Worst crash...

[Woolley]

Graham Hickman's rolled Jordan at Shelsley in 93/4(?) was the worst I've attended. Poor Graham fractured his skull and various other bits in an impact with a buried tree stump and was leaking and not breathing when I arrived. Fortunately all the training kicked in as it should and he was back racing a few months later. I can still hear the sound of the engine screaming as his foot held it flat, and whenever I go down that bank and smell wild garlic and crushed rhubarb it all comes back - funny how the scent recalls the memory.

The worst looking crash was also at Shelsley when the 500 went over the bank spitting out the driver on the way (pictured in the Christmas Autosport edition), but fortunately the driver escaped significant injury.

There was also the infamous Eurocar fire at Mallory and Tony Proctor's inverted Eurocar sandwiched between the pit lane barriers.

Fortunately, these are in the minority, and I'd rather be attending the ones where you meet the driver coming towards you any day.

Stay safe, won't y'all?

[chunterer]

Hey Verglas, that is a very serious account of F3000 accident man. I'm big fan of the category and i think it was probably '87? You're right Alfie, i think, had 'bottled it' after that, which was a shame because he was seriously quick up til then.

Not as a competitor but as spectator i can think of two accidents that have stayed with me, both also F3000.
1. Delestre/Tassin shunt by s/f straight bridge, wet race Silverstone '86. Was half way up grandstand and watchin Tassin crawling, Delestre comes along the straight in the spray and i'm thinking 'he ain't seeing him.' Sure enough he vaulted over the back in a sickening high energy smash and i think both drivers single seaters ambitions ended there that day. Marshalls' did well to sort it out.

Second one was Herbert's at Brands '88. I was on inside of track between Surtees and Pilgrim's Drop for the restart after Foitek and Moreo had collided. I remember looking at his gearbox as he went into the wall after the contact with Foitek (again). That has to be worse shunt i've ever seen cos it all then kicked off going down the hill and there was debris everywhere, i was thinking poor Johnny was a gonner.

I'd have to say that i was singularly unimpresssd when that crash then found its way onto a popular video series - you know the title - which patently wasn't the case here!!

Worse TV crash i've seen is Greg Moore's. Deeply distressing. Nuff said.

[Duffacus]

I have not seen so many bad accidents when i have been at a race track but i remember at Donington one time when Troy Dunlop flipped his TVR Tuscan. At the time i was looking up to my dad in the main grandstand when i heard a lot of gasps, turned around and saw Troys car inverted right infront of me, which was quite scary!

[tangoed sparky]

I had a scary moment at Donington with a TVR tuscan too. I was standing the wrong side of post 2 (redgate in) infront of the hospitality suites the qualifing had not long started and I said to my co marshal that this was not a good place to be and that we should tell the IO we would rather be the other side of the marshals post. As I finnished saying this a tuscan had just hit the brakes for redgate when his car sluded side ways toward use we legged it for cover and when turning around to look at the result of the incident there was a tuscan front end were I had be stood. No one was injured and when I spoke to the driver in the paddock at lunch time his reason for wrecking his car was that he was adjusting his brake balance and locked his rear wheels. We could not fine the spokes out of the front wheels. The formula renaults in the picture by Jenson earlyer in the thread were when the safty car had just come out the pit lane. I know because I was on the pit wall and help sort out the mess. I think there was afew slapped hands in race control that day.

[GMiranda]

Originally Posted by verglas

Marshalling at Eau Rouge in about 1988. I was positioned at the bottom of the hill, in front of some debris fencing with the old concrete stand directly behind. Quite a confined position, but a fantastic spot from which to watch. Anyway, in the F3000 race the drying track left many people with rooted wets, and my colleague and I watched the second running of the Spanish civil war as Alfonso de Vinuesa and Luis Sala drove down the hill from La Source absolutely side by side. They had been going at it hammer and tongs for the duration, and it was pretty obvious to us that on this occasion neither was going to lift. Now 2 F3000 cars do not go side by side through Eau Rouge at racing speed. They clearly thought they would have a go. All hell broke loose as we ducked behind the barrier, getting a thorough soaking from the tyres and flying debris everywhere. Bricking it would be the best description of how I felt....Poor Alfie was out for the count, and I don't think he ever fully recovered. British marshals were in force that year at that spot, and I have vivid memories of Prof. Watkins calling for British help, seriously upsetting our Belgian hosts!

I used this memory on my article about Alfonso GarcÃ*a de Vinuesa - http://www.motorracingpast.com/2017/...-takes-it-all/

[Mekola]

At a rent-a-kart in September 2015. The gloves I had were slippery, then crashed many times, enough to see the black flag and being excluded from the race.

[GregUK]

1978 GP support F3 race at Brands. I was spectating at Paddock.

Piquet was on pole with Serra and Warwick alongside and a grid full of famous names behind.

On the first run to Paddock, I think Piquet dropped his right-rear onto the grass and his car turned sharp left. All hell broke out. And just when you thought it had all come to a stop, along comes Satoru Nakajima end-over-ending through the mêlée. As somebody quipped at the time, he was probably wearing a white head-band!

14 cars didn't make the restart but Piquet was the only driver well-funded enough to have a spare car.

[GregUK]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8vUwym_Q1U

Originally Posted by GregUK

1978 GP support F3 race at Brands. I was spectating at Paddock.

Piquet was on pole with Serra and Warwick alongside and a grid full of famous names behind.

On the first run to Paddock, I think Piquet dropped his right-rear onto the grass and his car turned sharp left. All hell broke out. And just when you thought it had all come to a stop, along comes Satoru Nakajima end-over-ending through the mêlée. As somebody quipped at the time, he was probably wearing a white head-band!

14 cars didn't make the restart but Piquet was the only driver well-funded enough to have a spare car.

Found the video...

The under-rated John Bright, Steve Johnson, and Del-Boy....

[S griffin]

Yes that was shown in the first ever Havoc. If you look closely you can actually see a young Ron Dennis standing on the grid at about 0:03

[GregUK]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Yes that was shown in the first ever Havoc. If you look closely you can actually see a young Ron Dennis standing on the grid at about 0:03

I hadn't previously spotted his presence.

A while ago I was discussing this accident with a buddy, Pierre Dieudonne, and, to my astonishment, he said that he was in that race!

In fact there were loads of now-famous names in that race. Less famous are the Silverstone brothers, Ken and Phil, who had done most of the season popping around at the back of the grids. Where are they now?

[pafe]

Originally Posted by verglas

Marshalling at Eau Rouge in about 1988. I was positioned at the bottom of the hill, in front of some debris fencing with the old concrete stand directly behind. Quite a confined position, but a fantastic spot from which to watch. Anyway, in the F3000 race the drying track left many people with rooted wets, and my colleague and I watched the second running of the Spanish civil war as Alfonso de Vinuesa and Luis Sala drove down the hill from La Source absolutely side by side. They had been going at it hammer and tongs for the duration, and it was pretty obvious to us that on this occasion neither was going to lift. Now 2 F3000 cars do not go side by side through Eau Rouge at racing speed. They clearly thought they would have a go. All hell broke loose as we ducked behind the barrier, getting a thorough soaking from the tyres and flying debris everywhere. Bricking it would be the best description of how I felt....Poor Alfie was out for the count, and I don't think he ever fully recovered. British marshals were in force that year at that spot, and I have vivid memories of Prof. Watkins calling for British help, seriously upsetting our Belgian hosts!

This made me look him up on Wiki, what a tragic life.
Found this pic of the crash:

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by GregUK

I hadn't previously spotted his presence.



A while ago I was discussing this accident with a buddy, Pierre Dieudonne, and, to my astonishment, he said that he was in that race!



In fact there were loads of now-famous names in that race. Less famous are the Silverstone brothers, Ken and Phil, who had done most of the season popping around at the back of the grids. Where are they now?

To be fair I only really noticed Ron on my Best of Havoc 1 DVD, which obviously has better quality than my Havoc 1 VHS

[FormulaFox]

My worst crash ever was experienced directly: Racing B Modifieds at the local dirt track, got kicked up(forward edge of my left-front tire made side contact with the back edge of another car's rear tire) into the front stretch catchfence. Car was reduced to the bare chassis.

Remember: Never get lazy on your racecar's rollcage.

[JohnD]

Nurburgring Nordschleife, free, untimed - UNTIMED! - practice. Second of the Hatzenbach Curves and the G2 Porsche, who hadn't been there as we bypassed the new South Circuit, and could have passed me so easily if he had waited one corner, decided he was going though, now. He struck my left rear as I turned in, I span and rolled. The rrsult was not a single straight panel on the car. No video, but a slide show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7R4xeKhGhk

[Peter Mallett]

2009 Spa Six Hours I was driving an MGB when on lap six I left room for an Elan to go through into Pouhon, and slipped in behind. At which point he lost the back end so I went down the inside, only for him to come back and tag my right rear corner hurling me into the barriers.

It was scary at around 100 MPH but thankfully only my wallet was hurt.

What was annoying was when I went to commiserate (I felt it was a racing incident) with the driver, he hurled abuse at me. But I guess he was/is famous and I'm not.

[JohnD]

You don't have to be famous to be abusive when you're in the wrong,

John