This weekend weekend of bad motorsports keeps getting worse. Yesterday, Scott Kalitta. Today, Dino Crescentini, a ten-year veteran of vintage racing, died at Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, when the Wolf Dallara Can-Am car he was driving — a car once owned by Canadian industrialist and Formula One team owner Walter Wolf and driven in the 1977 Can-Am Series by the legendary Canadian Gilles Villeneuve — apparently went sideways at very high speed. Crescentini was participating in a race as part of the 29th International Vintage Racing Festival at the track. Inspector Paul Hamilton of the Durham Regional Police tells us
"...[the driver] was heading northbound from corner six at Mosport. After this corner is a long straightaway and at some point his vehicle became airborne at an extremely high rate of speed and rolled end-over-end. The driver was transported to Bowmanville hospital where he succumbed to his injuries."
An at-the-scene account from tipster John below the jump:
UPDATE: This is NOT the same Dino Crescentini who does SCCA racing. Different guy.
"They haven't officially announced the driver's name, but it is believed to be Dino Crescentini, owner of the vehicle. For those old enough to remember (not me, as I'm only 20), the car he was driving was a Wolf-Dallara Can Am car, formerly driven by Gilles Villeneuve.
At the time of the incident, I was in between stints at Mosport's kart track (located at the end of the straightaway, near where this happened). From our viewpoint, you could see parts of the car in air, as it was apparently barrel rolling towards the corner. The car settled just out of view, in a cloud of dust and smoke. Sad to see a great guy, a great car, a great event, and great day end like this."
[via The Garage Blog, The Star]
Photo Credit: Joe Tobasco @ Flickr