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OK, first off.....the fuel cell didn't split. The car was full of fuel and had some in the fuel filler neck, had that same hit been one lap later, no fire. It was a big hit, he was doing 80-90ish and probably impacted around 60. On bare concrete with a side slap hit, thats big.
Second off, about the marshalls.... I can tell you have never marshalled a race before. The general accepted order of priority on the race course is 1) Ourselves 2) Our fellow marshalls 3) Cars still circulating and 4) Car(s) involved in incident. Fuel was spilled all over the station in the grass and you had fire spreading through the station, at this point its scramble...first to bail out as you see the car coming then to see where the fire is and attack accordingly. At the same time you have the yellow flagger who is warning oncoming traffic while the communicater informs control of the situation. Now if you watch the tape you will see the car ended up center track with driver side FACING traffic. Remember at this time track is still green. In order for the marshall to have intervened he would have had put his back to traffic through fire to assist. That violates rule #1. We cannot do a damned thing if we are hurt ourselves, nor can we get out of the way of an out of control car we can't see. But wait, there is still more. That driver is in a car with a rollcage, HANS, helmet and fire retardant suit. We have leather gloves, cotton clothes and boots. Now who is a more protected position? They did a damned good job with an oh **** situation. Please go out and marshall races for a year to get an idea of what we gotta do, you'll find there is a method to our madness.
Oh, just in case you ask I have been marshalling for 4 1/2 years with my home track being Road Atlanta. I have also worked Kershaw, Barber and Savannah... and in a couple of weeks will be working VIR. I average 25 days at the track/year with last year on corners for 40 days.
Second off, about the marshalls.... I can tell you have never marshalled a race before. The general accepted order of priority on the race course is 1) Ourselves 2) Our fellow marshalls 3) Cars still circulating and 4) Car(s) involved in incident. Fuel was spilled all over the station in the grass and you had fire spreading through the station, at this point its scramble...first to bail out as you see the car coming then to see where the fire is and attack accordingly. At the same time you have the yellow flagger who is warning oncoming traffic while the communicater informs control of the situation. Now if you watch the tape you will see the car ended up center track with driver side FACING traffic. Remember at this time track is still green. In order for the marshall to have intervened he would have had put his back to traffic through fire to assist. That violates rule #1. We cannot do a damned thing if we are hurt ourselves, nor can we get out of the way of an out of control car we can't see. But wait, there is still more. That driver is in a car with a rollcage, HANS, helmet and fire retardant suit. We have leather gloves, cotton clothes and boots. Now who is a more protected position? They did a damned good job with an oh **** situation. Please go out and marshall races for a year to get an idea of what we gotta do, you'll find there is a method to our madness.
Oh, just in case you ask I have been marshalling for 4 1/2 years with my home track being Road Atlanta. I have also worked Kershaw, Barber and Savannah... and in a couple of weeks will be working VIR. I average 25 days at the track/year with last year on corners for 40 days.
