What happened at Laguna Seca this weekend?

[Bardahl77]

I'm getting this like third or fourth hand, but supposedly two FM cars crashed and there was a fire with a trapped driver, communication was problematic and fire/rescue was long in coming and the driver received burns. Was anyone there?

[Teuobk]

Facebook post from the San Francisco region about it:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/scca...59217958536067

Not a lot of details, but sounds like at least one driver is in the hospital.

[curnonsky]

From what we heard at the track, an FM and an F3 car collided between turns 3 and 4 and the FM caught on fire. Supposedly the corner workers were slow to respond and a spectator grabbed a fire extinguisher and clambered over the fence to try and control the fire. There was a lengthy delay while a medevac helicopter landed to transport the injured driver, who was said to be alert and talking. Racing resumed but the final races were cut down to 12 minutes.

The left side of the track between 3 and 4 had noticeable burn marks on it which must have affected some rivers more than others. Glad to hear the injured driver is going to recover!

[commodorepdog]

Hello Everyone,

I was there and have some info about the accident.

I am going to keep it brief and try to leave the speculation out of this one. Their is a lot of scuttle butt about what happened and just going to lay out the facts that I am aware of.

Accident Involving 3 cars I believe either as follows:
A: 1 Standard FM and 2 F4 cars
B: 1 Standard FM 1 F4 and 1 PFM

Cars ended up stacked and the fuel cell on the Standard FM was compromised (Unsure as to how)

The Drivers in either the F4 and PFM sustained injuries that were minor and did not require ambulance transport from the racetrack to the hospital (I have heard one or more of those drivers did end up at the hospital for evaluation and minor burns)

The Driver in the standard Mazda seems to be in bad shape. The current understanding is that they are at A Stanford medical center for treatment in the bay area. He was the one who got the helicopter medi-vac from Laguna Seca.


Their is a lot of speculation as to the speed of the response, the speed of work, and other things.

I have herd some people say it took forever and other people say the response was fast.

But what I do know is that someone who could be badly burnt and in need of extraction from a racecar needs to be done with great care. More dammage can be done to them by extracting them poorly.

I believe the driver most hurt was from out of the San Francisco Region.

If anyone sees errors with this report please let me know and I would like to correct it as its a very serious matter to be mis informing people.

Wishing all involved a speedy recovery!

[Bardahl77]

I understand that power was out to the whole track that day, maybe contributed to communications issues?

[Hardingfv32]

If there are communication issues the SFR shuts down the session. That is the way they roll.

Have sat around a few times when the communication system was down.

Brian

[commodorepdog]

I cant speak to protocol for San Fran Region.

I cant speak to the power being down. It was down at the race track but I have herd that the land lines were still functional.

Their are a lot of things being said. I think this accident was serious enough to warrant review of just about everything. Need to explore what was done well and what could be improved.

Classing of cars in mixed group racing (no steel frame cars with carbon tub cars)
Processes for issues with power (If it impacted this)
Explore other items (Mandatory driver involvement for volunteering)

Waiting for some sort of official statement as so I don't have to put my foot in my mouth. But a lot to look at for sure. Sadly including the Standard Formula Mazda. Part of the reason I think first examination would be moving the FM cars away from PFM or F3 F4 type carbon tub cars.


Still wishing all involved speedy recovery's and best wishes to family and friends!

[tahoe z]

Terrible crash. Just wishing the best for fm driver quick recovery hopefully I personally won’t drive thru dust clouds for this reason. Never k ow if a car is in there.