Drivers who've been thrown from their cars

Originally posted by alansart
Didn't Denny Hulme throw himself out of a burning car at Indy one year?

Originally posted by lil'chris


Think that may have been Rindt during practice in 1967 rather than Hulme

Originally posted by Barry Boor
Yes, that is the photo I find hard to understand.

I just can't imagine the direction of movement of both car and driver that could bring them into those relative positions; even with Jerome's description.

Originally posted by zoff2005

At the time the track from the Chicane exit, around Tabac and to the Gazometer hairpin was not the main road, but a "promenade". There were even benches so people could sit down. Taken away for the race presumably! The surface was some sort of paving stone I think.

Marcus

I didn't realise that the Tabac-Gasworks Hairpin section was also promenade.

Originally posted by Barry Boor
Yes, that is the photo I find hard to understand.

I just can't imagine the direction of movement of both car and driver that could bring them into those relative positions; even with Jerome's description.

Originally posted by GD66
There was a veteran driver named Bill Thomasen banging about in NZ in the sixties, driving, from memory, a 2.5 litre Cooper : once at Bay Park raceway in, I think 1968, his son Barrie, a novice racer, was entered in a Brabham, probably powered by a 2.5 Climax. On the practice Saturday, he lost control exiting the 180deg Rothmans sweeper, and oversteered into the earth bank on the inside of the corner, at around 100 mph. In front of my terrified young eyes, the car catapulted into the air in a roll, turning lazily onto its' back in the air with young Thomasen half-ejected from the cockpit, and laying more or less to the right of the windscreen/mirror area of the car as it slammed back to the ground. I thought for sure he'd have been killed outright, but believe he went to hospital with spinal injuries. The strange thing is, I never heard again what happened to him, or even any mention of the accident, or his name, which as a youngster I found quite tragic, and it has bothered me ever since. Any chance Dave McK or any of his offsiders can shed any light on the outcome of this fearful accident ?

Originally posted by simonlewisbooks
I was spectating at Prescott Hillclimb in the mid-late 80s when a Cooper 500, I think it was a dark blue MkIX , got into a tank-slapper on the way out of the very slow Ettores hairpin, literally at 40-50mph, no more, but it dug in, rolled, spat the driver out and from where I was stood looked like it then landed on him. It was quite sickening to watch.
Everything went very quiet while the rescue crews went into action , including the commentary and afterwards I never heard another word about the fate of the driver. I don't recall it even getting a mention in either MOTORING NEWS or AUTOSPORT the following week or a mention on the commentary at any subsequent meetings there.
Does anyone recall this incident and what happened to the driver ?

Originally posted by GD66
There was a veteran driver named Bill Thomasen banging about in NZ in the sixties, driving, from memory, a 2.5 litre Cooper : once at Bay Park raceway in, I think 1968, his son Barrie, a novice racer, was entered in a Brabham, probably powered by a 2.5 Climax. On the practice Saturday, he lost control exiting the 180deg Rothmans sweeper, and oversteered into the earth bank on the inside of the corner, at around 100 mph. In front of my terrified young eyes, the car catapulted into the air in a roll, turning lazily onto its' back in the air with young Thomasen half-ejected from the cockpit, and laying more or less to the right of the windscreen/mirror area of the car as it slammed back to the ground. I thought for sure he'd have been killed outright, but believe he went to hospital with spinal injuries. The strange thing is, I never heard again what happened to him, or even any mention of the accident, or his name, which as a youngster I found quite tragic, and it has bothered me ever since.....

Originally posted by GD66
I seem to recall it was an older model Brabham (BT6 or similar vintage).....I don't know where the car had come from, although in those days single-seaters were thin enough on the ground that most had a well-documented background, even to us novices

Originally posted by David McKinney

Yes, a 2.5 Brabham-Climax, but it was October 1969
I know he was still in a wheelchair seven or eight years later

Originally posted by Nanni Dietrich


Simon, could have been the guy, Jonathan Hardiman?
http://www.motorspor...hp?db=ct&n=3830
(a Caterham not a Cooper).

Originally posted by Barry Boor


It still is, actually. O.K. the Gasworks is now the Rascasse (more or less), but the prom is still the prom. And it becomes the pit lane when the circus is in town.

Originally posted by Macca
That was at the first Silverstone festival in 1990, sponsored by Christies; Corner had his Auto-Union D there as well, just before selling it, which he'd demo'd during the lunchbreak IIRC, and raced the Merc despite having no practise just so the punters could see it.........would have been safer if he had got a time and started further up the grid.................

Paul M

Originally posted by dentistTubster
Does anyone have any pics of Swede Savage's 1973 Indy crash? I think he was in a disintegrated car but was thrown clear?

Originally posted by fines

I vividly remember having seen footage of him sitting in a burning car - you really don't want to see those pics!

Originally posted by fines

Unfortunately, no! I vividly remember having seen footage of him sitting in a burning car - you really don't want to see those pics!

Originally posted by Andretti Fan
The Savage crash at Indy in 73 has to be the worst one I have ever seen

Originally posted by fines
Has Orville Epperley been mentioned yet? His accident apparently went through the press (in 1948, I believe) with a sequence of rather sensational photographs. It happened on one of the high-banked dirt tracks, Winchester or Dayton, and he was ejected from the flipping car which proceeded to slice off his right (?) leg!!! Needless to say, the photo sequence was rather graphic! :

Geoffrey Ansell in the 1948 British Grand Prix at Silverstone:

http://en.espnf1.com...mage/22474.html

Louie Meyer spun one year coming out of two and hit the inside guardrail. He was thrown out and got up and ran away. They have a good movie of that which is often shown.

I have a Rare Sports Video of the roadster era at Indy which shows a driver being violently deposited onto the track in the late 30s. I've not been able to ID the driver with any certainty.

PS--Rex Mays was ejected fatally from his car at Del Mar in California.

I have a Rare Sports Video of the roadster era at Indy which shows a driver being violently deposited onto the track in the late 30s. I've not been able to ID the driver with any certainty.

PS--Rex Mays was ejected fatally from his car at Del Mar in California.

Sam Collier, of the Florida Collier family and brother of Miles and Barron Jnr. was thrown from Briggs Cunninghams Ferrari 166 while leading the 1950 Watkins Glen Sports Car Grand Prix. On the original 6.6 mile road circuit, Sam started from the fifth row of the grid, but quickly gained places to take the lead on lap 2. A report of the period states he went off line and spun on gravel, mounted the track edge and somersaulted into the meadow. He was wearing seat belts, but they were pulled from the frame due to the ferocity of the accident. Miles Collier, who had earlier driven the Ardent Alligator to third place in the Seneca Cup race, was in the Cunningham pits when Bruce Stevenson stopped to report the accident. Miles ran the three miles to the scene, only to find the ambulance (which had driven the 'wrong' way round the circuit to attend) had already taken his older bother to hospital. Sam died later the same day at Montour Falls hospital. Miles officially retired from racing after that.