Willow Springs Racing Tragedy 5/24

[Mel Torme]

Joe Drey died from injuries suffered in a crash at turn 9 at Willow Springs. :(

http://www.nasaforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=22368 (http://www.nasaforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=22368)

Condolences to Joe's family, may he rest in peace.

[solonut]

Loren you have a pm....Pat

[dsmith]

During a HPDX, like our PDXs! Tragic and sad, but it shows you that what ever you're doing in motor sports there is danger involved.

Loren could speak better to this, but I've been reading some accounts of NASA's safety procedures for these events and it doesn't seem as stringent or strict as SCCA's, although a single car accident like this could happen anywhere.

[S2kreno]

Please don't anyone mention this to my husband or I'll never get to go to Fernley again. Even though it's probably way more dangerous driving on the freeway with all the cellphone people.

[Mel Torme]

NASA does run a little looser ship when it comes to PDX. Once you reach level 4 there is open passing without point-bys. I've personally witnessed a couple of accidents where participants got into the wrong line attempting a pass and then lost control. Regardless of repeating the mantra "this is not a race" it only takes one mistake to collect several cars when everyone is running that close at speed. I will say that NASA does a great job of conducting mandatory downloads after every session, you miss the download and you can't run the next session. They are good about calling out drivers that are pushing the limit, and they don't hesitate to expell them from a session or the rest of the day.