37 replies to this topic

[jimclark]

... http://auto-racing.s...jured-in-crash/

Also, a quote from MarathonMan from another board:

"Pruett's team is flying back to Indy to work on the Rolex 24 car (backup old Riley with approved GA bodywork).
Hauler leaving track shortly to head west to Indy.
When hauler arrives, pack up with backup, return east on I-80 to Jersey.
Arrive Sunday morning (8 a.m. warmup uncertain), but they will be ready to go for the race.
Scott is here at the track."

[tahadar]

man that sounds nasty. hope he's recovering well.

[stevewf1]

Hope he's OK. He had a nasty crash in CART back in the early 90s, I believe...

[anbeck]

In the comments posted under the article that had been linked there's somebody claiming to be a wife of somebody in Pruett's pit crew and she says that Pruett had been released from hospital and they'll try to build up a new car

[917k]

Is it just my browser or is the Speed website[still] one of the slowest loading POS on the net?

[WGD706]

He was taken to South Jersey HealthCare Regional Medical Center, where he was evaluated and released.
Pruett was exiting the final turn on the 2.22-mile Thunderbolt Raceway when a GT car spun in front of him. When he took evasive action, Pruett's car snapped sideways and impacted the end of the barrier separating pit road from the racing circuit. The impact tore the car in half. The cockpit of the car remained intact, with Pruett coming to a stop on pit road.

"I'm a little sore, but good," Pruett said. "They wanted to take me to the hospital to take all the precautions. The TELMEX Ganassi guys stepped up, and we're coming up with a game plan and getting on with it. They're hauling to get up to Indianapolis and get our spare car together, and get it turned around to be here for Sunday.

"All I remember was there was a white Porsche in front of me, and he checked up," Pruett said of the incident. "When he swerved over in front of me, I swerved to miss him, and that's it."

Several crew members are flying to the team's shop in Indianapolis to work on the car while the team's transporter returns. Once it arrives, the spare car will be loaded on the hauler, which will return to the New Jersey circuit, where they hope to arrive before final practice at 8 a.m.

[Bos]

I don't want to push it offtopic, but it's amazing to see how these guys just get back up and keep going. Hamilton, Heikki, Kubica, Glock all came back and were just as quick/quicker after their shunts. Guys like Zinardi and Schumi, who were not just dazed, but actually injured. It's almost as if, it's not like they're seeking to waste their lives, but if they die behind the wheel of a racing car, so be it. It's inspiring.

[OfficeLinebacker]

Wait, he's unconscious for several minutes, complains of serious back and neck pain, and his hospitalized.

He's definitely suffered a grade II or worse concussion, and they're still talking about racing him within a week?

Or am I missing something?

[Lada Lover]

Originally posted by 917k
Is it just my browser or is the Speed website[still] one of the slowest loading POS on the net?

It loaded in less than 5 seconds.

[SKL]

If he was actually unconscious I'm surprised too they would let him race even he wanted to. I believe he has Harrington rods ( long metal bars) stabilizing his back from his bad indycar testing accident many years ago. He a pretty strong and fit SOB, but would be surprised if he got medical clearance to run...

[EVL29]

Originally posted by 917k
Is it just my browser or is the Speed website[still] one of the slowest loading POS on the net?

Takes frickin' forever on my computer....and I've got DSL.

[Perigee]

Originally posted by EVL29



Takes frickin' forever on my computer....and I've got DSL.

That would be it. Switch to cable

[Ross Stonefeld]

No SpeedTV is simply a poor website that only seems to work if you have the right combination of browser and planet alignment. My biggest gripe is on some pages the videos on the left automatically load and play, which tends to give my computer indigestion.

[Perigee]

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
No SpeedTV is simply a poor website that only seems to work if you have the right combination of browser and planet alignment.....

Heh. Perhaps your PC is a Sagittarius, and you need to replace it with a Libra?

[Locai]

Originally posted by OfficeLinebacker
Wait, he's unconscious for several minutes, complains of serious back and neck pain, and his hospitalized.

He's definitely suffered a grade II or worse concussion, and they're still talking about racing him within a week?

Or am I missing something?

If he was knocked out in the crash then he has no business being allowed in a race car for at least a week (probably longer).

To understand why, just go read "Rapid Response" by Dr. Steve Olvey. It's about the development of the CART Safety Team. Olvey is one of the top 3 auto racing safety experts in the world (along with Dr. Trammel and Dr. Watkins). It's an excellent book about the development of organized racing safety from the very beginning all the way up through to the HANS device. It has a lot of inside stories about some of the biggest crashes in Indy 500 and CART history.

Pruitt may seem fine by race day, but he's much more susceptible to another concussion and the results of another one so close to the first could be much more serious (potentially deadly). The team and the series owe it to him and his fellow competitors to make him sit this one out.

Then again, Grand Am is owned by NASCAR. So, they'll probably just let him go ahead and drive.

[stevewf1]

Originally posted by Perigee

Heh. Perhaps your PC is a Sagittarius, and you need to replace it with a Libra?

My PC is a Gemini... It works just fine sometimes and not well at all the other times. :

[Lazarus II]

Originally posted by stevewf1


My PC is a Gemini... It works just fine sometimes and not well at all the other times. :

My PC is a sagittarius and therefore the most philisophical of all the PC's. It ponders the consequences of going to any website.

[shaggy]

Originally posted by 917k
Is it just my browser or is the Speed website[still] one of the slowest loading POS on the net?

First, unfortunately, you need a fast PC/Mac.
Second, that PC/Mac has to have the latest drivers and updates (e.g. Flash, Media Player).
Third, you need a DSL/Cable connection.
Finally, for now at least, you may need to try a different browser for your PC.

[WGD706]

The guardrail has been extended at the end of the pit lane wall where Scott Pruett had his big accident on Thursday.

[TedN]

Found link to this pic on another site ...



Ted

[Lada Lover]

There's no way they should allow Scott to race.

Are tube cars like that strong and does the engine separate by design?

[SKL]

Olvey's book is great- I'd love to have him autograph it. Luckily as a physcian (working on the med staff at Road America) he gave him a tour of the CART safety mobile OR a year or so after Gregg Moore's crash. If I ever crashed I'd sure want to see him looking down at me in the medical building! Ask Zanardi...

Still can't believe Pruett will be allowed to drive- with the crashes he had over his career I'm surprised he'd want to...

[mapguy]

http://motorsport.co...e.asp?ID=305429

those who observed the scene from beginning to end said it took between five and six minutes for the track's emergency medical personnel to arrive on the scene.

What a joke Grand-Am is. Pathetic. Crash happens in the pit lane and it takes the EMT's 5 minutes to get there?

[OfficeLinebacker]

Originally posted by mapguy
http://motorsport.co...e.asp?ID=305429
What a joke Grand-Am is. Pathetic. Crash happens in the pit lane and it takes the EMT's 5 minutes to get there?

That makes me so angry. Scott Pruett is one of the great racers of his generation.

Imagine if he had a situation where immediate, proper medical attention was all that could save his life. As in Alex Zanardi (massive loss of blood, a few minutes of delay and he'd be ... ) or Mika Hakkinen (no immediate, emergency tracheotomy, ...).

WTF, there are neighborhoods in the USA where a person could collapse and be in an ambulance within five minutes.

What the hell, man?

Remember that Japanese guy whose helmet visor melted to his face cos the track crew were only one step above Zandvoort 1973?

This is freaking 2008. A soldier fragged by an IED in the remotest part of Iraq would receive faster, better care.

[OfficeLinebacker]

What the Hell, man?

[jimclark]

'prolly just me, but I find the above is in rather poor taste. That was a very sad day...

[Option1]

No, it's not just you - it IS in amazingly poor taste.

Neil

[jimclark]

Thank you...I was hoping I was not out of line. I like to give the benefit of the doubt, so, perhaps OfficeLinebacker does not know the background of the photo...

Excerpted from Wikipedia - David Purley -

"Purley will always be remembered for his actions during the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix, where he abandoned his race in an attempt to save the life of his friend Roger Williamson, whose car was upside down on fire following a horrific accident. Sadly his valiant efforts were to no avail, as Williamson perished in the fire. A picture taken by photographer Cor Mooij of Purley's anguished face after it was clear his attempts had failed won the Sports category of that year's World Press Photo. That same year David Purley was awarded the George Medal for his rescue attempt."

OL, you might like to read this piece about David...
http://www.research-....de/purley3.htm

[LB]

Actually I am fairly certain that he knows the background to the picture, especially as he referred to it one post above, and it is a very apt picture indeed if it really did take 6 mins for the rescue teams to get there. Purley is basically saying to the marshalls at Zandvoort help me!!! 35 years later and we still haven't learned? Exactly, What the hell, man?

[TecnoRacing]

Reminds me of the horrid response time to Ralf Schumacher's accident at Indy a few seasons ago...when the FIA tried to rationalize it poor response time as within a perfectly certain 'acceptable' window...

[Dmitriy_Guller]

Did the car split on impact, or was it cut in two by the guardrail?

[jimclark]

???
It was split in two when it impacted the guardrail...
It hit the end of the seperation of pit road and the circuit at approximately 90 degrees.

[jdanton]

Went to the track yesterday--it's a club track, that has apparently left spectators as an afterthought. Our trip was a bit last minute, so I didn't have scanners, but there was no scoreboard or video anywhere at the track.

Additionally, no spectator mounds had been built, and there was but one small grandstand. Parking was a cluster, but there was little security, so we moved our car close to where we were sitting.

[Locai]

Originally posted by jdanton
Went to the track yesterday--it's a club track, that has apparently left spectators as an afterthought. Our trip was a bit last minute, so I didn't have scanners, but there was no scoreboard or video anywhere at the track.

Additionally, no spectator mounds had been built, and there was but one small grandstand. Parking was a cluster, but there was little security, so we moved our car close to where we were sitting.

I'd say give it some time. It's their first big event, so some teething pains are to be expected. The biggest racing issue with the place right now is that the grass seed got washed away, so anything off-track is dirt. Anytime anybody dropped a wheel all that you saw was a cloud of dust and the track got dirty.

Let's see how they do with the ARCA race and then see if things don't get much better for next year. If it's still bad next year then "fire away!"

[stevewf1]

Originally posted by fer312t
Reminds me of the horrid response time to Ralf Schumacher's accident at Indy a few seasons ago...when the FIA tried to rationalize it poor response time as within a perfectly certain 'acceptable' window...

Say what you will about CART and the IRL, but the emergency teams would've been on that accident immediately...

[jdanton]

Originally posted by Locai


I'd say give it some time. It's their first big event, so some teething pains are to be expected. The biggest racing issue with the place right now is that the grass seed got washed away, so anything off-track is dirt. Anytime anybody dropped a wheel all that you saw was a cloud of dust and the track got dirty.

Let's see how they do with the ARCA race and then see if things don't get much better for next year. If it's still bad next year then "fire away!"

They still could have put in a scoreboard. I was missing the ALMS position lights on the cars.

[stevewf1]

Originally posted by OfficeLinebacker

What the Hell, man?

You know who that is and what is going on there (likely) don't you?

[OfficeLinebacker]

Originally posted by stevewf1
You know who that is and what is going on there (likely) don't you?

Do you?