Just saw this on SPEED Channel's site:

http://www.speedtv.com/article...16927/

 

link doesn't work

 

http://speedtv.com/articles/roadracing/auto/16927/

 

Never ever forget to thank these people every chance you get.

Buy them beer.
Feed them lunch.
Whatever.

Its a thankless, dangerous job that they do in exchange for a free meal (sometimes). They do it for no other reason than to protect us.

Scott, who thinks the start of every SCCA weekend for the remainder of the year, nationwide, should include a moment of silence.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Catch 22 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Never ever forget to thank these people every chance you get.

Buy them beer.
Feed them lunch.
Whatever.

Its a thankless, dangerous job that they do in exchange for a free meal (sometimes). They do it for no other reason than to protect us.

Scott, who thinks the start of every SCCA weekend for the remainder of the year, nationwide, should include a moment of silence.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Couldn't agree more. To the workers

Sorry to hear of the news

 

One of my employees at Koni was a corner worker for many years and knew him and one of his daughters pretty well. Very sad.

 

damn. To think of the crappy weather we had earlier at Nelson and nobody got hurt. Now this.
My thoughts go to his children and wife, and I hope that they can take some small amount of solace in knowing that, at least, he died doing something he loved.


And to add to what Scott said, I believe that anyone not waving at the workers in a cooldown lap should be DQ'ed on principle. But that's just me.
I gained a whole new level of appreciation for those guys/gals at the Nelson school. To see them stand out there in freezing cold rain and snow, in the driving wind the whole weekend and still be cheering us on with a big ol' smile on their faces was a powerful motivator, and a heart warming sight. We couldn't do this without them, and they need to know that we appreciate it.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SJR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">And to add to what Scott said, I believe that anyone not waving at the workers in a cooldown lap should be DQ'ed on principle. But that's just me.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I like that idea

 

The corner works thought I was wierd for taking the time to thank each and everyone of them at my scca school. They were not used to getting so many thanks from one person!

Very sorry to hear of this. My prayers are with his family!

 

Ya, I was there at this school. I didn't see it happen because we were in class at the time. It was truly a sad situation. I didn't think we could go on with the school but we left it up to the corner workers and they wanted to continue so we went on. My instructor had known him personally from having worked the runoff's with him. To think that I waved to him just the session before and then he was gone was difficult. My condolences to his family and friends.

http://speedtv.com/articles/roadracing/auto/16927/


Modified by rex_boy at 1:48 PM 5/16/2005

 

That is a real bummer. As a licensed SCCA F&C worker this unfortunate loss brings home the point of making sure one is in a "protected area" as much as possible. Behind the guardrail, bunker, tire wall something. I have seen people with experience get relaxed with that rule at times but I am pretty cognizant of it. Just like never turning your back on race traffic or if you have to respond and have the manpower have someone else with you holding onto your belt just focusing on watching approaching race traffic to jerk you out of the way if something bad starts to happen while you are focused on helping the driver.

That is why the blue flagger stands downstream of the yellow flagger (looking upstream) and vica versa. That way when the yellow flagger is looking from "our" station downstream and focusing on throwing the yellow, the blue flagger is looking upstream over the yellow flagger back protecting him (while giving the passing flag to approaching cars) to where you can warn or simply grab the flagger and move with him. The yellow flagger covers the blue flaggers back too but such a need is less likely.

Remember folks the SCCA workers are volunteers who actually spend their own money (not reimbursed or maybe partially if they are lucky) to travel to SCCA races/events to make the events a success and to keep the competitors safe. That usually means standing all day (you can't sit down in corner working because of the very hazard that took this worker's life) for two days, in all weather conditions, performing a very critical function by keeping the racing safe and being the eyes and ears of race control (belive me there is a lot of communication and reporting that goes on.).

My condolences to the family

Barry H

 

This is very sad news, indeed.

The Lake Erie Communications F&C group are some of the very best, both socially and "professionally".

 

Corner workers are often taken for granted. My condolences to his family, may he rest in peace.

 

That is very horrible news.

RIP.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kedwards &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This is very sad news, indeed.

The Lake Erie Communications F&C group are some of the very best, both socially and "professionally".</TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree at mid-Ohio I was able to be a corner worker with them and they taught me alot, shame to hear this happened.

 

Lake Erie Communications does almost every event I attend here in the CenDiv and they are truely top notch. I always make it a point to wave at all of the corner workers after every on track session. I corner worked for half a blistering hot day a couple of years back and damn, I'm glad we have these guys to do it!


So does anyone else feel the need to maybe blame the track here? Nelson Ledges has short commings everywhere else, I wouldn't be surprised if they do in corner worker protection too?


Kevin, who lives 2 hours from Nelson Ledges and hasn't been there in 4 years

 

Wow thats horrible. My prayers go out to his family. Truly sad.

 

RIP Glenn Miller

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SJR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I believe that anyone not waving at the workers in a cooldown lap should be DQ'ed on principle.</TD></TR></TABLE>

In the ICSCC (the sanctioning body I race with) novice program, if you do not wave to your corner workers on cool down, they are to write down your car # and forward the info to the novice license director......he will not upgrade you to ARR (area road race license) if you don't wave and thank the corner workers.

Absolutely rude to not give a wave to someone who is out there in the pouring rain, blistering sun and everything inbetween....just to save your friggin life.

Also, to move on from the Novice program you need to work corners, pregrid, and tech inspection for at least 1/2 a day each.

Corner workers are a funny "breed" of people....man they love motorsports! Try taking a day to volunteer on a corner....chances are you will have a great time, learn something, and probably hear some great jokes too!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jisu009 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Try taking a day to volunteer on a corner....chances are you will have a great time, learn something, and probably hear some great jokes too!
</TD></TR></TABLE>

One thing you learn working a corner is the right line. When you stand there focusing on the cars especially with the yellow flag you are trying to anticipate who is going to screw up and lose it while trying to memorize car numbers as they go by so you can call it in to race control (because race control is going to want to know which car did what even though it lost it at 100mph going away from you and 50 yards down the track). When you watch a few thousand apexes in the same corner you see down to the inch where the fast drivers are placing there cars. At Roebling Road last month I worked the same station for two days, turn 3. It was very consistent where the fast line is. When I go to drive there hopefully later in the year, I will know that line through that section. (I last drove there in 1982!).

Corner workers are a different breed. I have met some great and very knowledgable people in F&C. About two Petit Lemans ago I was part of a seven person team working turn 3 at Road Atlanta (it takes a lot of workers per corner when it is a 13 hour day-10hour race). Most of the people on my corner had decades of experience. When it was over I was moaning about having to drive the 3 hours back to Birmingham at 10pm at night and one of my fellow workers said he had to drive to the airport. I asked him where he was from and he said "Amsterdam"! Well that explained the 24 hours of Lemans corner worker coveralls he was wearing. The guy paid his own way to fly over and work the race. I only had a year of corner working under my belt at the time. The professional of that corner crew was something else. They knew their stuff and I had to up my game working such a busy corner (tough to memorize numbers on that corner) in such a fast race. Try pre-memorizing numbers for cars losing downstream at 100mph in the dark. If any driver could have observed the team work and communication going on amongst that "team" of workers they would have been both impressed and felt "safe" in that corner.

I would recommend to racers that aren't racing a particular weekend but maybe go see a race to observe a friend to sign up and work. You will learn from it, make new friends and gain even more respect for what F&C do. When I go to instruct at various DEs I always look at the corner station on my cool down lap to see if I know any of the corner workers. I usually see folks I know.

I found a good example of why you don't sit down in a hot area.

http://www.elchineroconcepts.com/Porsche%20911.mpg




Barry H.


Modified by apexinghonda at 10:02 AM 5/17/2005


Modified by apexinghonda at 10:37 AM 5/17/2005

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by krbobcat &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So does anyone else feel the need to maybe blame the track here? Nelson Ledges has short commings everywhere else, I wouldn't be surprised if they do in corner worker protection too?


Kevin, who lives 2 hours from Nelson Ledges and hasn't been there in 4 years

.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't think you can blame the track; Nelson Ledges has improved greatly in the last couple years. New asphalt, better bunkers, and they are clearing a lot of trees out of oak tree (turn 4) for visibility and will be moving the tire wall back further from the track. They have good bunkers and they are covered from the rain and sun. On Sunday Morning most of the workers were outside the bunkers to give the drivers a better view of the flags. It seems that this was just a freak accident.


Modified by rex_boy at 9:57 AM 5/17/2005

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDMTYPER &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Wow thats horrible. My prayers go out to his family. Truly sad.</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by krbo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
So does anyone else feel the need to maybe blame the track here? Nelson Ledges has short commings everywhere else, I wouldn't be surprised if they do in corner worker protection too?


Kevin, who lives 2 hours from Nelson Ledges and hasn't been there in 4 years</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't think people should blame the track. Corner workers like drivers accept the track in its condition when they go out. If you don't like what you are being asked to do, then you don't do it. Get in your car and leave. Now if the drivers for some reason were having a hard time seeing the flags from the bunkers that day then I would suggest the track make changes to where the workers can stay in a safer place. I don't know if that is true though.

Barry H.

 

RIP

 

Well, from what I've heard from a close friend who holds the ITC track record there and was at the track as an instructor for this past weekend, this happenned on the backstretch at the "kink". Supposedly the drivers can't see the flags from the bunker so it is standard practice for the workers to be out in front of the bunker a few feet and then they can make a move back towards the bunker for safety if needed.

Just what I heard from someone who has a ton of laps there.

Very sad news, all things considered.

RIP

 

That's terrible.... really sorry to hear that.
I feel bad for the driver who struck him too. He would have to live with that for the rest of his life.