19 replies to this topic

[biercemountain]

I was recently watching the rebroadcast of the 1971 Indy 500 the start of which was marred by the unfortunate crash of the Pace car and got wondering about other times this has happened. I'd imagine there have been a number of examples of the Safety car leaving the track during torrential downpours. Have there been any that rival the seriousness of the Indy crash?

[BRG]

WTCC at Pau a few years back.  'Safety' car pulled out in front of race leader (I think) Engstler without any warning so he hit it - hard.

[Dick Dastardly]

Nick Heidfeld, 2002 Brazilian GP crashes into the SC.....

 

[Collombin]

The pace car was an innocent victim during practice for the Champ car race at Langhorne in June 1963.

 

Colby Scroggin lost control trying to avoid another car and plowed straight into the empty and parked pace car, nearly turning it over.

 

I have seen excellent colour footage of this incident - probably from one of the Dick Wallen videos.

[Vitesse2]

Not a serious crash, but good car control in awful conditions. IndyCar at Toronto, 2014:

 

[jimjimjeroo]

https://youtu.be/nnRlbd_dG-Q

A few examples here

This sticks in my mind though.... le castellet 2011 le mans


https://youtu.be/T1kJhxfkeFw

[Dick Dastardly]

Taki Inoue had a couple of incidents with SCs....

 

OK, this is the Medical Car....

 

....and in Monaco 1995, his car was being towed when it was hit by the SC, driven by Ragnotti [IIRC]?.... 

[Lee Nicolle]

Inumerous times Nascar and Touring cars have tapped, deliberatly or not the pace car. I am sure in F1 and big time Sports cars I have seen incidents of pacecars hitting racers and vice versa.

In the  past I have seen the pacecar break down and at Bathurst one had to refuel as it had done so many laps. Again Bathurst last year one of the incident/ pace car team had the flashing lights fall off !!!  extending the pace car period!

In the very distant past I have seen an errant speedway solo pick itself up after dropping the rider and went full bore onto the infield centre and hit the ambulance hard. After that the bikes had to have kill switches when the rider went down!

[Ray Bell]

At Monaco in 1981 there was a Lagonda came in on a tow truck...

I have no idea what its part was supposed to be in the proceedings nor what happened, but it was a new car and very well bent!

[DogEarred]

With regards to the Indy 500, am I alone in thinking that having the 2-seater 'celebrity' car rolling around on the warm-up laps is an unnecessary risk?

 

No matter how experienced, disciplined & revered it's driver might be, surely 33 hyped up drivers do not need the possibility of some mishap causing a red flag or delay increasing the dangers in an already high tension situation?

Edited by DogEarred, 29 June 2016 - 09:57.

[MartLgn]

At the 1995 Monaco Grand Prix a Renault Clio V6 course car driven by Jean Ragnotti hit an F1 car which was under tow having expired during practice.

Ragnotti was giving it the beans to impress a passenger and hit the Arrows hard enough to roll it over and cause extensive damage to the tub.

 

 

[PRD]

I drove the Britcar Safety Car in several races, including a couple of the 24 hour races at Silverstone. The complaint from the drivers we heard was that the safety car isn't going fast enough, but we were told by race control what speed they wanted us to take and they would tell us to speed up or slow down as appropriate.

[f1steveuk]

Saw quite a few at Monaco. A well known rally driver, stuffed a Renault 5 Turbo, and I was working on the GP when Alex Ribiero stuffed the medical car (at Tabac I think).

 

Of course the classic must be Merzario attempting to keep up witht the GP field as it left the grid, in the medical car, only to beach it at the first chicane. Oh how we laughed.......

[Gary C]

Gosh, I think that Nick Heidlfeld Brazil clip is actually one of my replays.

[Jager]

After seeing this thread last night I stumbled across this clip from the 2012 ADAC Masters. The guy is lucky he didn't become another Jules Bianchi :

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=50wBFOtoeU4

[Lee Nicolle]

After seeing this thread last night I stumbled across this clip from the 2012 ADAC Masters. The guy is lucky he didn't become another Jules Bianchi :

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=50wBFOtoeU4

Yet another driver being dumb under a yellow. With no excuse whatever.

[Paul Taylor]

Saturday morning at Monaco Y2K

 

[F1matt]

Double waved yellows as well, the invincibility of a modern single seat driver with a budget knows no bounds.

[JacnGille]

Double waved yellows as well, the invincibility of a modern single seat driver without a budget knows no bounds.

Fixed it for ya. 

[Lemnpiper]

Turns out Eldon Palmer the driver of the Indy pace car in 1971  died  June 30th at age 87 

 

 

  Paul