Summer Nats

[Gus-]

yeah heard at work today that they thought theyd drift on dirt without a proper fence n stuff, bloddy stupid idiots

[benm]

The security mob were just all on power trips, they thought they were gods gift to the world. Nothing unusual though, give any late 20's bloke a shirt with 'security' written on the back and some 'authority' and watch them go. I seen 1 spectator trying to cross the road, got stuck in the middle between 2 cars doing burnouts and next thing security ripped off his wristband and escorted him out the gates because they thought he was causing trouble.

The CAPA accident was just completely stupid, CAPA hang your heads in shame! They were a major sponsor of Summernats 19, wanting plenty of exposure and they definitely got it... and none of it was good exposure.

The 4 drift cars (including Fernando I believe) were drifting around the dirt horse track, easily 10-15,000 spectators with only a metal fence railing inbetween. The black/white hankook tyres car was hugging in the inside line nice and tight but the other 3 cars were all over the place.. down low up high and 1 even had to do a 360 to avoid hitting the fence. I'm sitting in the crowd thinking how in the hell could Summernats allow such an event to happen because of the lack of safety and 2 laps later the yellow drift car gets all crossed up and flattens the fence with half the car into the crowd. Apparently a security guy I was talking to overheard the driver/police say he was doing 140km/h just before spinning off but that is unconfirmed. A family was squased by the fence posts and chicken wire. Security, police, fire brigade... everyone was on the scene.

I hope the driver is charged and I hope CAPA/Summernats are fined.

[SupaFly Skyline]

securtiy down the back road were great on saturday, letting burnouts happen as long as everyone stayed off the road, they even held some of the cars straight, top marks for that.

as for the CAPA ute, its an unfortunate accident, driver error is the culprit, imho, but theyve had driving demonstrations like that on the trotting track for years with out incident, until now

[SKYLVIA]

i had a good time all three days, made quite a bit of money, only saw gus and leigh over the three days...

[Amaru]

A big congratulations to Daniel (Fitzpatrick Speed Works on these forums) and his brother Aaron for taking out the Grand Champion award with their Datto 510... good work guys, car looked sweet

[benm]

Yeah easily the best 510 i've ever seen, gotta love those rear rims eh!

[Terminal]

yeah it wasn't too good. i saw it from the other end of the arena, so i didn't see what had happened, but i didn't think it was meant to happen.

[Veilside R33]

Werd on the street is that impact occured at approx 140km's, judge it for yourselves.......

Footage

[Bluprint]

I've heard 80km/h and 140km/h

I'd be more inclined to think it'd be closer to 80km/h just watching it from where I was standing.

[benm]

The rear wheels may have been doing 140km/h (no doubt 3rd gear) but the impact certainly wasn't at 140km/h i'd say 50-70km/h.

[Stevie]

I was there. it was not 140! He did incredibly well to slow it up on that dirt. It was an accident! It couldve happened at any event (canberra show etc) the driver was the first one to admit he stuffed up and as i remember it he was screaming out for help to move the car backwards. Again...

A professional stunt driver made an error and an accident happened!

Planes fall out of the sky at air shows! I dont hear people calling for the pilots balls! Or calling him a dumb bogan!

Luckily nobody was seriously hurt, that kid was taken to hospital as a precaution.

[JD_R33]

Sure there are always some element of risk at events that involve moving vehicles, but these are usually minimised as much as possible.

Not the case on Saturday though - there is no way that setup of galvanised pipe and wire mesh could be called a safety fence.

At the section just in front of us there were probably about 30 young kids, mostly sitting right against the fence or leaning on the top rail. They would have been very slow to react if the ute had come their way, so it could have been much, much worse.

A real shame, because it only takes one incident like that to stuff up the whole event. I for one could have done without seeing a couple utes driving sideways on dirt, seen better at a B&S. Especially if it now means the massive safety review of the whole event that has been launched stuffs it up for next year.

And a fractured leg isn't serious? Give us a break Chic.........

[Terminal]

It's always a knee-jerk reaction when things like this happens. it's happened once in who knows how long since the last time, and i doubt it will happen again for a long time. because it did happen however there will now have to be massive crash barricades installed, a safety fence and safety zone or something which will ruin the event, and never need to be used...

it would be good if they just took it on the chin as an accident, and let it go ahead the same next year

[Frink]

it was an accident! ie: it wasn't done on purpose..... high and sight is a wonderful thing.....

[Bluprint]

I work with one of the more senior staff members at Summernats, I was talking to him about it this morning, he tells me on pretty good authority that the C.A.P.A. team "Won't be doing that again next year."

But we all kinda figured that out for ourselves anyway

[Stevie]

It’s a shame because the CAPA boys are all about SummerNats! The guys wont be doing the drifting next year and that is probably the knee jerk reaction that had to happen. The thing is, the fence around the arena is not a safety fence! It was never intended to be a safety fence and nobody claimed that it was a safety fence! All the relevant authorities viewed the utes in rehearsal and they all gave the safety thumbs up! They insisted that the concrete barricade be in place for Lawrence the Loser doing his half barrel roll. But the utes were considered to be safe. Like I said before! You cant barricade the streets because someone might run of the road and hit someone! You cant put cars on rails so they never collide! And sometimes… A stunt driver will make an error!

And when you talk about “serious” I think the fact that a ute went sliding into a crowd of people and the only injury was a fractured leg… That is a pretty “non serious” injury when compared to death or a broken neck…

[JD_R33]

I feel a bit sorry for the driver for being put in that position in the first place, with such a small margin for error. Can you imagine how he felt when the he lost control and started heading for the fence?

Unfortunately the post mortem will go way beyond what happened on Saturday night. The capacity for something to go wrong along the internal cruise route has been a problem for organisers ever since they were forced to bring it back inside the exhibition grounds a few years back.

The previous incident when one of the security guards got hit by a car almost put an end to that, which would have been a real shame. They have looked at putting concrete barriers all the way along the cruise route, but claim that will encourage drivers to see it as a race track.

The best solution would be to have a "one way" cruise route that allows more space between the cars and spectators, but that would involve changing the internal road structure (i.e. spending money).

[Stevie]

I feel a bit sorry for the driver for being put in that position in the first place, with such a small margin for error.  Can you imagine how he felt when the he lost control and started heading for the fence?

Unfortunately the post mortem will go way beyond what happened on Saturday night.  The capacity for something to go wrong along the internal cruise route has been a problem for organisers ever since they were forced to bring it back inside the exhibition grounds a few years back.

The previous incident when one of the security guards got hit by a car almost put an end to that, which would have been a real shame. They have looked at putting concrete barriers all the way along the cruise route, but claim that will encourage drivers to see it as a race track.

The best solution would be to have a "one way" cruise route that allows more space between the cars and spectators, but that would involve changing the internal road structure (i.e. spending money).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That’s the first time I have heard anyone (other than myself) mention the driver! Can you imagine! I personally cant imagine what it was like for him when he was screaming out for help and had the car jammed in reverse but couldn’t get it to move! For all he knew he could’ve killed someone at that point!

As for the internal cruise strip… It has always been a talking point for me! I cant understand why more people haven’t been hit! Especially with the “do a burnout” mob egging on under qualified drivers to lurch forward with minimal control! I love the cruise strip and I love a good burnout but I still don’t understand how there hasn’t been more accidents! There was a lot more crash barriers in the trouble spots this year. And the VB bar fence has pretty much killed that area off. I wonder what else will change next year???

[JD_R33]

I guess it depends on your definition of "serious" in those circumstances. Even the ground announcer qualified his remarks about there being no serious injuries by saying "mind you, i'm not one of the ones in the back of an ambulance with a broken leg".

Not having a go at you Stevie, but got a bit pissed off when the organisers tried to pretend something didn't happen and started playing it down and crapping on about "disclaimers" etc over the PA before they even knew what had really happened.

We had called our kids back from the fence on the previous lap.....

I know some of the C.A.P.A guys, I like the C.A.P.A guys, but that was a stupid idea.

[benm]

And the VB bar fence has pretty much killed that area off.

I actually liked the idea of the fence near the VB Bar. If a fence the same but half the height was put around the main side of the cruise route where all the spectators stand then it would actually be quite safe and still very decent for the spectators. The concrete blocks don't do anything, not when their is only 1 every 50m, whats that going to do?