Knox Mountain crash 2013

[bertvorgon]

I always stay tuned to Knox this weekend, as it occupied many years of my life, thankfully with no incidents.

Today had a really bad crash, one of the worst from the sounds of it, and the look of the car.

The driver is said to be ok, will be sore for awhile.

http://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/208021671.html

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-92231--.htm

[jason]

Wow, there's only half that mustang there, that's nasty! Hope he's OK ...

[bertvorgon]

That slight kink can be deceiving, if you have some good speed, basically, you don't want to lift there.

That is where John went off last year, except John went up on the high side, which was good for him, being in a open wheeled formula car and all.

Second year I ran, a good friend of mine lost it in the entry of this corner, and went into the BIG pine right beside the road...the one with the bark off to this day, in his Formula car. He was not so lucky as the small foot well area of the car stove on and crushed his ankle.

Driver is ok.

[Byron510]

A good friend of mine also went off at the exit of turn 2 in his first generation turbo Honda. He ended up rolling the car up the bank and into the trees before rolling back down on the road. He too was okay, but it was the end of his car.

Byron

[duke]

Man Keith, the picture you posted makes the car look much worse than the news article pictures. Must have been after the jaws of life went to town on it.

I am planning on doing my first hillclimb event this summer, and after reading the rulebook, I am really surprised by the safety regulations. They don't even require a roll bar or harness! After seeing these pictures, I am definitely going to make sure my car is as up to snuff as I can get it before venturing towards the sky.

[bertvorgon]

In 1997, when I went below the 2 minute mark, the Holy Grail for Knox, I was used as the example of cars getting faster, I was even beating Formula cars, in my street driven 510. They then instituted the rule for a FULL roll cage, as back then, a roll bar was sufficient. I did not blame them at all, as there is no room for error up there. Now a HANS device I believe is mandatory. You can see why as the trees and rocks are immovable objects. The concrete that now lines a good chunk of the cliffs, was not there either.
Considering how fast some cars go now on today's street legal race tires, you cannot have enough safety stuff. The new Toyo R888 I have now, are way better than the race tires I ran back then, GoodYear qualifying tires. I often wonder how fast my car would be up there now.
All of the 510's that got written off, were on older race tires, or street tires, so there was NO room for just getting past the stick point. OLD, COLD tires are NOT what you want to ever run at a hillclimb!!!!!!!!!!!!!

REMEMBER...No plastic trophy is worth throwing your 510 away! or any car for that matter.

One year, it rained...the organizers wanted cars to run, as the crowd was big, no action. I said no, I was not going to. They begged, ok, I put my street tires on, and literally just cruised up the hill. Meanwhile, the Formula Ford guys made a bet as to who would be fastest in the rain.....well, one of them went off trying to be a hero in the rain, and did at least $5,000 at the time damage to the front of the car. Oh, good Job! I guess I was not the penultimate racer, but I brought my car home, DROVE it home after every race.
Most hillclimbs have little room for error, so be careful, and have FUN first.

[gooned]

I'm not sure there is a "good" spot to spin at knox, I have no where near Keith's time at the hill but have seen major carnage at most of the corners. Worst I personally watched was a formula car go off SKY corner (turn 4) and bounce over a huge boulder down there UPSIDE DOWN he missed it but that woulda been very nasty if he'd contacted.

[bertvorgon]

That reminds me of when Mike Elliot left Turn 9 and ended up, upside down in the clump maples, 30 feet down, which saved his bacon.

All the corner workers ran.....NOBODY took a fire extinguisher!!! I grabbed mine as I had just done my run. The car was so hot from the blast up, it was a good thing there was no fuel leak. That was scary.

[Byron510]

I seen many accidents at know as well over here years, but the scariest one was watching a formula car launch off 4A, left the road edge doing at least 40 mph and at this point airborne, threaded a hole between two massive jack pines and fell a good 60 feet before coming to an instant stop against a massive boulder - thankfully right side up. I clearly remember the sound of the car redlineing it on the fall as the driver likely held on for dear life as he went over the edge in what must have seemed to be an eternity. It was a formula Ford, and I believe the drivers was Greg Mandruziak. Thankfully I heard he had only an arm injury, but it's an accident I will never forget as the arc and drop was so severe.

On another Know weekend, while spectating at the corner 5 worker station (not working), I watched a beautiful Lotus 7 go off right in front of me. This was long before the concrete wall was there. The car went off the road and into that killer ditch. Thankfully the car didn't roll and came to a stop on it's side. I took a photo just as the car was leaving the road. The driver here was also ok, his only injury aside from his pride was that he bit the end off his tounge on the impact. My friend Joanne was with me, and she did a great job making the better than middle aged driver feel better about the whole thing. But I don't think I ever saw him or the car back.

Byron

[510rob]

ummm, autocorrect?

[Byron510]

Corrected for clarity, thanks Rob - yes auto correct PlayBook style....

Byron

[bertvorgon]

It was Greg, it was amazing he went between the two trees. That corner is all lined with concrete now.

[Chickenman]

Today had a really bad crash, one of the worst from the sounds of it, and the look of the car.

The driver is said to be ok, will be sore for awhile.

This is probably one of the worst crashes I've seen in a long time....and that includes Johnny's roll over in Turn 4B ( 2011 ) which totaled the car.

Driver was Tom Edwards and he initially went off to the right on the exit of 2B. Car then hooked and spat him straight across and off to the inside. At that point a quick car ( and Tom's GTO car was quick ) will be going 70 to 75 mph.

Newspapers reported " Minor injuries " If you can call, 8 broken ribs, collapsed lung, a broken collarbone, 2 fractured vertebrae and some internal bleeding " minor " . All injuries were likely from belts. Car went head on into a BIG Douglas fir. Tree didn't budge.. Car stopped in an instant and engine was shoved back 4 to 5 inches into the firewall. Car was also well equipped with a full cage and a fire suppression system...which the driver had to utilize as impact shoved engine fuel rail into firewall and snapped it off, starting a small engine fire.

Thank GOD ( and the organizers and stewards ) that HANS devices were made mandatory this year. The results could have been horribly worse if a HANS device was not worn.

Tom will be in hospital for about a week or so from what I've heard. Best wishes to him and his family for a speedy recovery.

Richard Boyk

[bertvorgon]

Hey Richard!!!

Thanks for the update, hope you have been well, seems like a LONG time since I have seen you, back in the good ole' days.

"Ev had a Dodge....!"

[Chickenman]

Hey Richard!!!

Thanks for the update, hope you have been well, seems like a LONG time since I have seen you, back in the good ole' days.

"Ev had a Dodge....!"

" Call me an ambulance...! " ( Edit: Inside joke...not related to Knox incident )

Yes. it's been way too long. Seems that life just catches up with you and you just don't have as much time on your hands these days.

I'm gonna have to bookmark this site and try and visit more often. I'll PM you later this week end. Heading off to work now ... 10 hour day....