Road racing at Pacific Raceways Aug 4/5

Randy Blaylock

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I'll be at Pacific Raceways this coming Sunday Aug 5th for a Conference race in the Highlander Motorsports Viper GTS.

Feel free to stop by and say hi if you're around.

Randy
 

ruckdr

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Randy,
It was good meeting you and your wife at the races today. Sorry, I could not stick around until after your race, but it took an inordinate amount of time, and I had to leave.
From the track position, you must have been ahead of the accident? Have you heard any more details, and of course, have you heard how the driver is? I only heard bits and pieces in the stands from various crew radios.
It was serious !!

Hope to catch you again at another race. Can you post your schedule here?

Later,
 
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Randy Blaylock

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Nice meeting you too. I turned out to be a really weird day to say the least.

The incident involved two cars. They came off T2 side by side and ran out of track heading down the hill. The car on the right was a little ahead, and spun around the nose of the car on the left, which sent him up the bank on driver's left at about 100 mph. He shot 15 feet into the air off the bank, landed nose first and barrel rolled down the hill, coming to a stop upside down and on fire on the inside of T3a.

The driver is a really neat guy that I have done a couple of enduros with that's still racing at 71 years old. There is no question that the Hans device saved his life. He was airlifted to the hospital and last word was after being knocked unconscious he suffered a broken arm and a couple of ribs, and had a punctured lung. He was hurt, but not gravely, and was said to be in stable condition at the hospital.

We sat on the hill leading into T3a for about 30 minutes as he was packaged up for transport, and the scene was cleaned up. We were then moved around to the front stretch, and gridded up according to running position to restart the race asap.

Then.... one of the track officials that was running around trying to deliver water to the drivers, and help organize the restart dropped dead from a heart attack right in front of everybody. The fire department medics that had been called to the scene for the racing incident responded to this as well, and worked on the official for a good hour before transporting him away.

The remaining race schedule was modified to account for the delay, and the race groups left to run were shortened a bit to wrap up the day. Of course this didn't go off without incident as the last race of the day got called only a few laps in after a couple of cars got together and one ended up in the weeds, and one on it's side outside of T6.

I can say I made it home in one piece, which is enough considering the mayhem.

Oh man, what a day....
 

ruckdr

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Yes, I heard (crew radios again) that a corner worker/official had collapsed, but had no idea the seriousness of that episode.
Until next time under BETTER conditions.
Schedule?
Also, come out on July 16th, Alfa Club lapping day - run or not, I plan to run, assuming I can push the clutch - should be no problem by then.

Later,
 
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Randy Blaylock

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Have fun with the Alfa club, I'll be away on vacation so won't be le to attend.

My next race isn't until September 15/16 at Portland.
 

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