Huge accident at Brian Redman Challenge

[CamarosRus]

Rich Gregory's Email had the following..............

"They can even have “The Big One” in vintage racing. Here are a few pics from the Road America Vintage Races this weekend. There was a huge wreck in Group 6 (Camaros, Vettes, Cobras, Jaguars, etc.) as the pace car exited and the racers came up to the start line. The total carnage was 16 cars which has to be one of the largest wrecks in the history of vintage racing. This was probably more spectacular than anything I have seen in a Nascar event.



Some info about the wreck:

* Colin Comers Trans Am (#31) sitting atop the pile (bent at the firewall). He has owned it for a month or two.



* A good friend, Fritz Schiffmayer’s ’65 AC Cobra is on the bottom of the pile with two cars on top of him. We saw the in-car video from his car…DEVASTATING! ! ! A $250,000 car and all that is salvageable is the trunk deck and the engine. It took paramedics over 15 minutes to get to him and cut him out from under the other cars. His injuries appear to be minimal but you can bet he will be sore (especially at age 71). While being questioned by the paramedics, he said at some point he saw a wheel ‘zip’ past his head…they found tire tread marks on his helmet!



* The British Green ’68 Camaro atop the front of the pile (in front of the #6 car) had the subframe knocked out of it…the entire subframe is laying on the other side of the track!



Luckily there were NO serious injuries reported. Lots of lucky guys and some VERY pricey equipment destroyed."

Rich apparently took home a "best in show" award for his 69 YENKO Camaro........from the Concours at this race event.

Chuck Sharin

[Tenney]

Pretty fierce. Glad they're all okay. Upside to a bent race car is it's likely been bent once or twice before. Value lies in the legend. Again, glad they're all okay.

[Donny Brass]

whoa, anyone read the viewer comments at the bottom of the page ??

Mark 18-Jul-2005 14:06
I ran with this group last summer, and we had about 10-12 wrecks in Group 6 over the course of the weekend. I'll never go back to the BRIC - to race. The cars are all "cheater" setups, with WAY BIG horsepower, and the drivers are way too agressive. Unfortunately, the track officials and the race sponsors do little to discourage the overly dangerous driving. It has been well known for years that Group 6 at the BRIC is a bunch of wild ass, ego manics, driving cheater cars with big stroker engines and no rules racing. I hope no one was injured, but it was bound to happen sooner or later.

[Jeff H]

Wow, that's a shame to see so many vintage race cars get damaged like that. Good to hear there weren't any serious injuries.

[Charley Lillard]

It was Colin's car but he was not hurt.

[Donny Brass]

another post from the Corvette Forum:

Here is a recap from a member that was in the race.
I also read on another site that it was a real Cobra.
Seeing that Trans Am was surprising as you don't see alot of 69 Trans Ams out there. The Boss 302's are more common

those pics make me sick inside, most of them are my friends and our own C/F member BJM AND his father were involved (there is a yellow mid year roadster UNDER the Camaro and BJM is on the outside of the track in a yellow 71 roadster). I was in the second row...we came up the hill as always and as the front row accellerated the starter did NOT throw the flag, the front row let off the gas and I hit my brakes as did the Jag next to me also the third row and fourth row...someone maybe 5 rows back hit the car in front of him and that caused all of this. You are looking at a few million dollars in wrecked cars. I originally blamed the starter but was later told that the blame should go to whoever wasn`t paying attention and hit the car in front of him...I still place alot of blame on the starter and would ONLY ask him "what the hell were you waiting for"?? as it turns out the (novice) race director told ONLY the front row he wanted a 50 mph start.....these cars do not do 50 mph......redvetracr

[Donny Brass]

a racer's veiw of the accident:

YOu are wrong and have NO CLUE what you are talking about. the Cobra was real, the starter was VERY late and in my opinion caused this incident...and how do I know this you might ask...I was in the second row (p3), this all happened behind me due to a rediculiously SLOW start.......................
...redvetracr

PS: and to the rocket scientist "Mark" who wasn`t in the race because the BRIC is full of overly agressive drivers YOU ARE A PU$$Y who doesn`t belong in a race car.....remember they call it RACING not track touring or autocross around cones in a parking lot.it is flat out foot to the floor RACING at 175 mph.