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Triangle Members,
As you may have heard by now, there was an incident during our Driver’s Ed event yesterday at Carolina Motorsports Park that resulted in a fatality. The vehicle in which Tom Norby was instructing went off track and impacted a tree. Fire/Rescue and EMT responded immediately, however Tom died of his injuries at the scene.
Tom was a Carolinas Region PCA member and served as a Driver's Ed Instructor, having completed the PCA National Driver's Education Instructor training. He was 58.
As you may have heard by now, there was an incident during our Driver’s Ed event yesterday at Carolina Motorsports Park that resulted in a fatality. The vehicle in which Tom Norby was instructing went off track and impacted a tree. Fire/Rescue and EMT responded immediately, however Tom died of his injuries at the scene.
Tom was a Carolinas Region PCA member and served as a Driver's Ed Instructor, having completed the PCA National Driver's Education Instructor training. He was 58.
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I was there at CMP when this crash occurred, my girlfriend was two cars behind the incident when it happened. The car's power/driver skill/safety equipment/corner workers/safety inspections WERE NOT A FACTOR. I'll be honest, I'm a little angry to come back from the track and find this nonsense speculation on how the incident occurred.
A 911 996 had an upper radiator close clamp failure, it was a street car with the stock style spring clamps, and one partially slipped. The driver dumped coolant somewhere around Turn 8, realized he was losing fluids, and immediately drove off line, just like he was supposed to. Unfortunately, there were was a 930 following pretty close behind in the group, it was very cold that morning, and what happened was just unavoidable. Matter of fact, I've driven with the 930 driver before, he's a talented driver, and on this outing he was on his final check ride to move up to the next group. The corner workers did their jobs, the EMTs did their jobs, the 930 was a race prepped car with every piece of safety gear you can imagine. The driver in fact was completely uninjured. As near as we can assume, a tree branch must've penetrated the cockpit.
You need to keep in mind the previous day THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE INCIDENT. Not a single incident report, no car damage, just some mech failures. And that is with high horsepower cars, R comps, all different skills groups, and 28 degree temps in the morning. PCA puts on VERY SAFE events, what happened Sunday was a true freak accident.
I mean honestly, when we started running this weekend, track temps started in the upper 20s. If a fluid hits the track, and you run across that at speed, what are you supposed to do? Let's say Vince hadn't been next line, if my girlfriend had been two cars ahead, she would've hit it instead of him, and gone right off the track too. If Bob's little 914 wasn't so cold natured, he would've been the one in the trees. This is not the first time I've seen a car hit coolant before, when it happens, there just isn't a damn thing you can do, no matter how skilled you are or what car it is. Physics can be cruel.
A 911 996 had an upper radiator close clamp failure, it was a street car with the stock style spring clamps, and one partially slipped. The driver dumped coolant somewhere around Turn 8, realized he was losing fluids, and immediately drove off line, just like he was supposed to. Unfortunately, there were was a 930 following pretty close behind in the group, it was very cold that morning, and what happened was just unavoidable. Matter of fact, I've driven with the 930 driver before, he's a talented driver, and on this outing he was on his final check ride to move up to the next group. The corner workers did their jobs, the EMTs did their jobs, the 930 was a race prepped car with every piece of safety gear you can imagine. The driver in fact was completely uninjured. As near as we can assume, a tree branch must've penetrated the cockpit.
You need to keep in mind the previous day THERE WAS NOT A SINGLE INCIDENT. Not a single incident report, no car damage, just some mech failures. And that is with high horsepower cars, R comps, all different skills groups, and 28 degree temps in the morning. PCA puts on VERY SAFE events, what happened Sunday was a true freak accident.
I mean honestly, when we started running this weekend, track temps started in the upper 20s. If a fluid hits the track, and you run across that at speed, what are you supposed to do? Let's say Vince hadn't been next line, if my girlfriend had been two cars ahead, she would've hit it instead of him, and gone right off the track too. If Bob's little 914 wasn't so cold natured, he would've been the one in the trees. This is not the first time I've seen a car hit coolant before, when it happens, there just isn't a damn thing you can do, no matter how skilled you are or what car it is. Physics can be cruel.
So sad...
Richard
