"And they walked away" Department: Joey Hand's Mid-Ohio adventure
We don't make a practice of showing crash videos for their shock value, but this vidcap of the SPEED Channel broadcast of the Grand American race at Mid-Ohio is worth checking out for a couple of reasons. (Yes, BMW driver Joey Hand walked away from this amazing crash.)
First, the law of unintended consequences. Hand's BMW was lightly tapped by Paul Edwards' Pontiac as Edwards took an optimistic look down the inside as he battled Hand for the GT class lead late in the race. Hand slid to the grass, saved it, and looked set to take a shortcut across the infield when a newly-constructed access road (probably slightly elevated above the grass for drainage) launched his BMW end-over-end across the track.
Second, what a testimony to the remarkable strides in racecar safety. Hand's cockpit roll cage remained completely intact through multiple high-speed impacts, leaving Hand stiff and sore after the incident, but without even a single broken bone.
Read Hand's account of the crash here.
[Source: YouTube] Thanks and a tip o' the helmet to Brad at TheMustangSource.com
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Talis 4:49PM (6/27/2006)
THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME!!!! BEST CRASH EVER!!!
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Source1 4:49PM (6/27/2006)
kewl
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JSFORBES 5:19PM (6/27/2006)
I wonder if he was wearing a HANS device.
That is certainly a very tough car. Was it the roll cage that bore the brunt or the frame itself?
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Ferguson McSqueege 5:22PM (6/27/2006)
Dukes of Hazzard, anyone?
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MSH 5:53PM (6/27/2006)
Yes, the linked article says he was wearing a HANS device. Gave him some trouble getting out of the car with the oil and gas leaking down onto him, but he says without a doubt it saved his life. Thank goodness these are available now.
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ZoomZoomin' 5:55PM (6/27/2006)
Well, I know what the notable highlight of the race will be when I finally watch the race on my Tivo. Incredible.
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carbuzzard 10:17PM (6/27/2006)
Furguson, I thought Dukes also. But there should be a lesson in this to race track developers: If you have apron or run off areas, leave them clear. In this case the approach to the road accross should have been filled. Of course, easy to see that now. But future changes at that track and others should use that as an example.
The energy dissipation effect is interesting. He's lucky he did those eight or however many flips with a number of small impacts that scrubbed speed off (relatively) slowly. It's nothing anyone would want to go through, but it's a lot better than "dissipating" all that kinetic energy in one mighty whump.
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article is wrong 10:32PM (6/27/2006)
I watched the race and the description is just plain wrong.
Hand and Edwards encountered a lapped car while racing for the GT lead. Hand didn't handle the overtaking well and Edwards did. Edwards got a good run on Hand leading into a long (mostly) straight. So Edwards began to pass Hand. Edwards got almost halfway up Hand's side and would almost certainly have completed the pass if Hand had not blocked Edwards (i.e. tried to drive him off the track) at a small turn in the straight.
This is all pretty evident if you watch it. And it is backed up by both driver's accounts and the fact that Edwards was not penalized for the crash. Grand Am has been very strict on drivers lately, since the massive pileups due to aggressive driving began last year (witness Watkins Glen last year). Hand even says he "defended to the inside", code for moving onto someone else's line, which you are not supposed to do (especially after moving the other way first which he had already done).
It is not clear that Edwards did all he could to drop back when he was blocked, it's very possibly he fully intended to express his displeasure for such a blatant block by giving Hand the chrome horn.
I dunno if being in such a dangerous crash and destroying your car (thus putting his team off the track for probably the rest of the year) is a just penalty for blocking (esp. if Edwards assisted by not dropping far enough back on purpose), but when you block like that, you're taking on the risks that go with it.
Sadly, Edwards loses out in two ways. Starting on July 1, the Pontiacs get a smaller restrictor, despite the Porsches noticably leaving them behind on the straights at Phoenix (although the Pontiacs did still win, due to their excellence in high speed corners, which Phoenix had a lot of). So Edwards could have used a first to try to catch up with Liddel/Henzler. But instead, due to Hand's move, Liddel/Henzler got ahead and pulled even farther ahead of Edwards/Collins in the standings.
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James Waltz 5:19PM (7/09/2006)
I've raced karts at Blue Max in Davis, CA with Joey and his dad, Les. I can tell you that Joey doesn't believe in contact for it's own sake and I'm glad he walked away from this one.
He has a long career ahead of him, and I want hom back for more driving instruction.
Mid-Ohio needs to remove that "launch pad" berm.
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