Bob's Track Friends Chat

[OldAIMGuy]

Road America, BRIC Vintage/Historic Races........

On Sunday there was probably the worst accident relative to car damage that has ever occurred in Vintage/Historic racing. Luckily there were no serious injuries. You'd never believe it from looking at these photos, however.

http://www.pbase.com/atrltd/bric2005

If you're in the mood, you can read the opinions and facts below the thumbnail photos, but here's what I learned from my friends who were in Group 6 during this Cluster Coitus....

The read that several of the drivers had on the situation was that it was a combination of things that precipitated this accident. This group (Group 6, Historic Large bore Production and Trans Am) has a lot of very fast '60s and '70s cars in it. It also had more aggressive driving than I've seen in the past. There had been quite a bit of bumping on Saturday and nobody was called on the carpet for it. What the heck; This is Vintage/Historic racing - the prize money's just not that good.

The warm up lap had the cars bunched very well all the way to the bottom of the hill after Turn 14 heading for the Start/Finish line. For those not familiar with Road America, the front straight is nearly a mile long and has a big hill in a generally uphill climb. A couple of hundred yards after cresting the big hill is the Start/Finish flag bridge.

If you are a leader, you see the green flag well before the rest of the field has visual line of sight, but only after cresting the major part of the hill. Usually the leaders hold the pack back and in grid formation for the start. On Sunday, the leaders took to full throttle very early while still on the steep part of the hill.

They crested the hill and expected a green, but the flagman on the bridge waited because the pack was still out of sight. The first six cars got over the hill with the leaders engine braking because of no GREEN being shown. Finally the green was thrown, but only the first six cars avoided the huge accident. I believe the total involved was 17 cars.

The drivers from Row 4 back saw the leaders take off and got hard on the throttle as well, expecting to crest the hill and find a Green flying and the leaders well on their way to Turn 1. Instead they found brake lights on the cars ahead and had to also jam on their own brakes.

A car or two had broken ranks after seeing the leaders take off up the hill. One bumped another under brakes, cars spun and then the rest just piled into the spinning cars and car parts.

It was terrible, probably the worst accident as far as cars go in vintage and historic racing history. And yet it could have been much worse. There were over 50 cars in that event. The leaders had Red Flags waving at Turns 1, 2 and 3 and didn't have a clue what had happened behind them. Luckily the cars following the Cluster Coitus were able to stop their cars and avoid the accident. For them, it was a matter of following instructions and drive past the event and to a stop further down the track. This was done to clear the track so that safety vehicles could approach the scene.

All this carnage occurred essentially right at the Start/Finish line.

One of my Group Six friends told me he heard one driver had a broken wrist. Fritz Schiffmeyer, the driver of #25 blue 289 Cobra (he's owned it since new in '64) was taken by ambulance to be checked over. I've raced with Fritz for 15 years and for a guy about 70 years old he's still doing a great job. Unfortunately, as you can see in the picture, #25 looks to be toast.

The ambulance carrying Fritz off wasn't in a big hurry, so we're guessing he's okay. Scott Cline, the driver of the silver E-Type Jag was spun around and into the wall and says he saw Fritz's car get hit four times by different cars. He said they were cautious and took their time in getting Fritz out of the car and neck braced and back boarded him before carrying him to the ambulance. He was concious and moving around in the car but was asked to stay in it until they could brace him. As of Sunday night we'd still not heard a final on Fritz's condition. His wife and crew had checked out of the Osthoff, so we think that he's home, okay and recovering.

Because there was some fuel spilled from the accident, the safety people cleared a lot of spectators, etc, away from the area. Cars were piled on top of cars. People, this could have been much worse. Let's hope it never happens again.

Sincerely,
Tom