Allan Gurr has huge shunt

[marcus]

19 year old Allan gurr has been taken to hospital after suffering a huge crash in qualifying at winton for the formula holden races.

gurr locked his rear brakes at the end of the old back straight and slid onto the grass and he accelerated into the marshalls stand that has caused quite a few crashes over the last few years.

it took 25 minutes to get allan out of the car and he was knocked unconcious in the crash because apparently he went in at such a bad angle that his head missed the head rest on contact and slammed into the chassis instead...worrying moment ensued as there was no movement from the cockpit and his head slumped over at a nasty looking angle.

the marshalls and ambulance were imediatley on the scene to get him out of the car but because he was unconsious they had to take care..he apparently regained consiousness and has been examined by the local doctors as well as fellow driver dr. roger oakshot who said he suffered severe concusion and will be very sore for quite a few days after ..it is unknown if he will race tommorrow but the car can be fixed by the team but if allan isnt fit enough then they wont race .


it was avery worrying time ..i was very concerned for allan and was thinking that i may have just seen a shining star of the future taken away from us..thankfully he is reasonably Ok and should have no long lasting effects of this crash.and when i heard he was allright i breathed a big sigh of relief.

that damm marshall post should be moved..get rid of it ..that is the 3rd crash into it that i have seen and each one could have been a disaster...

[Crash Test]

Youch...not nice at all. Personally, I think many of the those island flag marshal points cause many problems. A marshal was killed in on down at Symmons Plains a few years ago, and I always worry about the ones at QR...but there are very few options open to them there. Also remember the posts being flattened by trucks in the past.

Good to hear that Alan is still intact.

[elephino]

Good to always have a doctor following you around the track

Marshall posts can be very dangerous, but sometimes there is little choice. Oran Park used to have quite a few, now only 2 I think. But one was moved from the corner before the dog-leg, my old haunt actually, and is now on the outside of the track and isn't really as good a position to be seen by the drivers.

[Alan Jones]

Nice to hear he is going to be Ok.
Marcus, how many lights would you need top replace all the flags used by the marshall ?. Could it be done this way? As in red light = red flag etc etc Also, is this idea even feasible? I guess you would still need an observer near each flag point and all the lights able to be operated either locally or globally. If you have the time would be very interested in your response.
Thanks

Luke

[Crash Test]

This topic came up a while ago with regards to QR...

It totally depends where the lights are, who is opperating them, and what the exact circumstances are. There are already some tracks around (eg Oran Park and Bathurst) which have yellow caution lights installed, but that is about the extent of it.

[marcus]

I dont really like the idea of lights at all..I still like the human factor to be involved in it...but if you look at the big cherry picker shots from winton you can see the marshalls post ..just as they turn onto the new section of track..it is very exposed...but what surprises me is that on the other side of the track is a huge concrete wall that would be perfect for a marshalls post..off the track and in a better position for the drivers line of sight..they are looking towards the left anyway getting ready for the turn so why not put the marshalls over that side to make things safer for everyone..and get rid of the post as they have it now alltogether ..creating one less obsticle for the drivers to try and aviod.
i have seen john Faulkner , tim Shaw and now Allan gurr hit this thing and Im sure there have been others but all 3 of these accidents could have been much worse then they were.
but if they change it then there is no problem and drivers just spin onto the grass area and hit nothing (but perhaps get bogged )


lights would be a nightmare to install and if there is a systems failure then it would be a pain to try and repair..plus lights could be easilly missed because i belive they tend to blend into the background a bit where a person standing waving a flag as it is a moving object is more noticable.

just my thoughts anyway.

CHEERS
Marcus

[marcus]

well after all of this it seems Allan was fit enough to race so maybe things were not as bad as thought (thank god)

but Terry Clearihan had a shunt and knocked himself out ..so i guess it wasnt a good weekend for the formula Holden boys.

[Alan Jones]

Thanks for the information Marcus

Luke