Unusual Race Stoppages

[PVDA]

They had to cancel Fridays practice sessions for the Shannon's Nationals at Phillip Island part way through the day after a lot of rain and a rising damp problem.



That's Turn 1 and to give you an idea the top of the tyre wall you can see on the left is at least 1 metre high.........

[b1ackcr0w]

A few years ago we had a bit of a shocker at Gurston. March test day and the second car to take to the track that season went careering off the track, has a bit of a thump but carried on, only to keel over in the upper paddock at the end of the run.

The moral of the story being, it can happen any-time, anywhere to anyone.

[f1madmatt]

I was at the Cadwell Park Superbike meeting in 2008 when the racing had to be stopped because the campsite caught fire and the smoke billowed across the track. A spectator had left his BBQ on dry grass, setting fire to it, a caravan and a line of cars. We grabbed as many extinguishers as we could and kept the fire under control untill the fire brigade turned up !

[Duff_44]

Some from North America (sorry if these have been posted, didn't read the whole thread):

2011 Bud Shootout practice, lights go out
http://youtu.be/2I5jS1y85lo

Caused a delay before the race - Pace car stolen, 1986 Talladega
http://youtu.be/ICi3kIzSIZg

Andrettis - Mario hit a safety vehicle, Michael hits the car the safety vehicle was trying to rescue, Detroit 1991
http://youtu.be/KwEqjuvAZzE

And from this year's Daytona 500 - Juan Pablo Montoya's car breaks, spins, and hits the jet dryer causing a big fire!
http://youtu.be/uFm6o-qB6T4

[Woolley]

Originally Posted by PVDA

That's Turn 1 and to give you an idea the top of the tyre wall you can see on the left is at least 1 metre high.........

Nice to see they've improved the drainage compared with the post that opened this thread... Or did the tide come in?

[PVDA]

Drainage is one of those unseen things that under normal conditions will flow quite happily but when you get monsoon level rain it tends to show up weaknesses very quickly.

[AussieTimmeh]

Originally Posted by Duff_44

Some from North America (sorry if these have been posted, didn't read the whole thread):

Caused a delay before the race - Pace car stolen, 1986 Talladega
http://youtu.be/ICi3kIzSIZg

Andrettis - Mario hit a safety vehicle, Michael hits the car the safety vehicle was trying to rescue, Detroit 1991
http://youtu.be/KwEqjuvAZzE

Wow, hadn't seen these before, thanks for sharing!

[ascarracinguk]

Not so much a stoppage but the race had to be put under safety car this year at donington to allow a transit van off the infield because the blokes mrs had gone into labour at hospital and they didn't want him to miss the birth!

[rich07]

Originally Posted by ascarracinguk

Not so much a stoppage but the race had to be put under safety car this year at donington to allow a transit van off the infield because the blokes mrs had gone into labour at hospital and they didn't want him to miss the birth!

Well that was awfully nice of them!

[SteveR]

Originally Posted by ascarracinguk

Not so much a stoppage but the race had to be put under safety car this year at donington to allow a transit van off the infield because the blokes mrs had gone into labour at hospital and they didn't want him to miss the birth!

That was a real "Send 3/4d we're going to a dance" job! The original message came in asking for an ambulance on the infield as the man's wife had gone into labour.

Eventually, we managed to get a course car round/over/through the earthworks onto the infield, to find out what had really happened. The real message was that his wife was in labour in hospital and they wanted him to be there. Eventually, we got his van to the inside of Redgate, threw the safety car and crossed him. Confused the living daylights out of the commentator who was busy searching for the problem!

[tonyC]

Originally Posted by SteveR

That was a real "Send 3/4d we're going to a dance" job! The original message came in asking for an ambulance on the infield as the man's wife had gone into labour.

Eventually, we managed to get a course car round/over/through the earthworks onto the infield, to find out what had really happened. The real message was that his wife was in labour in hospital and they wanted him to be there. Eventually, we got his van to the inside of Redgate, threw the safety car and crossed him. Confused the living daylights out of the commentator who was busy searching for the problem!

All importance of accurate message passing.

A few years back at the GP in the Rescue unit stationed at the end of Hangar Straight, we had the message to go to Stowe Corner where the Grandstand had collapsed !!

We got there to find out someone had collapsed in the grandstand !!

Right words - wrong order.

[SteveR]

Originally Posted by tonyC

All importance of accurate message passing.

A few years back at the GP in the Rescue unit stationed at the end of Hangar Straight, we had the message to go to Stowe Corner where the Grandstand had collapsed !!

We got there to find out someone had collapsed in the grandstand !!

Right words - wrong order.

I remember it well. We were parked across the start straight trying to keep spectators out of the pitlane at the time.

[ascarracinguk]

Originally Posted by SteveR

That was a real "Send 3/4d we're going to a dance" job! The original message came in asking for an ambulance on the infield as the man's wife had gone into labour.

Eventually, we managed to get a course car round/over/through the earthworks onto the infield, to find out what had really happened. The real message was that his wife was in labour in hospital and they wanted him to be there. Eventually, we got his van to the inside of Redgate, threw the safety car and crossed him. Confused the living daylights out of the commentator who was busy searching for the problem!

It confused the hell out of us at the spark plug too!

[Jim H]

I can remember stopping a Sprint at Croft due to a stay dog running out track and ruining about in the infield. It was eventually court and brought under control.

I'm sure a race or sprint has been delayed at Croft due to a family of ducks/geese crossing the track.

[Jim H]

I've been to a Rallycross event up in Knockhill and the finals was cancelled due to dust. It is the only time in Knockhill's history that an event had to cancelled due to the lack of rain!

We had 2 water bowers, one with a very flat tyre and the other one broke the drive/prop shaft.


(P.S, Sorry to revive this thread again, I only joined up yesterday)

[PVDA]

Originally Posted by Jim H

I'm sure a race or sprint has been delayed at Croft due to a family of ducks/geese crossing the track.

A couple of endangered Cape Baren Geese caused a Safety Car at Phillip Island for the recent V8Supercar round there.

http://youtu.be/C21paaOa4wU

For an endangered species you'd think they'd be more careful

[Shelagh]

Back to Donington: Steve Angel drove through the pedestrian tunnel and met up with the "white van man" on the inside at Redgate. Safety Car deployed but that meant all the cars went into "driver change" mode. Eventually got "the go" and white van man lurched across the track (in his van, obviously) so he could continue to the hospital/birth. Been doing this for 20+ years, but there is always a new first!

Wonder if we'll ever find out if boy/girl etc!

[Paul Newns]

Or if they called it Steve or Angela?

[PVDA]

In this time of world wide isolation time to resurrect an old thread once again.

Any more unusual stoppages to add to this thread since the last post back in 2012 ??

I had one last year. The Australian Motorcross Championship holds the majority of it's 10 rounds in rural areas.

The penultimate round of the MX Nationals last year were held just outside the rural NSW town of Moree (680km from Sydney or 480km from Brisbane).

It is a single day meeting so practice and qualifying as well as most of the first round of races is held prior to the lunch break.

The track was brutal for some reason with many rider injured and needing to be sent to the local rural hospital resulting in the hospital asking (pleading) for the event to be stopped during the lunch break as we had filled the hospital to capacity and they would not be able to take any more racers let alone if any locals needed hospitalisation.


Although this next one was not a stoppage a round of the Australian Supercross Championship (Stadium Motorcross) was held at a rugby ground in suburban Campbelltown south of Sydney.

After sending 16 riders to Campbelltown Hospital in 5 hours we managed to put that major trauma centre on bypass.

[The Fat Clerk]

We've had a Swan with her Cygnets refusing to budge from the exit of Gerards before now.

[andrewc]

Bathurst Kangaroos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rb2SOLHg9M

[SteveR]

A practice rather than a race at Donington. The cars were collected at the bottom of the GP loop prior to practice. When released, the cars would come up the wrong side of the loop and turn left on to the circuit at Post 24. This worked well until one of the practices contained a "free thinker". The first 19 cars followed each other like good little ducklings out on to the circuit. Sadly, the 20th one decided that they were all wrong, and turned right out onto the circuit. Oops!

[JimW]

Originally Posted by SteveR

A practice rather than a race at Donington. The cars were collected at the bottom of the GP loop prior to practice. When released, the cars would come up the wrong side of the loop and turn left on to the circuit at Post 24. This worked well until one of the practices contained a "free thinker". The first 19 cars followed each other like good little ducklings out on to the circuit. Sadly, the 20th one decided that they were all wrong, and turned right out onto the circuit. Oops!

And I had to run to catch him as he was on the way to Coppice! And his command of English was limited. Luckily my command of sign language was up to the task.

[The Fat Clerk]

I'll give you two that I personally caused!

A 750 meeting @ Donington, 20 or so years ago. In a Formula Vee race there's a 1st lap pile up @ Redgate with cars everywhere, I grabbed a radio and ran down from Race Control, jumped into a car, roared up the pit lane onto the circuit, when I got to Redgate the track was completely clear, I tried using the radio and found it was turned off, the race was stopped and I drove back to the pits feeling a right pillock. Note to self: always check radio.

10 years or so later, I'm in Race Control @ Mallory on a Wednesday MSA test morning. My mobile goes and it's Elaine my Wife telling me that she's been involved in a car accident, red lights/flags and I'm hurtling out of the circuit.

Finally not an unusual race stop but causing a longer delay than necessary.
Silverstone National Circuit, session stopped because of oil everywhere in the Maggots area, yours truly does a 720 in the Course Car and ends up in the gravel, the Circuit Staff and Marshals dealing with the mess were falling about laughing whilst I was trying hard not to be embarressed.

[275 GTB-4]

Originally Posted by andrewc

Bathurst Kangaroos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rb2SOLHg9M

I've seen a halt in proceedings because one side of the mountain was bright sunshine, tuther freezing cold rain...Marshals brought in suffering hypothermia...

I think it was about 2005, delayed start, a local was "allegedly" upset about not being able to trade like some others and tried to drive a tractor onto Mountain Straight just before the scheduled start. Marshals came from a couple of points and one was injured when he tried to grab the keys of the tractor (owner "allegedly" slammed his hand down on the Marshals hand). I had run down from (Flag 2) top of Mountain Straight...it took about 1/2 an hour for the cops to arrive...then race could start.