Patrick's Crash - He is Okay

[Liz]

Poached from Autosport.com:


Qualifying delayed after Carpentier crash


Safety concerns at Laguna


Qualifying at Laguna Seca was delayed following a major incident for Patrick Carpentier.

The French Canadian had just set the third quickest time when he lost control at Turn 4. His Players Forsythe car cleared the gravel trap, tyre barrier and the safety fence, landing upside down in front of the grandstand.

Carpentier was uninjured in the accident, and has been cleared by CART to continue in the event.

Mauricio Gugelmin, chairman of the drivers' association, called an impromptu meeting of the drivers to discuss the safety of the Laguna circuit.

The incident comes exactly a year after Uruguay's Gonzalo Rodriguez lost his life in a crash at the infamous corkscrew corner.

Dario Franchitti has already gone on record saying that not enough has been done in the intervening 12 months to improve safety at the spectacular California track.

[AndrettiRULES]

I happened to catch a replay of the accident and I was astounded. I've honestly never seen anything like it and I'm glad that Carpentier was uninjured...and I'm also very glad that no one was walking in the area when he somer-saulted up and over the fencing!!

This accident was another case of the car jumping across the kitty litter and hitting the tire barriers while flying through the air at a down-angle..luckily he hit rear first, unlike Rodriguez. IMO, the kitty litter traps are causing some of these terrible accidents. They just don't seem to be doing the job they did just a few years ago. Now the cars seem to jump up off the gravel as soon as the car enters the pit, instead of digging down into it.

AR

[fastracer]

When I saw a replay of the accident my heart nearly stopped because it was almost the same crash that Rodriguez had there last year and we all know how that turned out.
I was happy when I heard that he had no injuries because that crash was SCARY!
As for the gravel trap there, it didn't seem to do it's job because the car never slowed down, but what can they do to slow down the car in that situation?

[Jay]

That was almost a carbon copy of Gonzalo's accident, accept backwards.

Here is a link to a replay of the accident. You must have Flash.

http://www.cart.com/R16/features/200...ntier_off.html

It is also similar to one Ricardo Zonta had, while testing at Silverstone.

The problem is obvious here. The gravel trap was too packed down to slow the car down at all until it reached a patch near the wall that had been raked. As soon as the car his the raked part, it rocketed into the air, hit the fence while airborne, and flipped over it.

The most of the gravel trap was packed very solidly, unlike the ones in F1. In F1, the gravel traps are so lose that you sink into them like quick sand.

[marcus]

Ive just seen the replay on the cart site and it was a big one wasnt it..good to see that he is Ok and i agree that the problem was the gravel trap..it was to compacted like the F1 traps in the rain they become to solid and basically turn into a launching pad...also it seems a strange way to spin in the first place

[Liz]

I see that they are going to have a memorial service for the CART pilots who have been killed. Thank God we are not adding Patrick to the list.

It occurred to me this morning that both prospective Penske pilots were killed last year. I know this is a coincidence, but ... it's a weird one.

[jamie928]

Did anyone notice how close Patricks head came to hitting the top of the catch fencing??? He just cleared it by inches.He is one lucky driver.
Maybe Dario is right and the Champcars have outgrown Laguna Seca in it's present form.

[R]

Those pictures reminded me too much of what happened to Gonzalo. Thank God Patrick's okay. That was indeed a very close call, I also noticed how close his head was to the fence. I agree the gravel trap is clearly NOT doing it's job. Landing outside the fence, that's very scary. Thank God there were no spectators there at the time.