23 replies to this topic

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

As it once happened to me in a FF shunt at Mosport, I'd be interested to learn of instances where drivers lost their helmuts in a shunt. I know of several right off: Niki Lauda partially losing his in his near-fatal shunt at the Ring; Maurice Carter shunting his IMSA Chevy Monza at Mosport without injury; Ronnie Duman crashing fatally in a USAC race in the 60's. Any others, fatal and otherwise?

[Mike Argetsinger]

No. But one very hot day in Memphis in a Lola Sports 2000 we had a long delay on the false grid prior to the race start. I took my helmet off and of course they gave us the 2 minute warning out of the blue. I forgot to cinch up my chin strap and the first time I went down the straightaway the helmet came up over my ears and I was looking at the inside of the bottom part of the full face deal. The rest of the race I ran down the straights with one hand on top of the helmet holding it in place! Which just goes to show you're never too old to pull a rookie mistake.

[Ray Bell]

Onlookers were convinced that Paul Hamilton had been decapitated when his helmet rolled across the grass when he crashed his Proton at Warwick Farm...

Must have been about 1974, I guess, at a club race meeting or a club practice day on the short circuit.

He'd been using a chin cup... which he later recognised as a bit silly, the chin being the furthest point from the strap anchor points... one bump and the thing's undone. Paul was fortunately unhurt.

I know what you mean about that sensation, Mike... once I drove a FF with a helmet that was too big for me. Actually, I drove three or four cars that day, but one of them had a strong draught coming through the cockpit and it was lifting off my head!

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

Another has just come to mind. Several years ago, I watched an ESPN broadcast of a sprinter race and leader, Rich Vogler, crashed in the final laps. I clearly recall seeing his helmut roll down the banking and a nearby official frozen into inaction as the helmut rolled close by. Sadly, Rich did suffer fatal injuries.

[Slyder]

Helmut Koinigg lost his head and helmet when he went through the armco at Watkins Glen 1974

I saw pictures of it. Pretty dreadful

[Eric McLoughlin]

A Japanese driver lost his helmet when he rolled into the gravel in the British F3 race at Donnington a few weeks ago. Luckily he was uninjured.

[tompka]

There was an accident in the Spa 24 hour touring car race, in the mid 1990s, when a Renault Clio crashed heavily and rolled at Eau Rouge. The driver lost the helmet, which bounced in the cockpit, but thankfully no harm was done.

[bill moffat]

Those of a certain age may remember the infamous Griffin "frangible bolt".

In the early 70's helmet makers Griffin introduced a full face helmet which incorporated a bolt that was designed to fail when subjected to a pre-determined maximum load. I guess the theory was that this would prevent a driver being effectively garroted by his chin strap.

I believe there were incidents where these helmets failed, leaving the driver exposed to the elements. This was fine if you had completed your accident and were sitting upright in the gravel trap compiling an excuse for your team/wife/bank manager.

This was, however, the era of catch fencing. The real concern was that impact 1) with a catch fencing pole would render you Griffin-less prior to impact 2) with a few layers of Armco. Not a healthy scenario.

The frangible bolt faded into history along with flares, Rubik cubes and Bond Bugs.

[Rediscoveryx]

The fatal crashes of Gilles Villeneuve and Gordon Smiley both saw the drivers loose their helmets

[Cirrus]

Ah!!! don't remind me about frangible bolts! (the following is copied from an earlier post)

In the mid seventies, I worked for Gordon Spice, the UK distributor for Griffin helmets. After the "frangible bolt" episode, when Tony Brise's helmet came off in the big '75 British GP shunt in the rain, Terry Ogilvie-Hardie, the boss of Griffin offered free non-frangible bolt kits to anybody who wanted to upgrade to a helmet that actually stayed on. Needless to say, there was a healthy demand !

Derek Spice used to demonstrate the strength of the Griffin GP visor by firing a 12 bore shotgun at one at a range of about three metres, and although heavily pockmarked by the pellets, none actually penetrated the visor - quite impressive.

On the subject of Niki Lauda's AGV helmet - the one with the air vent at the top - I believe it came off in his German GP shunt. The rumour at the time was that due to his small head there was a lot of padding at the back of the helmet. The chinstrap was quite well forward on the shell, and when he had a large blow to the back of his helmet, the chinstrap came off his chin and the helmet came off too. Of course, that may just have been a bit of PR spin by Griffin !

[Falcadore]

One sickening accident saw a rider lose his helmet. In 1983 the then reigning World Motorcycle Champion Franco Uncini fell on the opening lap and was trying to clear the pack under his own steam when his helmet was struck by the front wheel of another rider who was completely unsighted. The helmet was ripped off in the incident, and spent most of the year recoverring. Uncini returned to racing the following year. The second rider involved was having his first 500cc race that day. His name was Wayne Gardner, distined to be a world champion himself.

[Rediscoveryx]

Originally posted by Falcadore
The helmet was ripped off in the incident, and spent most of the year recoverring.

How's the helmet doing today?

Sorry about that, I know it was a very serious accident and I'm not joking about the accident itself, I just thought it was a funny sentence

[LittleChris]

One would assume that Chris Bristow also ended up sans helmet

[David M. Kane]

Michael:

I had a similar thing happen in a vintage race last year. It gets your attention real fast! One time at a FF race at Bridgehampton, I went to tear off a tearaway after the start, must have been too pumped up as I tore the whole lot off. So I had a hand up protecting my eyes as I drove back to pits dodging bits being thrown at me by the cars in front. I roared into
the pits and my mechanic raced and got another visor. Just I was about to
leave a race official came up from behind, obviously I didn't see him and
just as he was about to tap me on the helmet to scould (sp?)me, I popped it
into first and ran over his foot! Ouch! I didn't find out about it until
after the race. Apparently, he didn't like the high rate of speed I carried into the pits!

This year Hattori hit the wall at Indy and the helmet came up almost over his eyes. The impact was 60gs. He got a concussion and a broken finger.
I was told this by Bill Simpson as he was called to the hospital by the
Doctors and IRL Staff. In the photos it looks like to me the strap stretched.He explained he had sold the company several years
ago and that they hadn't hired an engineer to replace him and to continue
their safety testing. There must be some truth to this as he also told
Arie's crash in his new IMPACT helmet was a 106gs! Granted he still has
headaches and has trouble focusing, but realistically that is ONE BIG
bump on the head!

[Ralliart]

Re: Lauda. Since he had a contract with AGV, he had to finish the '76 season wearing their helmets, which I would think he wasn't too happy about, but he did not renew for '77 and afterwards, going with Bell. I believe Reutemann had an accident while he was with Ferrari in which the catch fencing, or something, wrenched off his helmet. If I can get to my records I'm sure I'll come up with more instances.

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

Ralliart:

Without checking my own sources here to confirm(moved to new residence recently; can't find a bloody thing!), I recall this incident with Reutemann involving a catch fence. Can't pinpoint the year, team or venue but it may have been at Kyalami. I seem to remember reading that he piled into the wire and his visor got snagged on a link, twisting his head violently to one side to such any extent that he was periliously close to sufficating. A marshall responding to the incident quickly realized what was happening and carefully released the offending fence and probably saved Lole's life! Incredible!

As an amendment to the above, how many of you racers out there used tear-offs on your visor and how many? For my rookie race driver's school way back in 1974 with the CASC, I started with three strung over my visor but shortly dumped them after finding that they flattened my depth perception considerably. Thereafter, I would always just scrape away the oil with the back of my glove, even packing a rag in the cockpit of my Crossle at one point.

[David M. Kane]

Lets not forget Mark Donahue's encounter with catch fencing at the Austrian
GP which caused his fatal head injuries. Helmet technology is clearly improving greatly like everything else, but so are the speeds and velocity
of the impacts.

[BorderReiver]

Poor Tom Pryce's helmet was left at the side of the straight at Kyalami after his fatal collision.

[cheesy poofs]

IIRC - I believe Reutemann's incident happend at Jarama in 1978.

[theunions]

Originally posted by Manfred Cubenoggin
As an amendment to the above, how many of you racers out there used tear-offs on your visor and how many?

For the Indy 500 this past Sunday, they used as many as six (source: Bell).

[Ralliart]

According to Grand Prix International's report filed by Mike Doodson, the Reutemann incident I mentioned occurred during the untimed practice session on the day of the '81 South African GP:
"The accident...did not look as serious as it turned out to be...The car hit a ripple at the bumpy right-hander called Sunset...and suddenly he was heading for the catch fences. It was a long time...before the race marshals appeared on the scene and during that period (he) almost strangled. 'The catch fencing caught the external jack of my headset and twisted my helmet so far round that I couldn't move. I took off my belts but I still couldn't move. It was only when I had managed to get a finger under my helmet that I could breate again. It took about half a minute. And still there were no marshals.'
"Badly shaken, he returned to the pits. The only indication of the incident on his body was a series of scratches under his neck. But he decided after a discussion with Doctor Rafael Grajales, his personal traveling physician, not to take part in the final practice session."
'I don't believe this race is going to count for points in the world championship. Why should I risk my life for nothing?'

[David M. Kane]

How is it that the worst accidents always look the least threatening? That is a spooky story.

[Ray Bell]

Similar thing happened at Oran Park...

A Torana hit the wall, the driver wasn't breathing (not because of the helmet), problem was that the rescue crew couldn't work out the buckling method to start revival.

After that, rescue crews had training in undoing different helmet buckles from the outside...

[LittleChris]

Originally posted by cheesy poofs
IIRC - I believe Reutemann's incident happend at Jarama in 1978.

I think that was when he went over the barrier at Rampa Pegaso but was uninjured, similar to Little Art 4 years previously in the Williams FW04 ( Politoys ?)