Here's 3 very recent posts from the Solo2 boards:

Posted ByGlenn D on June 20, 2001 at 14:50:28:

This just shows that anything can happen at anytime.(Taken from other site)

This past weekend appears to have been the weekend for tragedies at autox
events...
I attended a local autocross by Central Ky. Region in Lexington, Ky. while
visiting. Great event going, but only 63 drivers. Nearing the end of the
last heat, a Corvette driver had just completed his run, when suddenly he
turned back onto the course, and came idling through pylons, etc. ignoring
course workers and red flags. Several of us saw he wasn't responding, and
helped bring the car to a stop. We opened the door and the driver, mid
50's, was having a heart attack. We dragged him out of the car, onto the
ground after we lost his pulse and it was obvious he had quit breathing. A
Cincy region member began mouth to mouth, and we regained a pulse
momentarily, but lost it again. He continued the mouth to mouth until the
EMT folks arrived. He was prounounced dead at the hopital. Not sure if
this gentleman attended more than local events, and I didn't know him
personally. The doctor at the hospital told Mike Dickerson, RE of CKR, that
we had done all we could do under the circumstances, and that he had
suffered a massive heart attack. A sad situation that was fortunately
limited to only one person. I wondered all the way home, what would have
happened if he had frozen his foot on the accelerator, and headed into the
crowd? We were all pretty lucky, with one exception....

A reply:

Posted ByDanny on June 21, 2001 at 00:51:58:

In Reply to: A sad day at an event.... posted byGlenn D on June 20, 2001 at 14:50:28:

Glenn

This sort of thing happend right here in our own backyard, At a SD event I was at this older gentleman had a heart attach, (I think) he did put his foot on the accelerator, went right through grid and through the chain link fence and crashed into the stadium. When he was pulled from his corvette, he was blue. (not looking to good) I think his son-in-law or son was the one that gave him month to month, not sure, most of the people were pretty up-set over the whole thing, however the whole group of people in SD must have done a great job, becuase I saw that same guy at an event just recently, (watching, not driving).
I guess it just goes to show you, we never really know how lucky we are.

Here's one more autoxer who died at a relatively young age (I think):

Bad news: Passing of a warrior....

I have some sad news to tell you. It pains me to inform you that Richard Takashima (79' Lola SportsRacer) died this AM (5-31-01) from a massive heart attack.
Sorry for the bad news...

Shawn...

 

Too bad. Happens anytime. Once a gentleman passed away while playing tennis together.

 

This is one reason why it's good for people to know CPR.

 

...in terms of intensity. [Let's see how many people read the body of this message!] ;-)

The rush that one receives from driving your car on the edge of control for a minute or so is hard to put into words. For beginners, there's also extremely scary times, like whenever they spin their cars or get bent totally out of shape. I can tell you from first-hand experience that I used to hear my own heart beat pounding in my ears after a spin for my first couple of years! Some people also report forgetting to breathe while they're on course driving, because of the intensity of the activity.

Over time (with experience), the intensity level drops as you get better as a driver and know what to expect when the car breaks loose. These days, I can spin the submarine, have the presense of mind to push in the clutch to avoid stalling the engine, and start right back onto the course as soon as it's stopped. In a panic stop situation on the road last year, my pulse didn't even go up. While others would have been flipping off the other driver in rage, I just waved and went on my way. Last month, I had a deer jump out in front of me on the interstate. Panic? Roll over the car? Nope, just did an emergency lane change around the bugger, and didn't even break a sweat.

My guess is that the guy in question was not in the best of health to begin with, was probably a beginner, and the rush got to him. Of course, this is all speculation on my part. I heard about it on Wednesday night, and it was the reason why I signed off of Yahoo early. I'm still bummed over it. :-(

If you want a case where I do know what happened, I was at an autocross in Albany, NY a few years back. A retired gentleman in an Audi A4 showed up to try his hand at autox for the first time. On his first run, he went off-course. Ditto for his second run. One of the club officers asked if I'd mind taking the guy for a drive through the course on one of my runs, to show him where he was going wrong. Sure, I said! (Insert sadistic laugh here.) As anybody that's ever driven with me on the TTerror ride knows, it's a rush to be in the passenger's seat. Unfortunately for this guy, I was driving my old GTI VR6 at the time, and it was *always* on the verge of rolling over. At the end of the run, he was speechless! After I explained a few things to him, he got out of the car and thanked me for the ride. Here's the bad part. About 20 miniutes later, an ambulance arrived in the paddock, and stopped at his car! The safety steward assured me that it was heat stroke (and not my driving) that required the ambulance, but I have my doubts.

Still, you have to factor in that all competitors are standing out in the sun all day, and are required to run after cones at times. Those that aren't in the best of health are at an obvious risk, just as they would be if they were playing baseball or something in that same physical shape.....

 

What is the intensity level of autoX vs. wheel to wheel? Just curious.

 

9 times out of 10 there is stomach contents to meet the mouth to mouth guy in prolonged CPR. Everyone should carry a mask. Hepatitis B is everywhere. Just my $.02.

 

to breathe - my problem.

My friend (he was "this" close to a nat'l championship many times) can narrate a run to a passenger . . maybe I should try.

Is it the Italians or the Spanish that call an orgasm, "the little death"????

 

It's the French: "Le petit morte."

 

It is silly, but a *lot* of people do forget to breathe!

 

The Lime Rock Park road course in Connecticut is 1.53 miles long, and consists of 6 turns. (The track calls it 7 turns, splitting big bend into two turns in their count.) When I was up there for the Neon Cup races back in 1997, they were running between 58-62 second laps. That boils down to one turn every 10 seconds or so.

At last weekend's SCCA Solo-II National Tour event, the GEEZ printout that I have in my hands says that I made 28 turns on a 61.450 second run, or one turn every 2.19 seconds! Tell me which is more intense???

Of course, many people prefer road courses because of the speeds involved. "Hey, I was doing 130 MPH on the front straight!" I've done a couple of road courses, including a time trial at Lime Rock. For me, the novelty of doing 130 MPH on the front straight wore off in 2 laps. After 5 laps, I felt comfortable adjusting the radio on the front straight. By the end of my first 20-minute practice session, the track seemed as boring as my commute to work every day. I never had the urge to drive another time trial again.

To each his own.....