WOW, really?
First, it is amazing to me that you can watch a video and from across the country determine the course was unsafe. A multi-time national SCCA champion set it up, over 780 runs were made in 6 hours, and suddenly, with one incident, it should have never happened?
Second, I never, in the thread you mentioned, said courses or cars were unsafe. I started a thread, to get people involved in how we could improve things. We have gone, in 6 years from static car shows to full on road racing in our cars. Some say we don't need roll bars, others think we can never do enough to be safe enough and should stop all competition. In my position, I want to be as safe as we can reasonably be without killing the hobby. Once I gleaned all the info I was looking for, I moved the thread, not deleted. Anyone with proper authority can view it.
Third, no one, including myself, ever tried to HIDE the event or the incident. In fact, DSE posted pictures of the car the very next day. I did ask people not to post up video or pictures of the car until DSE had the chance to tell the story as they saw fit. After they did, the story pretty much died until this thread, and just as I suspected, keyboard warriors have gone from the facts about the wreck to their own speculation about how they would have done things different, how this was just horrible and blah, blah, blah when in fact they are just running their mouth about something they don't know what they are talking about. And yes, this is the very thing that some unknowing insurance agent could read and have issue with. In my case, my people knew about it that afternoon. Total damage was hurt front end on camaro and one dead tree (6 inches around) and one broken 4x4 post.
Fourth, new safety measures are in store for all the event I do next year, however, none are based on this incident. This was a freak deal, as most racing incidents are, and I am not sure what could have been done different to prevent it. However, if it did have to happen, I am thankful it happened to a car and team that is probably the most prepared and safety conscious team out there. A true testament to that is that Stacy walked away and never missed a beat the rest of the weekend.
If we are going to do anything other than sit at a static car show, these things will happen. To learn from it is what we should be striving to do and do better next time. To want videos, pictures and countless Monday Morning Quarterbacks out there to sensationalize something way out of proportion serves no good purpose.
If you like events and want them to continue, move on. If you want to jeopardize them, keep posting opinions in threads like this.
I agree with Mark about self inspections and think anyone serious enough to push their car to it's limits should be also. However, I am amazed when I see cars that don't even have the battery secure show up to autocross???? The trouble is Mark has forgot more about car safety and proper maintenance than most of us will ever learn. So until everyone thinks like him, we will have to do more than take their word about their car if they are planning on running it at an event.
If anyone wants to discuss this with me further, PM, email me at
[email protected] or call me @ 865.850.8228. I have nothing to hide but I refuse to discuss it further in this format.