ChampCar driver hits deer while testing & is in critical condition! (1 Viewer)

[BaldyLochs]

Did you guys hear about this? Talk about a freak accident. A deer wanders on to a road course during testing, and the driver is clinging to life in critical condition in a Wisconsin hospital. How sad.

 

[vegasnitro]

Yeah, this happened well over a week ago to former Champ Car champ and F1 driver Christiano Da Matta. Best wishes to the driver affectionately known as "Shorty" for a speedy recovery.

 

[BaldyLochs]

That's incredible. Makes me think - could it happen or has anything like that ever happend in drag racing? The strangest nature-related thing I can recall is a few birds over the years choosing to fly in the wrong path at the wrong time and wound up in pieces in the blower roots or manifold. Guess that's why they call 'em Bird Catchers.

 

[Nazgul]

My fellow open wheel fan Chris Cook is right, this happened over a week ago. Cristiano da Matta drives for RuSPORT in the Champcar series. I'm a big open wheel fan, so I've known about the accident since it happened. A really freak thing, but we are all praying for da Matta. The last I heard during the Grand Prix of Denver yesterday is that he is steadily improving, but still unconscience. Everyone is very optimistic.
da Matta was testing at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. where Champcar will be at the end of Sept. It's ironic because I was and I still am, really looking forward to that particular race, being that it's a road course, not a street course.

Man, don't get me started... I love Champcar & could talk it about for ever right now... esp. since AJ Almindinger (my fav driver) just won his 4th race in Denver yesterday. He's won 4 races since being fired by RuSPORT eairler several months ago.

Back on topic, da Matta was hurt bad and I pray that he'll recover & one day compete again.

"Push Please" (if you watch Champcar or F1 you might know that the phrase refers to Da Matta)... so, Cristiano Push Please!

 

[Jrod]

wow that is horrid...I hope he gets better.

Naz you excited about the vegas race?

 

[Toejam]

I remember about 8-10 years back watching Raceday, they showed what looked like a stick on the Road course. ONce a car got near it it Hooded up! It was a Cobra that got on the Course some how. The very next car blasted it!

 

[Bullard Anderson]

I remember about 8-10 years back watching Raceday, they showed what looked like a stick on the Road course. ONce a car got near it it Hooded up! It was a Cobra that got on the Course some how. The very next car blasted it!

I was working RACEDAY then!

 

[Nazgul]

Wow a Jerrod sighting!

Naz you excited about the vegas race?

To say the least! As soon as I knew they were coming I took off work... actually my boss said she'd mark the calendar cause she knows how passionate (obsessive) I am about racing. I might as well take the month of April off with the (SummitRacing.com Nats) in town around the same time.

Everyone that knows me knows NHRA nationals (& now Champcar) are like National holidays for me.

I wish we had a good permanent road course like Larry H. Miller has in SLC now, but the downtown streets will be better than the oval where they raced a couple years ago.

 

[Nazgul]

I remember about 8-10 years back watching Raceday, they showed what looked like a stick on the Road course. ONce a car got near it it Hooded up! It was a Cobra that got on the Course some how. The very next car blasted it!

Wow, that's crazy Noise! A cobra!

 

[knightrider]

Wow, that's crazy Noise! A cobra!

Showed a cobra at a motorcycle race doing the same thing, with the same results.

 

[Nazgul]

Showed a cobra at a motorcycle race doing the same thing, with the same results.

Guess you have to bring out the safety car for debris on the track at that point. If it's not dead then you radio for someone to run it over again.


When I was a kid we use to see snakes in the street that had been run over and they would still squirm around for what seemed like forever even though they were dead. The old wives tale was that it would continue to move around until sundown.

 

[DrRocket]

I remember Dale Earhardt Sr. lost Daytona once when he hit a seagull with his car and it ruined the nose piece.

 

[Toejam]

A King Cobra can't be all that Badass if they can't defend themselves agains't vehicle's traveling over 100 MPH!

 

[knightrider]

I remember Dale Earhardt Sr. lost Daytona once when he hit a seagull with his car and it ruined the nose piece.

Yea, them damn birds can really mess up a car. Mike waltip lost the left corner qualifying at DAYTONA a few years ago, I think, when he hit one at over 190mph.

 

[Mike]

Michael Waltrip went that FAST??????????

 

[vegasnitro]

I remember Dale Earhardt Sr. lost Daytona once when he hit a seagull with his car and it ruined the nose piece.

One of my all time favorite Dale Earnhardt quotes:

"I have won the Daytona 495 about 10 times now". -1993 After Dale Jarrett got the win and Earnhardt finished second.

How about 1990 when he ran over a piece of debris in turn 3 coming to the chekered flag and Derrike Cope of all people got by to win the 500?

 

[d'kid]

Guess you have to bring out the safety car for debris on the track at that point. If it's not dead then you radio for someone to run it over again.


When I was a kid we use to see snakes in the street that had been run over and they would still squirm around for what seemed like forever even though they were dead. The old wives tale was that it would continue to move around until sundown.

Try running over a python with a truck loaded with forklift batteries and pulling a trailer with a forklift on it, felt like hitting a speed bump at 35mph... and the SOB crawled away into the jungle by the time the truck slowed down.
Subic Bay, RP, spring of '75

 

[Nazgul]

Try running over a python with a truck loaded with forklift batteries and pulling a trailer with a forklift on it, felt like hitting a speed bump at 35mph... and the SOB crawled away into the jungle by the time the truck slowed down.
Subic Bay, RP, spring of '75

Now that must have been a big python!

I wish I had a python (wife won't let me... she'd let me do anything you can think of before she'd let me have a snake within 5 miles of her). I had a "ball python" when I was in the Air Force, ball python's don't get very large... maybe 4 feet at the most (and that might be stretching it---no pun intended). Mine was about 2.5 to 3 feet long, his name was Nico (pronouced: knee-co).

wow... talk about a thread derail. Hopefully da Matta is still improving, I haven't heard anything since Sundays race... I'll have to go surf for the latest info.

 

[Toejam]

Vince, tell her she has a choice, going to the track or a snake???

 

[Don]

Didn't Dick Harrell hit a dog on the top-end in his flopper in 1970 or so?