24 Hours of Le Mans 2013

GRAND-AM driver provides medical analysis of driver deaths | MotorSportsTalk

Race Car Driver Deaths: The Medical Causes of Racing Deaths w Examples

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Real sad, could have been an aneurism that occurred, jarred by the impact, very sad!

 

My thoughts exactly!!! I am on vacation so missed the end of the race, but from watching the replays you guys posted, why in the HECK are there no tires against the ARMCO barrier where he hit??? You can bet there will be next year or I would call the lead marshall and tell them to get some there immediately.

Wow.

MB

 

There is no need for the tyres in front of the armco. Armco bends. What is required is enough room for the armco to move, thus some trees will need to be removed.

Armco is still the best IMO thing to hit, not tyres or concrete.
Pete
BTW: I'm also a huge fan of gravel traps and seriously believe I would not be here typing this without them.

 

G-Forces seem to have been the issue?

 

As noted, a three time Le Mans winner agrees and points out many of the old
wooden posts that support the armco barriers are rotting away and some of the
armco is literally bolted to those trees.

This is unacceptable given the modern thought about course safety and that while
we all support tradition, it should not come at the expense of driver's lives.

There will be a great groundswell of support to mandate the ACO to rethink their
40+ year approach of using the armco (most of which is intact along the Mulsanne
year round) and replacing it with safer barriers or concrete walls all with more
runoff areas.

Likewise, the use of gravel and rocks in the runoff areas must be done away with in
favor of asphalt pavement or groomed sand traps as we see in F-1.

BHW

 

I agree, LeMans is very antiquated from a track safety standpoint; however I wonder how much improvement they can make given that much of the track is public roads. so a) they need to be able to put up and take down the barriers and b) they are limited in what they can do runoff room-wise without intruding into someone else's property.

at any rate I hope the facility gets a massive safety review over the next year and all parties cooperate in making the track safer.

 

Thanks you fr the clarification. I wonder if that's what people were referring to but I didn't realize it was called balance of performance. Seems like a tricky game to play who who needs more and less. That's what kills the grandam cars IMO.

 

GrandAm's GT BOP is designed to make sure the Daytona Prototypes are still the fastest class

IMO the FIA/ACO does a much better job of keeping parity without dumbing down the cars or restricting technology-that's when manufacturers say adios.

 

The balance of performance has been the long standing issue in sports car racing
from it's beginnings.

When there is as much mechanical diversity as we see through out all of the classes,
the inevitable complaints come up such as this. Much to their credit, Porsche has been
masterful in their manipulations of these sorts of issues for years.

GrandAM attempted to subvert this by basically creating a spec formula with very
stringent rules regarding chassis and engines for their DP class and saying things
like "We don't care about 'traditional' sport car racing fans" and "We want to make
the cars irrelevant".

Unfortunately, spec racing dosent inspire much in the way of public or media attention
and these "man on the street" fans DP was supposed to create responded by staying
away by the droves.

BHW

 

Well I hit the ARMCO backwards at Watkins Glen once...mind you I was probably only going 80mph...wet grass felt like I accelerated before I hit, but there were a few rows of tires in front of it (going down into the laces of the "boot") and I was glad they were there.

I am not a fan of gravel traps as I think tarmac allows you to slow down more effectively, although at the end of the backstraight at Mid-Ohio it may be useful, although I have seen a few cars flip over there in the gravel. Indy cars especially.

MB

 

I agree that it was probably impact with the tree behind the Armco that caused the fatal injury. Considering that there is a long row of trees along that stretch of road, the ones closest to the corner can be removed without affecting the aesthetic value of the rest of the row. But some attempt should be made to put something, like tires, in front of the Armco adjacent to the remaining trees.

The ACO should be required to inspect all of the remaining Armco around the circuit, moving it back from the side of the track wherever feasible and verifying the condition of the supports. Gravel traps should be removed wherever possible and replaced with pavement, which has been shown to more effectively slow down cars.

 

Disaster is a strong word.

A BBLM was taken out running 2nd OA at Daytona with a very good chance of taking 1st OA had it not been for the crash.

CW

 

Oh, and I forgot to include that both the 512 and the 575 had 1st OA finishes.

So, while these cars didn't dominate by any stretch, they were certainly competitive.

CW

 

Tarmac only works if there has not been a car failure. In my case I had a brake failure ... tarmac would have done nothing, instead I ran into a gravel trap and the braking force by the gravel was amazing and saved me and the car from considerable damage.

This is why I think gravel traps are superior.
Pete

 

Very similar circumstances for the 2 crashes: exit of a corner, slight over-steering, driver's correction initiating a violent "tank-slapper" ending in the barrier.

Some people put it down to driver error, other to dampness, and some to aerodynamics - the latest unlikely in my view.

I think the car behaviour has something to do with the setting of the limited slip differential.
I must have been set to a high percentage and made the cars twitchy under acceleration.

 

Fair enough Pete, and I think we all agree something needs to be done there. Obviously in the eternal quest for driver safety we can never do enough, but having a tree inches behind ARMCO with no tires = FAIL for the ACO.

Wish we lived closer so we could speak over a tall one about this stuff. It is interesting indeed.

On the topic of what do we think about what happened? Tough to say except since a very similar if not identical event occurred in two different cars from the same stable it would be extremely unlikely to be driver error...just my .02

 

Agree .

Yes, very worrying for Aston Martin, and I very curious on what the cause was.
Pete

 

2013 Le Mans 24 Hours: Car no.26 excluded

In compliance with the decision of the Stewards of the Meeting car no.26 has been excluded from the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours as the capacity of its petrol tank has been found to be illegal. The no. 42 Zytek-Nissan is promoted to third place in LM P2.

Driven by Roman Rusinov, John Martin and Mike Conway the Oreca-Nissan entered by the G-Drive Racing by Delta ADR team finished ninth overall in the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours and third in the LM P2 category.

As a result of this decision all the cars classified behind no. 26 move up a place in the overall classification in this category. Thus, the no. 42 Zytek Z11SN Nissan driven by Jann Mardenborough, Lucas Ordonez and Michael Krumm (Greaves Motorsport) is promoted to third place in LM P2 behind the two Morgan-Nissans, nos 35 and 24.

This exclusion also modifies the classifications of the FIA World Endurance Championship of which the Le Mans 24 Hours was the third round and for which double points were awarded.

The G-Drive Racing by Delta ADR team has stated its intention to lodge an appeal against this decision.

http://www.24h-lemans.com/wpphpFichiers/1/1/ressources/Pdf/2013/24-heures-du-mans/classification/race/24-heures-du-mans-2013-final-classification-after-exclusion-car-number-26.pdf

BHW