I was just about to post on some teams' heroic repair sessions and show some fender-to-fender racing action, but then the thing we all fear happened: the Volvo 242 Turbo in Gulf Oil colors hit the wall, hard, and the driver was injured. They've had to cut the roof off the car and now they're extricating the driver; we'll let you know more when we hear about it. For now, pray to whatever gods, cosmic forces, etc. you can think of that this brave-ass racer comes out of it OK.
Suddenly, Racing Is Not Fun Any More
7:00 PM on Sat May 10 2008
By Murilee Martin
10,897 views
44 comments













Comments
According to that other site ohms posted, life flight came, circled around, and left.
SHIT! That good or bad?
That car looks good as a convertible. Here's hoping the driver gets to enjoy the new look of his Volvo.
Man that sucks. Lets hope he's ok.
@TexanIdiot25: Other site says it is a fatality now.
for the sake of decorum for any future posts, that same board is now claiming its a fatality.
heartbreaking.
[rbp.f0e.net]
@ohms: That forum is impossible to navigate.....so the driver really did die? :(
unfortunately. =(
try
rbp.f0e.net/forum.php
should be an easy to read msg board, newest posts appear at the top.
Wow.
How horrific.
A very solemn and tragic turn of events for what began as a light-hearted endeavor. My heartfelt condolences to all in attendance and to the deceased's loved ones.
Fuck.
@ohms: Oh, no wonder....for some reason, the main body of each post wasn't showing up in Opera, just the title -- works in IE though.
@Adamskiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiy: Or....maybe not.
@Adamskiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiy: Imagine that you are reading a series of text messages. That's all that they are typing/texting are those short phrases.
@Novaload: If you click on them, you are responding to the message and it determines where your comment would appear in the thread/under a comment as opposed to new comment.
So what you read there is all that's being said. It's very telegraphic.
They said life flight left, empty, and there were tarps around the car.
Wow.
I hope someone made a mistake.
:(
I just asked that board where the driver is--surely an ambulance has come? I'll let you know if they answer back. Apparently at least one or two are right there trackside.
Wow...looking for a fun altamount and I see this. Very sad...heart goes out to the driver's family and friends.
We're starting a new thread in a moment.
Their guy, Don, at track site confirms it is a fatality and was announced as such, but they have no details on what happened.
Terrible news. Any motorsport comes with the risk of fatality, but as a friend of mine is a prospective Lemons competitor, I can't help but feel wretched.
My husband is at the track and he said he heard no announcement about a fatality, but otherwise confirms what has been written so far.
Does anyone know if this is the first fatality at a 24 hours of LeMons event?
Damn.
Been checking that other board, updates pretty quickly.
Thoughts and prayers and all that.
Someone else already said it, but there are certainly worse ways to go.
Can we assume the race is on hold or canceled?
@Mad_Science:
Seems that it is just on hold. Didn't they say "meet back tomorrow"?
RIP
†
@Mad_Science: @AustinMiniMan: check the post that I just published -- has what we know as of now.
How very sad.
I am wondering if the driver had a heart attack or something.
My thoughts and prayers go out to a track in Altamont right now, as well as to the families involved here.
@Ray Wert: You guys sure took a long time getting that up. It doesn't exactly say anything not already said here. Although that graffic is quite fancy.
The guy on the board said the cops are there now, car wrapped in tarp and ambulance still. One witness said no brakes seen, like he just went full bore into the wall.
@Ray Wert: Yeah, so obviously it's a tricky, tragic scene, but from the outside we're wondering whatever info you can give us as it becomes available.
@TheGuinnessTooth: Our publishing tool kinda sucks.
@Mad_Science: Check out that new post -- we'll update as we get more info.
Birds gotta fly.
Hoons will always tempt the Fates.
Little things give us a crack to wedge our fingernails into.
But there is no such thing as safety.
No one gets out alive.
The swift knows the joy of freedom.
Who would deny it the life of hazard it pursues?
Mercifully quick, the falcon strikes.
The spirit of inventiveness and adventure flies also in us.
Our existence would be small and forlorn without it.
Salutations on the death of a friend.

">+ Watch video
Just got back from the track. The four of us, getting sunburned and just picking which car to watch at that particular moment and then it happened rather quietly. Just sounded like your average fender-bender. We were in the top row with the flag tower between us and the apex. I saw him coning in fast below us out the corner of my eye and turned my eyes to see him jump over the apex and hit the wall just to the driver's side of square-on. It reminded me of seeing big E's crash at Daytona. Didn't look like much at first, but the lack of anything under the front-left corner of the hood afterward showed that it in fact was a bigger deal.
Wasn't in the gas and wasn't in the brakes, it was that quiet.
Seems like either the fluid boiled, or the pads faded. The only other things that could make sense were if he was overheated and losing his edge, already unconcious, or it was just too quick of an oh-sh*t moment to react. It was REALLY quick.
Earlier on, almost all of the rear-wheel drive cars were spinning in that turn, but everybody seemed to get over it. That said, even if he had the wheels turned, they would not have gripped enough to turn the car to a safer incident angle at the speed he was going.
We knew it did not look good when my wife noticed the 15-on, 2-off cpr motions of the rescuers even before the roof was cut off. It must have gone on for over 20 minutes.
The slow procession of the rescue vehicles leaving the scene pretty much summed it up.
@DoctorNine: Thanks. I needed that!
Seems hard to belive, the car hardly looks damaged.
@Novaload: Yeah, me too.
From the team at car 39 we thank you for all of the prayers. Unfortunatly Court Summerfield did die. At this time the initial reports show he probalby blacked out or died before hitting the wall, his wife who was left behind is taking it as well as she can and our team is still trying to cope as best we can it still seems like a bad dream. Thanks again for the thoughts and prayers!! RIP Court hope there's racing where your at now...
oh shit
On Sunday morning I got walked out to the track to retrieve a tire lost in the infield on Saturday. The track guy who escorted me told me what he knew of the crash. I am not certain if he was at the scene.
The track guys were first on-scene (I don't know how quick? a minute or two?).
He told me:
He said Court was already blue when they arrived at the car.
The "puff of smoke" was the extinguisher going off upon impact.
The seat lifted and distorted the floor pan, presumably from the energy of the impact.
I (and we) didn't know Court. This was our first race ever, and first LeMons (but not the last). Clearly he was well-loved by everyone who knew him, and everyone we met made us feel welcome, so he must have been as great a guy as everyone says. We miss him before we knew him.
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