Road America Accident - Jim Victor

[Jayeff]

I'd say it's likely that a number of things could have saved his life. Was the suspension link new, where did it break, had it been recently adjusted, etc. Normally an investigation would take a few major avenues: For instance, the car itself, the person, and the track and environment. Each would involve quite a lot of research. And I totally agree it should not be done with the goal of pointing fingers.

[pmdonnelly]

It has not been my impression that anyone was discussing the inherent risk that the kink presents specific to the circumstances of Mr. Victor's accident. Rather, I initially commented because I was struck by the seemingly universal recognition that the kink is iconic in motor racing not because it is visually or inherently unique in the way Eau Rouge, the Cork Screw or the Carousel are unique. The kink is but a slight bend in the road, a kink. The kink is iconic, or noteworthy not because it is visually stunning but rather, because "when the kink bites, it doesn't nibble" to quote a previous commentator. In fact, until just a couple of years ago, this corner wasn't even accessible to spectators for viewing. Let's be honest, the kink is iconic not because the first thing that a driver notices about this bend in the road is that there is a concrete wall placed perilously close to the track and therefore, as drivers are warned at each and every driver's meeting, "you have to be careful in the kink" and as a result, it's dangerous. If there was 200' of open field there, this corner would almost never be mentioned in racing lore. This is true whether you are driving a grounds effect car at full throttle because you can or "driving more slowly" because the wall is intimidating. As someone previously commented, "the wall doesn't care. The comments in this thread, save one, have been thoughtful, circumspect and sensitive in honoring the memory of Mr. Victor and, seemingly, hopeful that, upon reflection, something good can come from this tragedy. If not, so be it and we can all "man up" and "enjoy the risk "this corner presents. Maybe it's time to let the track and it's management consider what, if anything, should be done in Jim Victor's memory. At a minimum, I hope the track considers the points of view expressed here and they explore whether or not someone with some expertise can offer some alternatives that might mitigate the risk presented by the kink in a way that preserves the challenges that it presents.

[Purple Frog]

This is a sad time.
Mrs Frog first told me, then Rand sent me an email. In our normal view of life, these things are not supposed to happen.
We have lost a great man who contributed much to the good in many aspects of his life.
We have a family facing such a great loss I can't imagine.
The racing community has lost one of its best.
I am honored to be able to have raced with him.
Mrs Frog took many photos of Jim at his favorite track; Road America.
Arms Up is one of the most respected teams in all of motorsport.
I am sure their grief runs deep. As an ex-race mechanic I feel their pain.

Many times over the last 50 years i have sat around campfires in race track infields all over North America, or at late night gatherings at Siebkens, or Seneca Lodge. Deep into the spirits, many of us have said things in the vein that we would rather die at a race track than drooling down our chin not knowing who we are in some rest home. Ah... the bravado of youth.

When you are 20 or 30 it is easy think of another who is 70 as being near the end of life. As one of many now in that age group I have come to realize many great things are being accomplished by my fellow gray hairs. Jim was still contributing much to his family and community. His death is a great loss. The whole community has lost what he would have contributed ahead. His family has lost a mentor.

I recognize the opinion of which Harding posted. One of stoic bravado acknowledging the risk of the sport we love and accepting it unchallenged. It seems to be a spirit of much earlier times when a heroic death could be much easier justified and praised. A time when maybe individual life was less "valuable". A time of wars where leaders sent thousands to death in historic battles. A time I believe has passed. We are racing for plastic trophies, not the freedoms of whole populations.

I've heard many complain about "the dip" being taken out of Road Atlanta. Yet I witnessed much carnage at that historic configuration in its time.
I have driven through the "kink" and also felt a sense of bravado for successfully coming out the other side. I too inspected Gaffney's chassis with Fred Clark after Gaffney somehow miraculously survived a most violent accident at the kink in 2009. The kink is no far away stranger.

In my mind maybe it is time for improvement. After all we are club racing. We are in this for fun. We can never make the sport perfectly safe, but we should strive to make it as safe as possible. This applies not only to the kink but also sections of many tracks around this continent.

For now Mrs Frog and I grieve the lost of a good man and loss his family feels.

[marchsv]

Well said Mr Frog.

Prayers to to the family and friends.

[rallaer]

I've been struggling with the decision of whether or not to share this, but after reading all of the comments tonight - I decided I wanted to express my opinion. This is not easy for me because I try to stay out of these conversations.


I was there on Friday. I was on the track with Jim at the time. I was ahead of the emergency vehicle that was rushing through the carousel to his aid. I'm pretty sure I was the first car through after the accident, and in the aftermath, I had to slowly find my way through the debris on the track. It was the worst thing I've ever seen.

I haven't been able to sleep and I can't stop thinking about Jim. We talked just about an hour or so before we went out. We were garage neighbors and just had a great chat about his vintage races that happened the weekend prior. It was a horrible, horrible accident.

And it could have happened to ANY ONE OF US.

Frog is right. In SCCA, we race for t-shirts and plastic trophies. No one is getting paid millions of dollars to drive a Formula Continental. The kink is stupid. And anyone that thinks it would be less thrilling to turn the wheel at 130mph because the wall would be setback more is nuts. It needs to be fixed. Ridiculous.

Driving that track the next day was difficult. I had trouble keeping my focus and certainly thought of Jim the entire time I was on the track Saturday morning. I spun and had my own minor accident in qualifying and we decided that was enough. I wasn't planning on doing Sunday anyway so we just packed up and went home.

Jim loved Road America and he loved racing. Let us use this thread to find a proper way to honor him. Look for solutions and possible answers on how to avoid this happening again.

We are a community and a group with a common love of racing. Praying we never have to go through something like this again and most importantly, prayers for Jim's loved ones as they try to move on without him.


Rob Allaer
FC #52

[Matt Clark]

Track design & safety aside, I understand the toe link apparently broke. So I ask this with as little callousness & as much sympathy as possible in order to learn from this....

Do we know what *actually* happened yet?
Was it a side-impact slap to the wall, like Brayton?
Did it hit & then start aerobatics, like Legge?
Did something get to his helmet, like Senna?
Was it "just one of those things", or do we need more helmet padding/etc?

I am very limited with space & some safety ability in my FV, but things could be changed over the winter or on future chassis perhaps.

[Gokart Mozart]

Jim was a great man.

I think anyone who spent 5 seconds with him could recognize that.

Moreover, he was a gentleman, and what happened in the end was beyond cruel.

My last memory of him came the week prior to his passing, he in his Chevron B17 FB ride, me in my Eagle DGF. I waved him by coming out of T5 and he came roaring past- with a wave back. That was Jim. A racer, but a gentleman to the end.

As we exited T6, he drove away and off into the distance. That is how I'd like to remember him.

Attached are a few photos I took of Jim through the years. Use them as you deem fit.

Respectfully Yours,

Jacques N. Dresang
Kettle Moraine Preservation & Restoration

[TimH]

As we exited T6, he drove away and off into the distance. That is how I'd like to remember him.

[reidhazelton]

Jim was a great man.

I think anyone who spent 5 seconds with him could recognize that.

Moreover, he was a gentleman, and what happened in the end was beyond cruel.

My last memory of him came the week prior to his passing, he in his Chevron B17 FB ride, me in my Eagle DGF. I waved him by coming out of T5 and he came roaring past- with a wave back. That was Jim. A racer, but a gentleman to the end.

As we exited T6, he drove away and off into the distance. That is how I'd like to remember him.

Attached are a few photos I took of Jim through the years. Use them as you deem fit.

Respectfully Yours,

Jacques N. Dresang
Kettle Moraine Preservation & Restoration

Thank you, Jacques. And thank you for adding, quite beautifully, to the only relevant point of the thread; Jim and his memory.

[Arbitrary]

I never had the pleasure of meeting Jim, but that doesn't make it any easier reading these kind of things. Being also involved with motocross, death is an unfortunate reality that strikes that community every so often as well. Discussion regarding an incident will last a few weeks or so, with speculation on what could have been done differently to prevent, what should be done going forward, and of course remembering the person. Then it kind of fizzles out, change rarely occurs as a result, and next thing you know everyone is still doing what they love the next weekend.

The last part of that previous sentence, as has been touched on here, seems to be what always ends up trumping everything else. We all do something with inherent, high risk because we love it. We seem to push aside the reality of what could happen to anyone, usually thinking "it won't ever be me." Is it ignorance or passion, or both, that keeps us from continuing to do what we love with little or no change in the wake of tragedy? In this case, whether the wall stays where it is or it gets moved to the state line I don't think it is going to sway anyone from putting a screeching halt to something that is what they've poured their life into.

I'm not really sure what my intentions are with this post. Maybe provide another perspective on the scenario and the reality surrounding it, or maybe someone, somewhere will read this post along with all the others in this thread and some positive change will come of it.

[EricP]

Jim was a great man.

I think anyone who spent 5 seconds with him could recognize that.

Moreover, he was a gentleman, and what happened in the end was beyond cruel.

My last memory of him came the week prior to his passing, he in his Chevron B17 FB ride, me in my Eagle DGF. I waved him by coming out of T5 and he came roaring past- with a wave back. That was Jim. A racer, but a gentleman to the end.

As we exited T6, he drove away and off into the distance. That is how I'd like to remember him.

Attached are a few photos I took of Jim through the years. Use them as you deem fit.

Respectfully Yours,

Jacques N. Dresang
Kettle Moraine Preservation & Restoration

Beautiful car... there are buckeye leafs under his name. Was he a Buckeye!?

[Keith Carter]

I'll add some more pics from when Jim and I were both in FC. I'll miss trying to persuade him to sell his FC and get into an FE and come race with us.

[Rick Brannon]

Condolences to the family (RIP)

[SMRacing]

He ran with us (F2k Championship Series) this year at VIR. I talked with him for about 5 mins in the paddock, having a new guy show up is always interesting, so when I saw him I said hello. Jim was very nice and made a joking comment about being old and slow at VIR, and saying he was trying to stay out of the way. I was near him on track briefly in only one session, I forget if it was practice or a qualifying, I have to go back and look at onboards to know for sure, and once he realized where I was he pointed me by. He seemed to be enjoying himself despite the disadvantage in pace he had against some others, and I walked away knowing he was a helluva nice guy. I was stunned to hear about this happening.

I'm going to say this as a simple passing of information, but after having many toe links break in my career in F2000 (a brand new one broke at Road Atlanta just this year in a practice session in 10b, a replacement piece from NJMP last year that broke in the first practice session, the last weekend of 2017) we decided to put the Metrik replacement one that Paul Reiffle makes, which replaces that terrible and dangerous design with a floating one that removes that stress point on a weak component.

Everyone who has ever had or seen a toe link break should give Paul at RSport a call and ask him about his design. I can't say it is foolproof but I haven't had a broken toe link in 2018 since we put them on. It's a well known problem, at least in Van Diemens, and Paul had enough when he built the Metrik and replaced it with something that seems to be miles ahead of the original design.

This is not an ad, but it may help with this specific problem. To not mention it at this point, after a well known failure has done this in our community while a replacement that is intended to (and has, so far) prevent it from ever happening again, sits on my car seems wrong to me.

I'll always be able to remember Jim, in our extremely brief crossing of paths as gentleman on track and good guy in the paddock.

[Bob Coury]

Just seeing this and saddened. I did not know Jim, but it impacts me as he is one of our "brotherhood". After loosing my wife and biggest supporter last fall, I feel pain for his family and friends. RIP Jim and prayers offered for him and the family.

[Terrenzio]

Jim Victor's passing was among the names mentioned today before the race start on Radio Le Mans as a tribute to those lost in the last year.

[Rick Iverson]

Again, I didn’t know Jim but I’d definitely donate to some sort of safer wall in that spot in his name.

I’m in.

[TimH]

I’m in.

+1

[jhaley]

I watched a motorcycle race at RA on TV last weekend. It looked like the wall at the exit of the kink had been modified or painted. Did they put in a soft wall?