Cleetus and cars over the weekend. Guy built his burnout machine with the radiator behind him, and pointing right at him. Comments say he was airlifted and currently in the icu.
This is going to fall on the event I'm sure, but it shouldn't. If stupid people do stupid things, its not anyone else's fault.
That's rough. That "send it" mentality needs dialed in. I blame hoonigan (who has recently become more safety aware as well).
If there are two things in a car you need protected from it's the hot water and the killsaw known as the flywheel.
Poor design, no safety equipment, no decent egress. That car should have failed tech, at least to me. But he built it, and he got in it.....
That was a life altering accident. Hopefully infection doesn't kill him before his skin starts to grow back.
Damn, he just got roasted... Hope he's able to keep the infections away and can recover. I remember seeing the hyperfest miata lob parts of it's clutch through the windshield a couple years ago and thinking these things might die down a bit or keep closer tabs on tech.
I don't see that the radiator behind him was the problem. In front or behind the problem was lack of a decent firewall between the driver and hot things.
I don't know what I expected from an event called "Cleetus and Cars" whose logo proudly displays "'Murica", but when I watched through that moment where the driver was clearly screaming in pain as he scrambled to get out of the car (while the crowd cheered him on) I sure didn't feel very well.
That’s one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever watched, I hope the kid makes it through but absolutely life altering injuries.
I don't get this at all. He is burning the tires off the car and then the radiator blows up and boils him. He is wearing a helmet, shorts and a t-shirt. I don't even want to know what kind of vehicle he is in or who built it. He has an audience and it looks like some kind of short track venue.
This is supposed to be some competition??
Who sanctions this stuff?
I would assume that there would be some kind of event insurance required involving safety regulation of some sort, or does the owner of the property or whoever puts the event on just leave himself open for legal action.
Seriously. WTF??
In reply to Snowdoggie :
The owner of the track / event is a popular youtuber, I’m pretty sure the revenue from his channel is what bought the abandoned track property. Its difficult to say whether any thought / logic really was applied to the legal and business aspects of running an event but I’m sure those lessons are being learned the hard way now. No one has had a harder lesson than that kid in the video, I hope he survives.
11GTCS said:In reply to Snowdoggie :
The owner of the track / event is a popular youtuber, I’m pretty sure the revenue from his channel is what bought the abandoned track property. Its difficult to say whether any thought / logic really was applied to the legal and business aspects of running an event but I’m sure those lessons are being learned the hard way now. No one has had a harder lesson than that kid in the video, I hope he survives.
well the dude did at least a year in law school so he should know at least a little bit about that sort of thing.
Stampie (FS) said:I don't see that the radiator behind him was the problem. In front or behind the problem was lack of a decent firewall between the driver and hot things.
True, but had it been in front he likely would not have had a full body spray like that. Maybe extremities?
I hesitate to say it, but it feels the most fitting "If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough"
Not that it would prevent that kind of injury (Hot water) but I am amazed the number of people I encounter at Trackdays and Autox who question why I wear a full SFI race suit/shoes in my MG.
Similarly I'm amazed the number of people that will hop into a Mod class car or a caged track car in shorts and T-shirt and go do racecar things.
There is this whole let's go do crazy automotive things in am unsafe way trend going around on youtube that needs to stop. You can still have fun but wear gear and build cars with the minimum nod to safety.
You also see it a lot with people riding golf karts and screwing around with them.
Hope the dude recovers. Mistakes and bad judgement shouldn't be a life sentence. They are sometimes unfortunately.
Honestly , probably has insurance for just this thing. And the owner of that car is gonna rethink his actions next time he builds a car.
I guess I'm just used to SCCA sanctioned stuff with safety stewards.
I'm not even sure that is a burnout when the tire is gone and the metal is grinding on the track.
If the guy who puts on the events owns the track then there isn't a track owner who can set insurance requirements. He can do what ever he wants, but it's obvious there were no sort of safety requirements for the car. I guess it's all fun and games until somebody gets killed. I also noticed a go fund me site for the guy's medical bills. Looks like he may not have had any kind of health insurance. Sheesh.
You wonder why racing is expensive? This E36 M3 is why. Ignorant people allow others do dumb stuff and get themselves or others hurt.
I hope the kid recovers, but damn there's a lot people that need to think about all of the decisions that led to this point.
Snowdoggie said:I guess I'm just used to SCCA sanctioned stuff with safety stewards.
I'm not even sure that is a burnout when the tire is gone and the metal is grinding on the track.
If the guy who puts on the events owns the track then there isn't a track owner who can set insurance requirements. He can do what ever he wants, but it's obvious there were no sort of safety requirements for the car. I guess it's all fun and games until somebody gets killed. I also noticed a go fund me site for the guy's medical bills. Looks like he may not have had any kind of health insurance. Sheesh.
Well, even if he did have Health Insurance (I'll try to avoid the obvious flounder here), they often will not cover injuries that occur at Motorsports events, especially if you're a participant. They also can choose to deny coverage and only cover certain percentages of procedures. I'll just leave it there.
I don't want to be a downer and I like the old Top Gear but watching them and Chris Harris and now every youtuber doing on-track videos at speed with no helmet on has been making me uncomfortable for years.
Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:Snowdoggie said:I guess I'm just used to SCCA sanctioned stuff with safety stewards.
I'm not even sure that is a burnout when the tire is gone and the metal is grinding on the track.
If the guy who puts on the events owns the track then there isn't a track owner who can set insurance requirements. He can do what ever he wants, but it's obvious there were no sort of safety requirements for the car. I guess it's all fun and games until somebody gets killed. I also noticed a go fund me site for the guy's medical bills. Looks like he may not have had any kind of health insurance. Sheesh.
Well, even if he did have Health Insurance (I'll try to avoid the obvious flounder here), they often will not cover injuries that occur at Motorsports events, especially if you're a participant. They also can choose to deny coverage and only cover certain percentages of procedures. I'll just leave it there.
If the guy had some kind of insurance the insurance company could also go after the event organizer for payment. It's called subrogation. Just another way the organizer left himself open. What law school did he go to again?
I wish I hadn't watched. That was awful.
lnlogauge said:This is going to fall on the event I'm sure, but it shouldn't. If stupid people do stupid things, its not anyone else's fault.
There should be tech to fail cars like that.
There should be safety rules to protect spectators and passengers (like protective gear).
This event appears to encourage stupidity and a lack of safety and they should absolutely be held partially responsible.
Edit: berkeley that was hard to watch when E36 M3 went wrong, even for the split second before I closed the window. I hope the driver makes the best recovery possible.
nocones said:Not that it would prevent that kind of injury (Hot water) but I am amazed the number of people I encounter at Trackdays and Autox who question why I wear a full SFI race suit/shoes in my MG.
Similarly I'm amazed the number of people that will hop into a Mod class car or a caged track car in shorts and T-shirt and go do racecar things.
There is this whole let's go do crazy automotive things in am unsafe way trend going around on youtube that needs to stop. You can still have fun but wear gear and build cars with the minimum nod to safety.
You also see it a lot with people riding golf karts and screwing around with them.
Hope the dude recovers. Mistakes and bad judgement shouldn't be a life sentence. They are sometimes unfortunately.
That's one of the few problems I had with Roadkill, especially in the earlier episodes. There were a lot of times I cringed when I saw they weren't wearing helmets, or when they were doing things that were incredibly jarring, but not even wearing neck braces.
Regarding the video above, I really hope he comes out of it okay, but it definitely reinforces my notion of taking safety seriously.
I've watched "Cleetus" (Garrett) on YouTube since the beginning when he was just an employee at 1320 Video. He is often a "safety 3rd" person, if at all. Back when he first built "Leroy" the c5 Vette cart he got failed at tech at so many places including LS Fest before he got help and got up top snuff (ish). Even recently he's had expired belts in a 7-second/180+ MPH car and crashed a car at his own track with no helmet. His safety program for his burnout competitions pale in comparison to the Australians, and watching literally any of them let you know that it was only a matter of time before someone got seriously injured. There's no tech, safety consists of "wearing a helmet" (often open faced), and the "safety" crew members are dudes in t-shirts. Australian events have fully suited firefighters.
All that said... The car builder/driver really should have had a firewall on his "death cart" (there is a reason they are called that) and wore his own PPE/racing suit. I am gutted for him and his family and I hope he recovers quickly. I can't even imagine what they are going through.
Hopefully everyone takes away from this that safety is important, and you can always choose to be safer than the standard.
I had the upper rad hose blow off an engine test stand once while I was breaking in an engine.
I got scalded from my armpit all the way down the side to my belt. It was not enjoyable watching the kid trying to get out of the car. You could see him twitching in pain and unable to get free. I know that dance all too well. No thank you.
Why does all the crazy E36 M3 happen in Florida?
You'll need to log in to post.
