BTCC's Biggest Crashes

[S griffin]

All I will say is, try not to take things personally on here if you can

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Originally Posted by S griffin

All I will say is, try not to take things personally on here if you can

It is difficult but try, I do.

[S griffin]

I’ve seen a few big ones in person. I saw Soper’s career ending accident at Brands 01, Jordan’s big one at Silverstone 06 and was there when Collard had his big roll at Silverstone.

One I’ll always remember though was at Donington at 09, my Uncle had got up close to the fencing see the action and suddenly bits of Jelley’s car came flying in his direction, thankfully he was ok though

[KA]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I’ve seen a few big ones in person. I saw Soper’s career ending accident at Brands 01, Jordan’s big one at Silverstone 06 and was there when Collard had his big roll at Silverstone.

Two of the biggest I've seen in person were both at Donington, although they were both non-championship, TOCA Shoot-Outs.

First was Kieth O'dor putting the Primera over the fence in '92- I was on the infield, taking pics at the inside of Macleans, and saw the Nissan go off across the grass, but didn't see it actually go over or where it ended up as the bridge was in my line of sight- Walked back down thinking 'where's he gone?', then I saw where it had landed...

The next year, I was on the infield again, directly in line with the Old Hairpin when Mansell stuffed the Mondeo into Starkey's Bridge with a little help from Tiff Needell.

There was one at Brands as well, a multi-car shunt between the bottom of Paddock and Druids which caused the race to be stopped- 1996-ish?. Druids was my usual spot at Brands back then, although on this occasion we were just after the exit of the hairpin so didn't see much of how the incident actually kicked off

[S griffin]

Yes 1996 was the one they had the pile up between Paddock and Druids

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Yes 1996 was the one they had the pile up between Paddock and Druids

The 2007 one was much worse.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

James Thompson's testing crash in 1995 looked nasty enough.

[S griffin]

95 had quite a few big ones. As well as Thommo’s testing crash, we had the Radisich/Watts clash at Brands, Cox’s barrel roll at Thruxton, Warwick’s big thump at Oulton, Rydell and Sugden ending up on their roof at Brands and Rydell just missing the ambulance at Snetterton

[chunterer]

Ok i'll add my tuppence worth with some more history...

1984 International Trophy meeting, Peter Lovett accidentally tipped Rouse into the pitwall just after the start and an Alfetta and another car got caught up in the melee.

1985 Thruxton in May (recently brought up in a separate thread about drivers) when Sheene lost his Celica Supra going through Allard and about another 4 or 5 cars failed to avoid the sudden slowing.

[S griffin]

Thruxton 85 was what pretty much ended Sheene’s season

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Jamie Davies was supposed to stand in for Kelvin Burt in 1996 only to shunt his car.

[Holykalel]

hey all I can confirm that Booth did indeed live on after the accident he is alive and well and I am his son this crash happened 7 years before I was born so they need to update their information

[richrad smith]

Add to the list at top of thread the following

Rory Butcher 2020

Bobby Thompson 2020

[The SpeCTator]

How marvellous to hear from Gavin Booth's son.
The Silverstone crash between Gavin, Dave Matthews and Dave Brodie was huge and made the daily papers.
I saw the cars in the scrutineering bay afterwards and they were totally destroyed.
The Matthews Capri had the engine sticking almost vertically out of the bonnet whilst all else was completely destroyed.
Dave Brodies Escort was about 2/3rds of its original length and fire damaged.
The Booth Mini looked unsurvivable, hence the rumour the the driver did not survive for long.
I seem to remember an article in Motorsport magazine, "Lunch with and Dave Brodie" and Dave was seeking news after the Gavin. Hopefully someone can pass on the good news that rumours of Gavin's passing were incorrect.
More news from Holykalel would be welcome.

[S griffin]

Yes it has been nice to hear from Gavin's son. With the Mini the way it was and with no one hearing from Gavin subsequently I guess people wrongly made the assumption he died. Glad it's all been cleared up now. It also means what I'd always assumed before I read about the crash, that the BTCC has never had a fatality

And yes, I was thinking about the 'Lunch with Dave Brodie' article when I heard this news yesterday, as he mentioned he had always wanted to make contact with Gavin Booth, but never knew what happened to him. Hopefully now they can get in touch with each other

[billy bleach]

Isn’t the Daddy of all crashes Charlie Cox at Thruxton?!

[mark_l]

Kelvin Burt's Volvo crash at Oulton Park is the biggest I've been involved in.

I was in the pitlane/startline and had to form part of the escort from the back of the Ambulance to the medical centre and seeing the state of him was not good.

I was then tasked with going to the Volvo TWR garage and speaking with Roger Silman, and asking him to bring Kelvin's relatives at the circuit to the medical centre.

Myself and other marshals were then told to wait around the medical centre to perform the escort to the air ambulance that was going to land on the grid. We sat around and waited, and waited. We were then told we were not going to be needed. That was the worst feeling I have had.

I have also seen the raw footage of the crash from the in car camera, it is not nice viewing.

[thetool]

Originally Posted by mark_l

I have also seen the raw footage of the crash from the in car camera, it is not nice viewing.

Footage from the standard onboard camera was shown during the TV broadcast and then included in the season review.

https://youtu.be/-GLprD57b0w?t=100

Was there anything in addition to this?

[mark_l]

Originally Posted by thetool

Footage from the standard onboard camera was shown during the TV broadcast and then included in the season review.

https://youtu.be/-GLprD57b0w?t=100

Was there anything in addition to this?

The raw footage has no commentary, after impact you can hear the first marshal desperately asking “hello driver, are you ok?” Several times with no reply. That bit was not shown on tv.

[S griffin]

It could have been so much worse. I shudder to think what would have happened had Kelvin been in a LHD car. He was very lucky he went in passenger side.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Holykalel

hey all I can confirm that Booth did indeed live on after the accident he is alive and well and I am his son this crash happened 7 years before I was born so they need to update their information

Very pleased to read that your Father is still alive and indeed well.
I have made arrangements for the info at the Fastlane forums Crash Database to be updated with this happy news. (I am a member there)

[thetool]

Originally Posted by E.B

Fastlane forums Crash Database to be updated with this happy news. (I am a member there)

Are those sadists still enjoying their schadenfreude? I assumed they were a bunch of kids when that forum setup as a FOCA-style breakaway from that TBK Fameflame website, but that was nearly 20 years ago now.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by thetool

Are those sadists still enjoying their schadenfreude? I assumed they were a bunch of kids when that forum setup as a FOCA-style breakaway from that TBK Fameflame website, but that was nearly 20 years ago now.

Im sure they think highly of you too.

[CarfanLUFC]

A few that quite often seemed to be forgotten, although S Griffin did mention the first one...

Oulton Park 1995 - Leslie and Warwick. I think Warwick was briefly knocked out, I remember footage of the marshal looking into his car and looking worried

Brands Hatch 1995 - Brabham pushing Watts into the pit wall and then Radisich piling in. Huge impact on both the right and left side almost instantly for Radisich as he bounced off Bailey's Toyota.

Plenty in 1994....

Eugene O'Brien at Thruxton and also late season at Silverstone. The Thruxton crash is way more brutal that it looks, car comes to a complete stop very quickly and O'Brien was manhandled out of the car clearly in distress. Didn't make the next meeting. He also missed the Donnington finale after his crash on the hanger straight at Silverstone.

Kieth O'Dor had numerous incidents but his Brands crash with Patrick Watts was nasty.

Also, Nigel Albon smashing into Hamish Irvine's BMW at Silverstone. Staggering both cars made it to the next round given the budgets they must have been on, huge amount of damage.

[S griffin]

Ahh Eugene or Aubergene as we used to call him, he had quite a few incidents didn't he? He's actually been on this forum and talked a bit about his time in the BTCC.

See here:
https://tentenths.com/forum/showthre...=patrick+watts