading JPC's comments about the marshalls, Mike Salmon reckoned that the marshalls froze, and it was left to a spectator (or it could have been a photographer) to grab an extinguisher from the marshalls post and put him out.
What would you wrap your winkle in for chrissakes?!
H

I think one problem the marshals were confronted with was that this happened just as morning warmup started and virtually every car on the grid had just come out togther, it looked from the video like they had to wait until the traffic cleared before they could actually get to the car.  Once they were able to get extinguishers on it, they flattened it fairly quickly.
John

On the video clip previously posted, the reason given for replacing the fuel cell is that the Sunoco racing fuel includes ethanol and this degrades the fuel cell material which could lead to fuel line blockages.
Hence, they fitted a new cell to alleviate this.

My brother in law has been a marshall for many years, primarily at Thruxton, Gurston and Goodwood.

He's now trained as a first response medic and has attended a number of incidents that sound rather nasty.  These have included some major incidents at Thruxton and a fatal crash at the FoS a number of years ago where a fellow marshal and friend was struck and killed by a car that left the course at the top of the hill.

I take my hat off to him and his unpaid, volunteer colleagues for the work they do at motorsport events.

I sometimes envy his ability to be able to get 'up close' to the action, but when the sticky stuff hits the fan, I know the seat in the grandstand suddenly gets a lot more comfortable.

In defence of the Flag Marshal. His job is to wave the appropriate flag. Even if he is trained as a fire marshall his assigned job is to wave the flag so that is what he should do.
Canada Phil

Matt very well described how drivers like James Hunt were so acutely aware of the dangers of fire.  The likes of Master James, Jody Scheckter and Ronnie Peterson were all sporting nomex bibs and oxygen bottles by the mid seventies.  James being a very intelligent man was perhaps more aware than most of the horror of being trapped in a burning car.  His and the Hesketh team's first GP podium was the 1973 Dutch GP at Zandvort and anyone who is familiar with the sport is all too aware of the horrible tragedy that took place that day.  There is a very poignant photo of James right after the race, still in his overalls,  quietly sipping on a Grolsch, not a shred of elation with his first steps on a F1 podium on his face, clearly his thoughts are with his countryman.
We see fire almost in disblief today but back then it was an all too frequent reality of the sport.
John

(http://www.forix.com/asp/picture.php?p=img/1973/10014_8w.jpg)

David Purley received the George Medal for his bravery.

  Steve,
I think Mike hailwood did as well, was it roger williamson left by the marshalls to burn while Mike attempted a solo rescue, Having said all that marshalls are well trained, but, as  a medic who's witnessed and attended all types of accidents and medical dramas, ITS F***ING scary and we all freeze at times,

Roger Williamson was in the car (died, poor sod) and David Purley stopped his own car and attempted to upturn the inverted car and rescue his friend.  The race continued and marshalls were rather slow (to say the least) in reacting to the accident.

Actually Mike Hailwood hauled an unconcious Clay Regazzoni out of his burning BRM at Kyalami earlier in the year.  Purley alone made the desperate attempts to save Roger Williamson at Zandvort.  The really infuriating thing about what happened to Roger was that there was a fire truck parked not more than fifty yards away around the corner but couldn't get to the accident scene because it would have had to move against oncoming race traffic. If they had stopped the race (as Denny Hulme was desperately trying to do by waving at the starter) they could have flattened the fire and got Roger out from under the car with no problem.
John