Tragedy Strikes at Summit Point

[tug296]

Very sorry to hear this, prayers for his family, friends and all involved.
Chaplain 220 is right, these tracks are sacred ground.

[weggieman]

R.I.P Alex.

My sincere condolences to the Lyskawa family.

[Cowboy 6]

Well said Art.
My heart goes out to Bruce and his wife. Foolish hobby indeed.  I would have given my right arm for my father to have supported something I loved to do like Bruce did for Alex.
I am sure many of you out there feel the same.  It is not about what Alex was doing but how he was doing it. How it was a family project.  Too many parents are too involved with work and worshiping the dollar instead of being involved with their family and worshiping God.
Somehow I think the world would be a much better place if it were filled with more fathers like Bruce than if it were filled with the other type...

[George_Linhart]

Wow - I have no words that can express how I feel.  Thank you to Art for such a touching  and insightful post.

Rest in peace buddy.  Prayers for the family, friends and racers from the entire Linhart family.

George Linhart

[musikkant]

I can only echo what BamBam and Art has said.  Rest in peace, Alex, and my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family, as well as with the other riders involved in this tragic accident.  Peace be unto you.

please dont forget everyone else involved in this tragic racing accident. everyone involved in that crash will be affected forever. the other riders involved will have to live everyday reliving every thing that happened trying to think of something that could have been done differently to change the outcome. the fact is that they cant and they will have to live with that forever. they will need our prayers as well as this will be a life changing series of events for some of them.

rest in peace and Godspeed Alex

to everyone else please find a friend that you can talk to at length and repeatedly to help you through this terrible time of recovery and healing that you too must face.

[svpoppop587]

The loss of Alex will be felt for many years to come.  I never had the pleasure of meeting him but it is evident from all of the respectful and loving posts that he was a great person.  I can not even begin to understand what the loss of a child is to a parent but it is important to lean on your friends and your faith.  May God give you the strength to live each day knowing that Alex will always be in your hearts as well as the rest of the racing community.  You will be in my prayers.

[kl3640]

i can't agree more Travis, i was going around a slow rider during the second practice in the carousel and he got scared and turned out into me standing me up straight into the wall in 6. now i have 4 broken bones in my left foot. that is the end of my season. lets see if they can put any more people on the track.  I have never seen so many accidents in practice. but at least ccs made money.

Condolences, RIP A.L.  All such losses are horrible tragedies, but those of our youngest seem to be particularly poignant in their affect on us all.

I think that the other consideration besides # of bikes on the track has to be types of bikes and average demographics of their riders.  If smaller bikes tend to attract smaller riders, then mixing them on a track simultaneously with big heavy bikes carrying heavier riders should be evaluated for any causal correlation with multi-bike accidents and accident damage severity, the latter regardless of whether or not there is any correlation found between multi-class events and amount of inter-class multi-bike incidents.  In fact, the factors that correlate to damage severity should be further correlated to the various classes (for both machines and riders), and any correlation to increased accident damage severity in multi-bike inter-class incidents would indicate the need for a change in the rules governing the co-location of disparate classes on the grid.

I speak anecdotally here (having only 1 year of exposure to club racing, with a 7 month hiatus in the middle), but between this latest tragedy, the Connor LaFrance tragedy, and Rory Partin (the latter seemingly an outlier given the absence of class disparity between the accident's constituents, from what I understand), this seems to be a recrudescence of a previously remiss type of crash consequence.  If there are any lessons that can be gleaned from this horrible string of tragedies, that if used to implement change might abate this despicable trend, then I'm certain that CCS and other club racing sanctioning bodies will take that learning, evaluate its utility, and apply it to the rules to make participation in this sport safer for all involved.

[n2racing6]

Big bikes, small bikes. Does not make a lot of difference. One of our veteran riders was badly injured (ended his racing) when he was struck by a F4 (80cc rs125) after a high side. If you take a solid front end shot you are going to get seriously hurt, does not matter what the size of the bike.

[Chris410]

While useful and insightful, perhaps a different discussion could be created for the various topics and keep this one on track for the rider, his family, and everyone involved.

[naya the dingo]

While useful and insightful, perhaps a different discussion could be created for the various topics and keep this one on track for the rider, his family, and everyone involved.

+1

My condolences to all involved, especially the Lyskawa family. 

[kl3640]

Big bikes, small bikes. Does not make a lot of difference. One of our veteran riders was badly injured (ended his racing) when he was struck by a F4 (80cc rs125) after a high side. If you take a solid front end shot you are going to get seriously hurt, does not matter what the size of the bike.

I disagree, as I do not think that such an assessment can be made anecdotally; however, as someone else suggested in another post, perhaps this thread should focus on the rider, his family, and the other directly affected parties, rather than the debate of these safety issues.

My apologies for my part in any diversion of the focus from the rider and his family and friends.

Again, RIP Alex.  My sincerest condolences to Alex's family and friends.

[2old2fat2slow]

I am deeply touched by the outpouring of sympathy and love from this racing community. I would like to know what the rest of you racers and race families think about this idea. How about the CCS / ASRA event on or around the Memorial day weekend being known as the Alex  Lyskawa Memorial event? From everything I have read about this young man,he was a pretty outstanding individual and touched a lot of lives in his short stay with us. What better way to preserve his memory  than to commemorate an event in his honor ? Just a thought and I would be interested to know if anyone else thinks it would be a possibility. God bless and I will continue to pray for his family.