Does a driver have to die at Turn 8 in Adelaide?

Another track-side tracheotomy was performed today at Adelaide, after the Fujitsu 'feeder series' driver Ashley Cooper had a severe accident at the notorious turn 8.

This was the scene of Mika Hakkinens near death crash in the 1995 Formula 1 GP.

Cooper now, is in a critical state in Adelaide hospital.

Race organisers have now said, no changes will be made to the track as it meets FIA and CAMS specs, until after the enquiry into his crash is complete.

Is this a joke? Every year there is a major crash at this corner, and surely, something needs to be done about this corner.

What has to happen before the race organisers wake up to themselves?

Its not teh same corner as Hakk's accident. Correct me if im wrong anyone, but i dont think they use that layout any more. Its a faster kink further down the straight now.

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yes, correct



anyway, extremely sad news and i really hope he pulls through

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X (@ed24f1)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2008 11:36AM by SchueyFan.

Its not that bad a corner, its just fast. So i dont see what the turn 8 rubbish you are trying to pull. If you want that pulled then evert corner above 220kph should be removed from every track they visit.

I hope cooper gets better, it really was a hard impact.

yes, there have been several crashes over the past 5 or so years at that corner (when it was modified to a fast sweeper) but luckily there have been no serious incidents until now.

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X (@ed24f1)

Yea sorry my mistake, about the corner, but it is the same type of corner.

Im not saying im against corners over 220kph, thats stupid.

The problem is the type of corner, it has a little kerb on the apex, and once drivers touch that it throws them to the outside of a 200 kph corner with no run off.

Awesome to see the ford drivers take each other out :D

Huge shunt. Lucky not to get collected aswell. Wishing him a speedy recovery.

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yes, they had 290 000 over four days this year, surely they can get some SAFER barriers in for next year.

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X (@ed24f1)

What's needed is many rows of tyres a la Ascari chicane at Monza, decent run-off like they had back in the F1 days, and if worst comes to the worst, a proper slow chicane half-way down that straight.

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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.

Cooper has died in hospital from his injuries. RIP.

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RIP Ashley Cooper.

About the safety of the circuit, there have been many crashes at Turn 8 with it as a sweeper and a slower curbed corner, if tires are added imo that would make the corner worse in terms of safety when a crash occurs as it will catapult the cars back into oncoming traffic (check out the V8 Ute race crash (

)) and that will make things a whole lot more dangerous.

RIP

[>WHAT21A<] Wrote:
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> RIP Ashley Cooper.
>
> About the safety of the circuit, there have been
> many crashes at Turn 8 with it as a sweeper and a
> slower curbed corner, if tires are added imo that
> would make the corner worse in terms of safety
> when a crash occurs as it will catapult the cars
> back into oncoming traffic (check out the V8 Ute
> race crash
> (

)) and
> that will make things a whole lot more dangerous.


RIP.

IF there are rows of tyres with the barriers as they are, then yes, I agree, it's a bad idea. If they moved the barriers back 10 or 20 metres, or even 5 metres, and had several rows of tyres, then it's not such a bad idea.

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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.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2008 07:22PM by turkey_machine.

This is a street circuit, it's not always possible to just move things. What is behind that wall?

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So sad to read this, RIP

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DaveEllis Wrote:
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> This is a street circuit, it's not always possible
> to just move things. What is behind that wall?


According to Google Earth, there's trees lining the cross-road junction on the outside, but it's not hard to either move the turn further inside, or add run-off on the continuing road.

In all honesty, I think it'd be safer to use the full circuit.

---

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.

DaveEllis Wrote:
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> This is a street circuit, it's not always possible
> to just move things. What is behind that wall?


Nothing I dont think. Dequetteville Tce has 6 lanes and as far as I know there is plenty of room for the barrier to be extended further out. I havent seen the crash but my understanding is he clipped the inside armco rail and that fired him into the oposite wall. Maybe they should remove that inside railing to prevent any similar occurances. The corner does comply with all FIA safety requirements though.

Turkey_machine, I read somewhere they'll be using the grand prix circuit from 2009. Not sure what they'll do about Brewery bend whether they'll use the chicane as they did for the F1 or retain the super fast sweeper currently in place at turn 8...

Ashley Cooper, RIP.

That's good news, but they shouldn't make it that fast because it's inviting a fatal accident like Coopers.

However, it's not just the circuits though. They (V8 Supercars and the feeder series) could learn a lot from NASCAR about car and driver safety. I was amazed while watching the 2008 Daytona 500 the lengths the governing body will go to to make the car structuraly sound on the sides, and the cockpits. It's like an enclosed single-seater.

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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.

Red_Bull Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Turkey_machine, I read somewhere they'll be using
> the grand prix circuit from 2009. Not sure what
> they'll do about Brewery bend whether they'll use
> the chicane as they did for the F1 or retain the
> super fast sweeper currently in place at turn 8...
>
>
> Ashley Cooper, RIP.


Bit hard when that bend wont even be there, i am sure they will chicane it, otherwise they will reach speeds of 290kph like at bathurst