The Wreck Of All Wrecks
 

Go to www.pbase.com/atrltd/image/46317466 to see the wreck of all wrecks.

Holy shit...there are probably some very pissed off owners and even more pissed off insurance agents! I'm sure the restoration people are salivating :)

Crikey!

Any injuries (other than financial hemorrhage)?

What a shame, hopefully no serious injuries. Every year we have the Wine Country Classic here at infineon, and every year I see a piece of history vanish. On the otherhand, these cars were made to race, but to die(the car that is) in the hot pit....

It's only a bunch of domestics.
What's the big deal? :D


-Ted

Looks like what some of the drivers here in CA would do on the freeway. I looked at the pic after reading the posts and thought it was racecars from around the 1920’s or 1930’s you guys were talking about. The 60’s muscle cars are nice but it would be a shame if they were like old Ferrari’s and Bugotti’s.

LOL

Is that a real cobra, the body seems to be metal and not fiberglass. If it is, than thats one expensive accident.

All of those cars are real race cars, real Cobras, real old Trans-AM camaros, IMSA vettes, and such. The Brian Redman Special, or invitational, or classic, whatever it is, is for historic race cars with race pedigree and history, to come and celebrate the older days of racing, from domestics, to foreigns, etc. That is a very expensive wad up on the straight.
And to Carl, I agree with you, these cars were meant to be raced and half expected to be destroyed at some point, but is still sad to see cars that have such a history pass away, or at best become a restored display.

Cheers,
Travis

Hey, guys, I was there, and in fact am in 2 of the pics. Our car wasn't involved in the wreck. It was on the front straight, just before the start finish line at Road America last weekend at the Brian Redman International Challenge. Only injury was a broken arm. Also, the guy in that A/C cobra I know, and we had his neck in traction until they got him in a collar and on a backboard because a loose wheel came up and smacked him in the back of the helmet, leaving some tire marks and a crack on the helmet (thank god for that roll bar!), but he got x-rayed and CT scanned and came out all good.

Overall, though, everything there was a complete throwaway, 17 cars worth. Estimated at $2.5 million.

EDIT: also, the blue camaro under the flag station I had to use the silver fire extingusher to put out a fire from the oil coming out of the valve covers hitting the header, not much but when flagmen are screaming "FIRE!!!" you kind of overreact, which IMO isn't a bad thing at all in that case.

Oh, and almost forgot, the yellow corvette in the pic against the wall closest to the photographer who took these, he flew past the wreck after it stopped moving, hit two parked cars at racing speed, and spun out into the wall. He'll probably be asked to not come back next year.

thats pretty bad!! I think i remember one worse than that, does anyone remember the train that derailed hauling a bunch of fully restored porsche 356's?. I think there was $20million worth of cars and every single one was tottaled. anyone?

Much more then 2.5 million worth of cars fouled. Sad...

well when u put a bunch of cars that are made to go straight and not stop, thats what u get, non handling ass cars with no brakes..

lol. Cobras are not made to go straight.

Ignorance?

Although, what you say is pretty true these cars are what wrote the book on road racing in America. I'll bet you that any one of those cars would have left many a RX-7 begging for mercy on a road course.

The Race Car Tech section strives for higher standards of intellect.

^ As it should. The Orange mustang was a '70 boss 302 that was pro raced from production in the IMSA series and Trans-Am series. That car was wicked fast. Also, most of those cars do not have the stock suspension on them. Most all mustangs, including ours that was not involved, have a custom made lower control arm that is 1.5x longer than the stock peice and the upper is replaced with a tubular a-arm. This allows for immediate addition of negative camber while cornering. I honestly think that pretty much everyone out there had some different home-brew method of doing the rear axle, though. These cars are made to handle, no questions asked.

Thats pretty horrible.... I think a tear just rolled down my cheek..

Yeah, afterwords it can be a tear jerker, but watching it happen did make my heart skip a beat. I was right on the pit wall in case our driver pulled in, and boy did that scar the sh!t out of me. The white firebird went about 15-20 feet in the air and then landed, ramped up by the back of the yellow corvette convertable under the pig pile. I thought for sure with cars landing on top of each other that somebody would have a compressed spine at least, but no major injuries, thank god, and as a good note, almost everyone in that accident was wearing a HANS device. They definatley work, and a few drivers actually vouched for that and gave quotes for the compmany spokesperson that was at the event. I know I'm sold on that, and intend fully on investing in one when I get a chance. Only $1k installed with tax on any driving helmet you want.

That's cool to hear that everybody was OK, I saw the pics of the crew working to extract those guys and feared the worst.

I've seen a couple of those cars run at Grattan (including the orange Boss) and damn they are fast around a road course.

That kind of restrictor-plate pileup is mighty rare in vintage racing, usually those guys give each other a little space. Someone get red mist syndrome, perhaps?

aparently, as I said before, the pace car let the field get too seperated, so when coming up for the green flag at the top of the hill, the 1st row, who was doing as told, were at 50mph until the green, which was also a late green. This allowed the seperated cars who were at racing speeds at the bottom of the hill on the front straight to just plow over the guys in the rows just over the hill when the green flew. It was basically a fuster cluck caused by bad starters on the tower and a piss-poor pace car who should have been at about 60-70mph with that group and slowed them down coming out of 13a so they were bunched properly for the start, whereas they just flew up on the starting rows just as they were getting the green and didn't see them, as they were just cresting the big hill. I say that the pace car is to blame the most, but the flaggers gave the green too damn late. I don't blame any of the drivers for the wreck itself, but being at the middle of the 4th gear RPM range while coming up for the green is kind of retarded, especially if they botched the start. I'd hate to have seen what it'd look like then...

Finger pointing?
 

So, you are blaming the flaggers and the pace car but then indicating that the incident was caused by the overly aggressive drinving of the cars in mid-pack (before the start). So which one was it?

The postings by one of the pole drivers in that race indicated that the pace car held a good speed, but the field still got spread out. Doesn't seem to be the pace car's problem then. A late green? It happens.

It seems like a lot of little things went wrong resulting in a big accident. Everyone wants to point figures at everyone else, but if they keep doing that, they'll never learn how to avoid it in the future. It's a pity about the cars that got balled up, but everyone walked away from it intact which is a big plus.


-bill

That is scary sad...........seeing all those beautiful cars piled up. Geeeeeez.

lol they are all pist-on so therefore I don't care :p:

Oh damn I was at Infenion raceway(Sears point) the other day and a friend of my fathers told us about this pileup, I didnt expect to actually see the pics! Thats too bad, those are all very nice cars...