http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/ Autoblog Comments for Racer dies at Altamont 24 Hours of LeMons http://www.autoblog.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.autoblog.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/May 11th 2008 1:18AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/May 11th 2008 1:25AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/May 11th 2008 1:25AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/May 11th 2008 1:48AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/Was looking forward to funny coverage of this one...

How's Cali buddy?]]>May 11th 2008 3:50AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/May 11th 2008 1:56AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/
Life Flight was called out, but once it got to the track, it circled around, and returned back, that's when most assumed it was fatal. Apparently, the cause is seemingly not due to the race. Witnesses state that the car just plowed into the wall at full force, no braking or steering to intervene. Weather or not that means it was an outside health issue, nobody knows at this point, and it I'll leave it at that.

Tomorrow the drivers will return to the track said one of the V8olvo (Jalopnik) drivers, so I'd assume the race will continue on tomorrow.

On a side note to any commenters here that don't know much about the race, it's a grass-roots style race where the car and anything performance orientated is on a strict $500 limit. Things not included are safety equipment like roll cages, tires, brakes, and the like. Tech inspection is very strict about what passes, so please no rickshaw comments about the cars' safety.

God be with the Family, friends, and fellow racers. ]]>May 11th 2008 3:51AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/May 11th 2008 3:52AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/]]>May 11th 2008 4:57AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/
Let's hope the racing continues, and make the race a good one in his honour]]>May 11th 2008 6:57AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/
That is some really scary stuff right there. My buddies and I were in the 24 Hours of LeMons at Flat Rock, MI last year. Worst we had was someone flipping over.

Thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the driver.]]>May 11th 2008 9:06AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/May 11th 2008 9:13AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/May 11th 2008 9:37AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/May 11th 2008 10:17AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/May 11th 2008 11:01AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/May 12th 2008 3:37AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/May 11th 2008 12:34PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/
So I'll be surprised to find out that race tracks suddenly stop allowing private race events to take place because something unpleasant like this happened.

Like Phillip said, there is no scrimping on the safety enhancements of these cars, so to state that it's unsafe to race cars that weren't originally intended as racers is just silly and shows no understanding of the true nature of most people's participation in motorsport.

Add a helmet, cage, harnesses, and full race brakes and tires to any vehicle that's been race-prepped and you have... a race car. Doesn't matter what the original shell started life as.

Additionally, and this is just speculation at this point, but it seems like there may be unrelated health problems that are the cause of this death, the pictures of the front of the car post-crash do not show much damage to the hood - there seems to be at least as much crimp to that hood in the "prior to the crash" action shot so I wonder if the wall did not cause this fatality.

Condolences to the family and teammates.





]]>May 11th 2008 2:18PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/Prior to the crash:
http://cache.jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2008/05/242-Volvo-Gulf-Oil-39.jpg

Hood after the crash:
http://jalopnik.com/photogallery/24HoursLeMonsCrash/1001434232?viewSize=thumb1280x1280]]>May 11th 2008 2:27PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/05/11/report-racer-dies-in-24-hours-of-lemons-crash/]]>May 11th 2008 2:40PM