15 year old died in an accident at a local race track

Sad news.

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=GS&Date=20140323&Category=MULTIMEDIA0301&ArtNo=323009998&Ref=PH&show=galleries

OCALA -- A 15-year-old girl was injured severely on Saturday while conducting a time trial at Bubba Raceway Park off Gainesville Road north of Ocala.

The teen, whose name has not been released pending a Marion County Sheriff investigation, was driving a race-ready Nissan Sentra at around 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Witnesses reported she was making a second lap toward the north end of the track when she lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a concrete barrier.

This was her first time on the track and she was the only driver on the track when the crash occurred, according to a Marion County Sheriff’s news release.

Witnesses reported further that the teenager was unconscious when racetrack workers and others pulled her from the vehicle.

She was taken to Ocala Regional Medical Center where her condition was stabilized, and then flown by helicopter to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville.

Since this article was posted, she passed away from her injuries.

Very sad news indeed.

If this was her first time on a track and she was the only driver on a track, that sort of suggests she did not have an instructor riding with her. I dont want to armchair quarterback beyond that with so little info. Hopefully enough information comes out to make this a teachable moment and not just end on the words "That's racing."

Saddens me.

The story isn't clear if this was her first time on any track, or the first time on this particular track.

It really was a race prepped car, cage and all. I wasn't sure if it was typical reporting hype and ignorance using buzzwords but they were accurate. Why would someone's first time on a track be in something like this? Lots of small bad decisions all culminated with a horrible outcome, sad for the family and friends involved. Looks like a dirt track too according to Google maps, yikes.

Link to picture of the car post incident. No gore or anything but I didn't hotlink incase people don't care to see it.

http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/lt/lt_cache/thumbnail/300/img/photos/2014/03/23/08/15/BubbaRacewayParkCrash20140322_28.jpg

Lancer007 wrote: Why would someone's first time on a track be in something like this?

That's as tame a circle track car as you could get. Many don't have nearly that much cage or a decent seat like that one appears to have.

:( Around here we usually lose kids racing on dirt bikes or four wheelers and I get to tell myself I'm smarter because my kids will be in a caged racecar. Poor kid.

I don't feel so smart right now. :(

Very sad.

Sad story.

I was shocked when I came from SCCA road course to a local 1/2 mile asphalt oval, it was even NASCAR sanctioned. Safety seemed like an after thought there.

Even if her car passed track tech was her gear up to spec, properly belted in etc. Sounds like somebody dropped the ball there.

Hate to hear this E36 M3. Not 'sposed to happen in this age w/ the best safety equipment available.

RIP

Awful.

There will be more to this story, and I'd bet it will have something to do with fabrication or welding skills. I've seen some things that would make your head spin.

A person should have some basic experience like karts dirt bikes atv etc., before getting into a car on the track and going as fast as they can.

Another thing is to not go faster than you can control the car. I see many who go out there and turn into idiots hammer down and hit 3 things before they lift. Or they are still on the power hard with the wheel cranked way over pushing. You have to keep your wheels under you....

I never went as fast as I could go, I went as fast as the car would and keep the wheels under me.

Given that I would much rather die on a race track, than get creamed by a drunk or shot by a crack head.

In reply to Lancer007:

I'll be honest, that car doesn't look that bad at all (as far of how beat up it is). How awful, my heart goes out to all parties involved, that's going to be rough for a bit.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Awful. There will be more to this story, and I'd bet it will have something to do with fabrication or welding skills. I've seen some things that would make your head spin.

In the picture it looks to me like the cage wasn't padded.

Devastating for the family. Very sad.

Bad news for everyone: the family, the local racers and the racing family at large. There can lots of explanations including fabrication issues, driver error and lack of emphasis on safety but this is why as a SCCA Steward, I was trained that sometimes we have to protect the sport from ourselves. Hopefully the issue will be recognized and resolved so that her death will not be in vain.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Awful. There will be more to this story, and I'd bet it will have something to do with fabrication or welding skills.

The unfortunate truth is it will likely have something to do with litigation.

Lot's of speculation and BS in this thread already. You have no way of knowing what happened.

yeah, something went horribly wrong here. Hopefully it can be figured out and doesn't happen again.

Zomby Woof wrote: Lot's of speculation and BS in this thread already. You have no way of knowing what happened.

I wasn't speculating about anything. In America, when someone dies in an unfortunate turn of events someone usually has to pay an attorney. It's the way we have wired up the system.

My condolences to her family and friends. RIP.

I meant people speculating on what happened.

accordionfolder wrote: In reply to Lancer007: I'll be honest, that car doesn't look that bad at all (as far of how beat up it is). How awful, my heart goes out to all parties involved, that's going to be rough for a bit.

Yes it does look bad - that looks to me like a fairly hard "sudden stop" type of crash. Dale Sr's car looked about like that.

I don't know why everyone is so quick to say somebody is at fault. Racing is dangerous. Period. We can do what we can to mitigate the danger, but it will never totally go away. Just because it was a 15 yo girl doesn't make any more tragic than if it had been a 15 yo boy or a 45 yo father. Anyone who straps themselves or their child into a race car needs to accept this.

I had a conversation with the mother of one of our babysitters about this exact scenario three weeks ago.

Her (the babysitter) father has what I would loosely term as a race team, where he bought a used roller from a guy off eBay and stuffed a big port 383 in it and he is a race car driver. She feels that this qualifies her to drive "Pony Stocks" because "they are slow and you can't get hurt in a slow car."

My response to her, and both of her parents, was IF you really want her to race than have her autocross and rallycross all this year. and after she is competent in basic car control then take her up to a spec wheel to wheel series (either Karts or similar) until she has all of the ability to drive. They scoffed. They picked up a SOHC Neon with a cage that looks like it was made out of black pipe.

Sounds like she and her parents need to read this article.