10 replies to this topic

[maxie]

When was the first time barriers were placed in front of the pits?

[Ray Bell]

I think you will find that there were some circuits which never ran without them...

And I don't just mean modern circuits either.

[Barry Lake]

Originally posted by maxie
When was the first time barriers were placed in front of the pits?

Good question Maxie.

I was thinking about this after I had posted a reply recently about Warwick Farm race circuit in Sydney, commenting on the dangers of cars spinning into the pit counter.

The thought almost tempted me to start dragging out books to look at photos. Almost. Sorry, I don't have the time.

I can't even remember off the top of my head when the Bathurst pits gained a wall separating pit lane from Pit Straight.

Maybe Falcadore knows the answer to that one.

One thing I know about that damned Bathurst pit wall si it was almost impossible to see the cars going past when seated in the pits. A raise stand was necessary. Then, a few years ago, the FIA safety committee demanded the wall be made higher. Now, you don't even see a roof going by.

[William Dale Jr]

Looking through Bill Tuckey's "Australia's Greatest Motor Race", it looks like they got the pit wall in 1978, the same year they got the bridge. At that point it only came up to the end of the pit counter and the pit lane exited onto the track at that point, but both were extended by the 1980 race to beyond Hell Corner.

[Mike Argetsinger]

At Road America the barrier between the track and the pits was put in for the 1966 season. In August during practice for the 500 (a round in the USRRC) Don Skogmo had a horrific crash and died from his injuries when he lost his Lola T-70 on a wet track coming up the hill and speared in to the end of the barrier. For the following season the barrier was extended down the track to the bridge and a pit lane entry (still in place) was created at the bottom of the hill.

[maxie]

I know that pitlane barrier is a quite recent thing, and what amazes me is that despite the huge number of fatalities caused by motor racing in over 100 years, it seems that fatal accidents at the pits are relatively far and few in between.

[maxie]

In other words, pitlane is quite a safe place to be in during a race.

[Mike Argetsinger]

Depends I suppose on what you consider safe - and compared to what? There are numerous examples both recent and in the past of serious pit lane accidents resulting in death and injury.

One example - often forgotten because of the far more momentus occurence on race day - is the pit lane accident during practice for the 1955 LeMans 24-Hour. Storez in the DB was entering the pits just as Moss in the Mercedes was exiting. There was a collision and the smaller car was thrown against the pits. Jean Behra was one of several people injured. Behra's injuries were sufficient to keep him from competing in the race.

[maxie]

Mike, you're right. When I posted the last post, I was only thinking about F1 races. Apart from Giovanni Amadeo, who was killed at Zolder '81, and hte injury sustained by Gustav Brunner (when he was knocked down by Eddie Cheever's Renault at Zandvoort '83), it seems that there isn't many serious accident in the pitlane during a F1 race. Am I right?

[2F-001]

Following on from Mike's comment - weren't there also some injuries in the pitlane caused by debris from the incident which brought out the pace car in the '94 San Marino GP? (Not quite the same, because the incident itself wasn't in the pitlane - but another case overshadowed by subsequent events).

We discussed the converse of this a few months back - ie, when was the last major circuit used without a barrier between pits and track - can't remember the conclusions drawn, though... (Monaco '71, maybe?)

[Lotus23]

Mike, thanks for the info on Don Skogmo. If I ever knew of his demise -- doubtful, because I was moving from Ft Gordon, GA to Ft Irwin, CA in Aug 66* -- I'd forgotten it. I'd seen him run in the USRRC at Pensacola, FL the previous year.

*in a VW bus, which held all my worldly belongings with room to spare.

Wasn't he from a monied family? Department stores, IIRC.