Rick Gurolnick and I were having a wonderful race. More wonderful for
him than for me, because I was chasing but couldn't pass him -- he's too
good.
As we came through the hairpin we were lapping the rear of the field,
and as we were about to pass the red Turner driven by Steve Garrett, it
suddenly reared up and rolled twice. Joe's pictures capture it well, and
our in-car camera (and Steve's) should provide good documentation on
what happened.
When I pulled off I could see that the driver was not moving and was
slumped over, and Tony is right -- perception of time is all screwed up
at a time like this. When I stopped I could see him in my rearview
mirror and I couldn't comprehend why it was taking the workers so long
to get to him. It then seemed that it took me several minutes to get
out of my belts. When I got to Steve he was just coming to, I kept him
from moving hes head, and about a half hour later the emergency guys got
there. Of course, the whole sequence of events really took less than two
minutes.
Steve called me yesterday and is fine except for the broken wrist. His
doctors and wife didn't think he should drive a race car for a couple of
weeks. Steve is a very experienced driver in a variety of cars. He has
no idea what caused the rollover. He got just a little sideways, like we
all do from time to time, and he said it felt like his left front tire
suddenly gripped and the car then rolled. We'll have to see what it
looks like on the tape. His Turner can probably be rebuilt.
I'm having some second thoughts about the whole sequence of events
myself. I couldn't get out of my gear fast enough because my (new)
gloves have Velcro straps on the back that I can't grip with my fingers
in the gloves, and my (new) belts have little Velcro hold-down straps on
the buckles. I think they are all going to be snipped off. I also should
have grabbed my extinguisher, and I should have found his master shutoff
switch -- but all that is really important is that Steve is okay.
--
uncle jack - red, white, and New Blue
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