Legge ‘shaky but OK' after huge Road America smash

Legge ‘shaky but OK' after huge Road America smash



British Champ Car rookie and Crash.Net columnist Katherine Legge walked away from the biggest accident of her career on Sunday at Road America after a possible rear wing failure pitched her off the track and into a series of sickening somersaults.

Legge's accident, which occurred in the closing stages of the Road America Grand Prix, not only robbed the PKV Racing driver of a potential career best finish but also gave her PKV crew a huge repair job to complete before the penultimate round of the series in Surfers Paradise.

Running sixth with less than ten laps remaining around the spectacular but daunting four-mile road course, Legge's car suddenly snapped sideways towards the wall, possibly as a result of a rear wing failure, and then proceeded to tear itself to pieces in a series of frightening barrel rolls.

“I am a bit shaken, but I'm okay…as you can see,” she said after returning from the mandatory trip to the infield care centre. “All my bits are intact, so that just goes to show how strong Champ cars are. It was a big impact, but hopefully everything will be fine for the next race at Surfers Paradise.”

Legge went on to say, “I don't think you are really aware of what is going on when you have a situation like I had. All of a sudden the car just sped up and hit the wall. Then I see the ground and there is dirt coming into the cockpit…and I see the fence…honestly you are thinking what is going to happen next.

“I think I saw parts breaking off all around me. And I think I saw the engine split away because the thing I was thinking about the most was that the car was going to catch fire, which it did. Then when the engine went away and I though okay that's good. To be honest I think I had my eyes closed for lots of it, but it is a bit scary.”

Retaining her sense of humour, Legge concluded by saying, “The only problem I am having now is I banged by knee a little bit against the bulkhead. It is just a bit of bruising which won't look too attractive in my dress at the Atlantic's banquet tonight.”

[rapidshare.de]

&NR

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That corners death if you ask me, but glad to see shes OK. Just goes to show the strength of the casr yet again.

Yeah, she's right: "All my bits are intact, so that just goes to show how strong Champ cars are....."

For a moment in my mind comes back the memories of 1999 Greg Moore's crash ...

Back to basics... I feel like a newbie! hahahahaa!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/2006 07:48PM by damunoz.

1999 actually

sorry, i just remember it VERY VERY well.

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Incredible she walked away from that. I was expecting a few rolls when I read about it, but DAMN that was a big hit. Thank god for modern day safety.

It wasn't a big crash. It was spectacular crash.

The first impact would have been a bit of an "ouch" moment, but other than everything that should have happened did happen. Thumbs up though to the CC safety system, and the safety crew for getting there so fast. As I said in another forum, if that was an IRL car it would have wiped out Wisconsin.

Has anyone come across any good quality photographs of this mishap?

@gav: How do you mean "wiped out Wisconsin"? The track, driver or spectators?

I'm just amazed at the lack of run-off in some of the really quick bits, like the "kink".

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

I think he means an IRL car would have made an attempt at transatlantic travel in the same accident!

I was amazed to see her looking so calm afterwards and with no serious injuries. I think a 160mph or so impact counts as a big one imo, but the car stood up remarkably well.

Possible rear wing failure doesnt sound to me like a strong car

Aero components are suitable to fail, but the strong term we use here is for the cockpit, and the reaction of desintegration of the car in order to slow the impact... and obviously luck...

Back to basics... I feel like a newbie! hahahahaa!!!

The rear wing element came off just before she entered the corner making her a passenger. Luckily she didn't go into the concrete wall nose first.

"@gav: How do you mean "wiped out Wisconsin"? The track, driver or spectators?"

He means that he repeated the experiment in the controlled environment under the same parameters and came to this conclusion.

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damunoz Wrote:
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> Aero components are suitable to fail, but the strong term we use here
> is for the cockpit, and the reaction of desintegration of the car in
> order to slow the impact... and obviously luck...

Yah I know, I was just saying

tripleM Wrote:
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> He means that he repeated the experiment in the controlled environment
> under the same parameters and came to this conclusion.

LOL :D

I mean that IRL cars are so damn unsafe that had it happened to one of them, the driver would be dead and half of America would be wounded. The gearbox would have survived though.

LOL! I totally agree, after watching the crash at the 1995 Indy 500 (the 505). The way the cars just tore themselves apart, including the cockpit, made me wonder why they ever got to that speed... with METHANOL! WTF is with that? I mean, sure, it's probably saver on the crowd, but the drivers usually can't see an invisible flame until it's too late!

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

Stan Fox's accident was terrible and he was lucky to survive but in 1995 it was still CART afaik and not two seperate series.

turkey_machine Wrote:
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> LOL! I totally agree, after watching the crash at the 1995 Indy 500
> (the 505). The way the cars just tore themselves apart, including the
> cockpit, made me wonder why they ever got to that speed... with
> METHANOL! WTF is with that? I mean, sure, it's probably saver on the
> crowd, but the drivers usually can't see an invisible flame until it's
> too late!

Oh, they know all right if they're on fire. As for Stan Fox, it's the problem with carbon fibre. It'll withstand one heavy impact, and then its strength is compromised. It could easily happen in F1 even now. Alex Zanardi's accident would have perhaps been a better example, but I can't see any car standing up to that one. It was plain evil. CART has been remarkably safe over the years. Even in the early 90's heavy impacts usually led to little more than bruising, while in IRL, heavy impact generally means broken back.