Rite Aidan & Co.

Horrible crash. It happened during an F3000 race in Donnington around 1990. IIRC the drivers were Allan McNish and Emanuele Naspetti. They were both OK but a spectator was killed. He's the guy in the yellow jacket who gets hit by the detached engine from McNish's car. Not nice.

Unfortunately, it won't load for me but if it's the video I think it is (and it sounds like it is from Kali and BrianD3's description) then, yes, it's Allan McNish's F3000 crash at Donington Park in 1990 where, sadly, a spectactor was killed. Even though it won't load for me on that site, I have seen the video of it on the telly in the past. Even though it's very rare to see repeat showings of crashes where somebody is killed or severly injured (Senna's crash is a good example. I've only seen that repeated about three times on television in the past 11 years since that dreadful weekend), I have seen that clip a few times in the past on TV.

Read an interview with McNish somewhere last year where he told how he attended the funeral of the spectator killed and his family came up to him and told him that they didn't hold him responsible in any way for what happened and not to blame himself but, despite this, he explained how it was a crash which not only took him a long time to get over but which still haunts him to this day.

Where are the moderators? :rolleyes:

Post a link to that Zanardi pic is one thing, just flat out posting it is another :mad:

Curran wrote:

Stomoch churning.....hell yeah.....and Greg Moores crash in the Indy series a few years back! Not nice!
If ya dare to look

Think I'll pass, Curran. I watched it live on Eurosport and it's something I'd prefer not to see again, to be honest.

I remember watching the CART doctor being interviewed not long afterwards and making the announcement that Moore had died and just seeing the reaction of the crowd and the members of the various teams was terrible. They then said a prayer, the American flags around the track were lowered to half-mast and the decision was made to let the other drivers race on and not be told what had happened until after the race. When they came into the pits after the race and were informed of Greg's death, the shock on their faces was terrible to see. You could see the tears welling up in the eyes of some of the drivers, especially Adrian Fernandez who won that race, if I recall correctly, and Dario Franchitti, who was one of Greg's best friends. Such a sad and terrible event to witness. To see it live, well, that made it all the worse.

Will never forget watching Ayrton Senna's crash live as well and the immediate aftermath either. I can still remember Murray Walker's sombre voice as he described the scene and still tried to remain hopefull that Senna would pull through. Not long after he had been airlifted to hospital, the unconfirmed, conflicting reports started to come through on 'Grandstand'; that he was alive but in a coma, that he was brain dead, etc.; but nobody fully believed them, including myself, because, first of all, this was the Italian media the reports were coming from and they were notorious for being unreliable and sensationalistic at times and, secondly, because nobody truly wanted to admit to themselves that this driver who seemed invincible could be dead. But then a couple of hours later, Steve Ryder, who was presenting the coverage from Imola that day, came on to report that Senna had officially been declared dead. I will never, ever forget that moment.

Curran wrote:

Didnt take long for me to source it in the end

Car malfunctions and shoots off in different direction - Crazy how he survives

That's Jimmie Johnson in the NASCAR Busch series at Watkins Glen, NY. Not exactly sure of the year, 2000 or 2001 i think

BrianD3 wrote:

But there have been some miraculous survivals too eg Zanardi.....

I remember his crash at Spa in '93 in the Lotus. Horrific. He came through Eau Rouge, the car got away from him, he slammed into the Armco barrier which was right up alongside the track at that time (there was no run-off there at that time. Needless to say, it was changed for next year after Alex's crash), there was a brief flash of flame and all four corners of the car were torn off and the car, or what was left of it, just went spinning around and around and around at high speed on it's floor like a spinning top, spun across to the other side of the track and went into the barriers there. How the guy survived, I will never know. Then to add insult to injury, the other cars which were coming through were being waved by the marshalls to slow down as they threaded through the wreckage of Zanardi's car only for Senna to approach at nearly full speed, see what had happened, tried to slow down in time, spun and crashed into the barrier right beside Zanardi's parked wreck. Lucky he didn't end up going into Zanardi's car as well or hitting the marshalls.

aidan_dunne wrote:

Will never forget watching Ayrton Senna's crash live as well and the immediate aftermath either. I can still remember Murray Walker's sombre voice as he described the scene and still tried to remain hopefull that Senna would pull through. Not long after he had been airlifted to hospital, the unconfirmed, conflicting reports started to come through on 'Grandstand'; that he was alive but in a coma, that he was brain dead, etc.; but nobody fully believed them, including myself, because, first of all, this was the Italian media the reports were coming from and they were notorious for being unreliable and sensationalistic at times and, secondly, because nobody truly wanted to admit to themselves that this driver who seemed invincible could be dead. But then a couple of hours later, Steve Ryder, who was presenting the coverage from Imola that day, came on to report that Senna had officially been declared dead. I will never, ever forget that moment.

I'm the same, the memories of that day are burned into my memory and will never leave me as long as I live. I remember watching the race after the restart and anxiously waiting for news of Senna's condition to come through. When the news did come, it was that he had "grave" head injuries. I knew then that he was gone. Later on that evening after the race finished it was announced that he was clinically dead.

One other thing I remember - the next day in school, there were a lot of pr1cks making a laugh out of the whole thing and taunting anyone known to be a motor racing fan. Appalling :mad: