Scariest Cornerworking Incident

[TheHiriser]

In working with motorcycles you're bound to have seen some crazy, wild or scary stuff.

What is the craziest, wildest or scariest thing you've seen while cornerworking?  Or one of each.  I'm going to have to think about mine to narrow down some.

[Kuala76]

There are many...but the one that sticks in my mind the most is when I saw Terrance get run over in turn 5    , or maybe it was my first day as a corner captain when I had a bike come through the chute ON FIRE - opposite side of the track, rider down and not moving - only 5 feet from the blazing bike !! 

~For those who don't know - Terrance did break his neck and had subsequent surgery, but made a full return to racing the very next season.

~The guy with the bike on fire was fine as well, just winded - bike fared okay as well, in fact he ran some more races with the fire damaged plastics 

[Simon]

What is the craziest, wildest or scariest thing you've seen while cornerworking?  Or one of each.  I'm going to have to think about mine to narrow down some.

You've gotta be kidding me....some of the shit thats happened....ok, good point....I need to think about this before I start posting!!!!!

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

Watching Kevin Gordon come out of T5 at BHF into a tank slapper and end up going off into the trees riders left before T6.

Wasnt working for these next 2 incedents.
1. seen a guy tumble own the straight at BHF from the tower to the turn and the 2nd gy involved tumbling about 100'. back in 99.

2. New racer the year before we got the airfence went head on into the tires at T4 after being spooked (what it appeared to me).

[TheHiriser]

Okay so I couldn't narrow it down to one so I chose three.

1) The story I tell all new cornerworkers that get put with me.  My first day on the track after being trained I'm put with Simon in T5 at SP.  Guy comes into view from up the chute flying across the track.  Bike hits the wall, cloud of dust and lose sight of both bike and rider.  Rider comes into view looking like a rag doll and comes to a stop underneath the flag tub.  Simon and I both run over to him crossing the hot track.  The guy was hyperventilating and unconscious.  Pretty damn scary for my first day on the track.  Everything worked out though.  He walked away and I can't remember what injuries if any he sustained.  Needless to say a pretty hard knock to the head.

2)  Captaining T8 and I see a guy tank slap going up the hill.  He ends up high siding and the last thing I see are his feet over his head, still hanging on the bike and it almost looks like he is looking back at me.  I take off running up the hill riders left.  I called into control to let them know there was a situation and asked the people in T9 tub to relay and get no response (T8 is tricky with control, transmissions don't always go through).  Still running I repeat my call to control and T9.  A couple of seconds later I crest the top of the hill to see 5 riders and 4 bikes down.  The captain of T10 called a stoppage just as I was reaching for the mic.  Then I see a rider coming counter race back up the hill.  He had run over the initial guy that high sided.  The fifth bike was in the woods pretty deep.

3)  Guy comes into T1 way hot and goes all the way through the gravel trap and into the woods.  I was working deep T1/2 and was expecting to see a mangled mess.  I see the bike first and after listening hear the guy moaning.  He ended up in a depression out of my line of sight.  He ended up just getting his bell rung.  He later came down to take pictures and I showed him his line through the gravel trap and out the back.  He brought a case of beer to the cornerworker area later as a reward for our efforts.

There are so many more as Simon alluded to and more than likely more to come.  All in all I'm glad all my riders lived to tell about their mishaps and I'm glad I was there to lend a hand when needed.

[fightinflames]

ok i've read enough I'll share a few,  by far the worst incident i have ever seen was in T-6 on the main course at Summit however I'm not going to go into it.  the other one was working T-1 and had a guy lose the front under brakes at about the 2nd brake marker he slide down the middle of the track and his bike went down, hit the dirt jumped back up ,hit the embankment on riders right flipped about 7 or 8 times heading right for my flagger (who at the time was behind the armcoe) the bike ended up destroyed about 4 feet short of the armcoe and the rider was ok. but it was by far a very scary moment. now as for the rest i have way to many to tell so I'll leave it with just those two.

Allen

[Simon]

ok i've read enough I'll share a few,  by far the worst incident i have ever seen was in T-6 on the main course at Summit however I'm not going to go into it. 

Yeah, my worst ones I don't want to share, mainly because I went through them once and don't want to think about them anymore.

One I will share was when me and Chris Astle were working in turn one at Summit. We were all the way against the concrete at the skid pad, probably 100 feet from the track, when a guy went down on the brakes. The bike slid like a rocket into the gravel trap, caught something and went straight up in the air about 30 feet. It was in the air long enough for Chris and me to look at one another, go "Oh Shit!!!" and take off running in opposite directions and then watch the bike land right where we ran from Thats the only time I've seen a bike clear that monster gravel trap.

[castle228]

Yup, Simon, that's one I share all the time.

The other is from last season, Sara's first time ever to the track. We're in the tub in T9, a female racer hi-sided thru the right hander in T8, held on to her bars as she's tossed up over the widescreen. She was in such a position so that the top of her helmet was almost touching the front tire, with she was looking right at the front numbers on her bike. Her bike turned left and she rode directly into the tire wall, with her head being in between the bike and tires, at about 40 mph.

Was one of the scariest incidents I've ever seen.

[P_M]

Does one have to be a cornerworker to post a story?  .. Or are other close in folks allowed to contribute?

[Simon]

Does one have to be a cornerworker to post a story?  .. Or are other close in folks allowed to contribute?

Go ahead, we're not biased. A good story is a good story, after all.

[P_M]

Ok, let's see.. where to start..

1) Earlier this season, at Summit Main, watched a rider highside coming through 9.  For some reason, he deathgripped the bars and was flipped over and through his windshield, then dropped to the track and through the lens I watched as his front wheel ran over his head.  He slid to a stop not ten feet from me and turned out to be just fine. 

2) Last year.  At VIR I was at pit in, shooting the exit of T17/18 - When a rider started a low side slide, saved it then went into a high side.  Rider, sliding off track now as the bike hits the curbing and bounces into the air.  Rider stops bouncing as the bike comes down.. I have a shot in my archives of a bike sliding across the grass.. an arm sticking out from under one side and a boot protruding from under the swingarm on the other side.  Rider was transported.

3) A couple of years ago.  Summit Main, T10.  Rider highsides, the bike behind him was working on a pass and suddenly has the rider he was trying to pass pitched in front of him.  First rider gets broadsided by the second bike at close to the ton.  Second bike and rider go down, pitching the second rider to the blacktop.  Third bike trying to avoid the second bike hits the first bike and is catapulted into the air.  Watched though the lens as it tumbles and bounces with rider three skimming across the gravel trap like a stone on a lake.  The first rider comes to a stop and doesn't move.  The second riders (visible in a blow up of one shot) head just misses getting the spinning rear wheel of bike three in the face shield by about 4 inches. as it passes right over him.. Riders two and three will walk off bruised and sore.  Rider one is transported.

4) Shooting a private event for a specific riders use.  His group is in so I'm sitting in an empty flagging station staying out of the sun to wait for his group to come back out when a rider high sides through the turn I'm sitting at.  He lands hard and rag dolls to about ten feet from me his bike hitting the tires about twenty or so feet down track from me.  Rider doesn't move so I hop the wall screaming and waving my arms to the single flagger working the next station.  I get to the rider and he's still not moving.  I signal to the flagger for the 'bus and this person (not a pro by any stretch of the imagination) is angrily waving at me to get away from the track.  It seemed like minutes going by without the rider answering me and bikes are still whizzing by at pace, me kneeling there with my arms over my head trying to get a flag.. some help.. something..  Rider finally stirs, groans and I try to talk to him while signaling for help.  Person working the flag station is now moving in my direction waving for me to get back over the tires and away from the track.  Then he runs back to his station and pulls the red flag.  Seems one of the riders reported the situation to 'control' and now help was on the way.  Rider would be alright but since he was knocked out for a minute or two .. The EMT's weren't taking chances.  Corner person yelled at me for not running down to tell him what had happened and since I wasn't 'staff' I couldn't be where I was doing what little I did, he threatens to have me ejected from the event.   I almost smacked him.  (as I understand it 'Control' reamed him a new one over his ignoring the "A" sign - and not calling in a down rider)

I really have a lot of respect for you guys out there.. and if I haven't said it enough.. Thanks.. really.. That last story was my scariest, since I was there with a down rider and felt.. well.. useless, frustrated, angry and scared all at the same time.  All I could think about was 'what if it's really serious.. and I can't get anyone to send help and this poor guy'.. well.. you know where I'm going..

[castle228]

That you Peter?