Alex Locker???

[twilkinson3]

Glad to hear you are (mostly) in one piece Alex, we heard the chopper coming that day and knew something was pretty bad.

Talked to one of the gents that went down after you in the oil that evening - basically said the apex at T2 was where he lost it and he ended up sitting in the middle of the track at the entrance to T3....

[supercarl]

A few days back I wasn't interested in seeing video of the crash, but after hearing more about it I want to see it.  I think Kurt is trying to dig some up. 

I hope they have a banquet because I will attend.  The only way I would win class is if Erdmann does not race the last 2 SS races and I certainly don't expect nor want him to do that.  He has proven that this in not a game of just outright speed and has been very consistent. 

Thanks for the pics too.  My 3 yr old instantly said "I want to go on that".  I decided not to explain how to get a ride on one. 

Now my words of advice. 

Bite the bullet and spend the dough on gear.  One Ortho Dr. could not believe my Tibia was fractured without totally destroying my ankle.  He said in almost all cases where my fracture was they go together.  Alpinestars Supertech R likely saved me a bunch of pain and cash. 

If you remove any single component from the equation it could have resulted in much more serious injuries.

Finally, good old Blackhawk Farms Turn 2.  We all think about it and we all say "won't happen to me".  At least that's what I though until the oil which seems to be the number one cause for crashes there.  I purpose a ramp built right before the armco that shoots the rider and bike into a giant safety net then they fall into one of those gymnastics pits filled with foam blocks.  This would not disturb any of the wetlands and would make for some great flying action shots. 

Cool I hope to see you at the banquet. I'm sure you'll at least podium in a few classes. I also nominate you for the crash of the year award. Ive never been to a banquet before, but if they don't have this award they need to start it this year!

No problem on the pics. Hopefully this was a one time only whirly bird ride.

+1 on good gear too! I have A-star stuff and I love it. Great crash protection as you unwillingly helped prove. Spending more money on good gear = saving more money on hospital visits.

+1000000000000 on the turn 2 ramp/net/foam pit idea! Safe for racers and more enjoyable for spectators. I'll even put down an initial $20 spot for the Alex Locker Racing Ramp Safety System. Dig deep CCS racers! If enough of us donate we can have this brilliant, industry changing, system implemented on turn 2!!

[blueracerX]

+1 on the ramp/foam pit idea!

Alex, I posted a clip to youtube of the aftermath. It has a short clip in real time (red flag pace) then I slowed it to 10% to make it easier to pause for details. You can see the oil trail in T2.


Tad, I was glad I could help you out Saturday night. Maybe one good thing about bone chips vs gravel in your arm is less risk of infection from dirty gravel. Either way, that sucks a lot.

Kurt

[alocker]

Thanks Kurt.

You really get a good sense of how close that wall is when the Airfence isnt perfectly in line.  Imagine if someone crashed right behind me and and rolled into the spot of airfence I already cleared! 

[blueracerX]

Should air fences blow apart like that?

Alex, it's hard to see in the video, but I remember going by thinking that the tires were all messed up too. I can't imagine a second bike hitting there without the air fence and all the tires in the right place.

I noticed later that there was a bunch of clearing done behind the T2 wall as it was dozed down to dirt. Is the track getting ready to move that all back?

[Falco]

For what is worth.  I heard that the wall in T2 will be removed after this season.  Don't quote me but that is what I have heard.  It is all approved already I was told.

[tadgralewski]

Hey all - after watching the video, and seeing supercarl's response, I'm back to thinking that I was the first through.  If you look in the video, the heap of metal that was my R6 is pretty far away from the air fence - it's 1/3 of the way to turn 3.  In turn 3 is bike # 76.  That's the bike that I saw coming towards me after I stopped rolling, causing me to jump over the armco to get out of the line of fire.

I am going with supercarl's theory that there was a second bike that hit the air fence.  When the EMTs arrived, I went over to the air fence area and leaned against the armco with Alex.  There was a big enough gap in the air fence for both of us to have plenty of room to stand there.  Then I remember the following:

One of the cornerworkers pulled back part of the air fence, and there was a bike sitting on top of part of the air fence - if I'm not mistaken, there is a top half and a bottom half to the air fence and this bike (I assume it was Alex's) was sandwiched in between.  Take that with a grain of salt, as I was in shock at the time.

In the video, there is a second bike that is clearly laying on it's side in the grass in front of the air fence.  The cornerworker directed the other workers to "pull the rest of the air fence back to make sure nobody else is stuck back there."  Nobody was.

By my count, that's 5 bikes - can we get a role call:

818 - Tad - ended up beyond the air fence towards turn 3
144 - Alex - ended up in the air fence
76 - ended up in turn 3 after riding it out through the grass
Green bike - unknown number - on the inside of turn 2
Mystery bike, laying on it's side by the air fence.  If this person confirms, then I think we know what happened, and this would help me rest a little easier.  If I did hit the air fence, then I'm not remembering things correctly.

Thanks also to everyone for talking through this.  I won't speak for anyone else, but it's helping me put a little closure on the event - or maybe it's the control freak in me just wanting to make sure I know what happened.  Either way, thanks for the discourse.

Tad
#818

[Nolan1000]

Hey guys I was right behind Alex when he went down. As soon as I saw him tuck I stood it up a bit. I felt a little wobble from where the oil was and before I knew it I was in the grass. I had a hard time slowing it down in the grass and ended up laying it down and sliding onto the track in T3. From what I was able to piece together from two other friends involved was the first bike was an R6 that high sided. I assume that was bike 818. The next bike was my friend Jeremy on 513. He witnessed the high side happening and stood it up into the grass and remained upright. Another friend Jeff on 219 low sided on the oil and slid up the track toward T3. He was the green bike on the left. I think there was another bike that went down but I'm not sure who it was.  Then Alex followed by me. I'm glad everybody is ok. That was some scary shit.

So to review bikes involved as far as I know:
818 Tad
513 Jeremy
219 Jeff
454 Alex
79 Nolan
??? possibly one more bike
??? bike that laid the oil down

I'll tell Jeff and Jeremy to post up what they saw to help piece it all together.

[j_fuggin_t]

well.. i must say i'm glad that alex is ok, last year a group of friends got hurt in a deja vu type accident.

This was my view.. Jeremy, myself & my buddy mike were all out in a train just doing laps, on my second lap i remember the guy standing in 4 on the wall with his bike (gsxr w/ stars on the tail). I thought nothing of it and we just kept on moving, get down the front straight and the red r6 pits out, the whole group stayed at speed & once the red bike was past the kink in 2 he highsided pretty bad, pieces flying everywhere, Jeremy somehow picked the straight through the grass line and avoided the guy & bike, i chose the normal line through 2 and stayed at speed & planned on throwing an arm up in 3 because i knew the session would be red flagged, no sooner than i turned in i was on the deck, somehow my bike kept the direction of the turn and didn't slide into the wall, i was sliding forward towards turn 3 and somehow spun around only to watch alex slam the airfence/wall & i also caught a group of bikes heading straight towards me, i was thinking to myself i really hope none of those guys hit what i hit, next came Nolan flying through the grass & i finally stopped sliding, as soon as the 4 bikes passed me and none other were coming i jumped up and ran to the grass on the left only to see that nolan's bike was on track and he was getting up, he picked up his bike and rode off as did i, i stopped at the corner station and told him something was on track and that i knew it for sure because i didn't touch a single lever, control etc..

I'm extremely thankful to be unharmed w/o even a bruise from this as turn 2 crashes at blackhawk don't normally end well. They are removing alot of trees over there ( i gave them some hillbilly tips on how to get rid of a stump ;)  ) but i believe its long overdue

[supercarl]

Thanks for the video post Kurt! Good footage to confirm a few things about the crash. I also saw the clearing behind 2 and was wondering the same thing myself. Hopefully they do get rid of that wall. It would be much safer.

Tad- I agree with you. You must have gone down and not hit the wall while some other bike hit it. Nolan's roll call post seems like it has every bike associated with the crash. the "??? posibly one more bike" I'm sure his the 2nd guy I saw hit the wall. Not sure of his name/number though. Also unsure of the name/number of the blown up bike, but i know a couple people at the track know who he was. If we can get confirmation on those two bikes I think we'll have a pretty detailed account of what happened.

So to try and sum it up one more time...

818 Tad - Highsided after turn two into the grass. Really messed up Red R6. First crash I believe.
513 Jeremy - Went wide on the exit of 2 into the grass. Rode it out. No crash
79 Nolan - Slipped on oil and went wide on the exit of 2. Crashed in grass and slid into enterance of 3.
219 Jeff - Low sided in 2 and slid to the left side of the track
454 Alex - Major highside and hit the wall in turn 2. Airflighted out.
??? Unk bike 1 - Believed to have crashed into turn 2 wall behind Alex
??? Unk bike 2 - laid the oil down to cause crash. Pulled off into left hand turn before 5. Think its called 4b. Was told he was pitted accross from the silo on the straight. or around that area somewhere.

Is that everyone and the general consensus of what happened so far?

[George_Linhart]

This is a great example of why I don't like BHF.  There are enough risks in racing, there are just too many places on that track where the walls are too darn close. Air fence does not eliminate the problem.

George

[j_fuggin_t]

Thanks for the video post Kurt! Good footage to confirm a few things about the crash. I also saw the clearing behind 2 and was wondering the same thing myself. Hopefully they do get rid of that wall. It would be much safer.

Tad- I agree with you. You must have gone down and not hit the wall while some other bike hit it. Nolan's roll call post seems like it has every bike associated with the crash. the "??? posibly one more bike" I'm sure his the 2nd guy I saw hit the wall. Not sure of his name/number though. Also unsure of the name/number of the blown up bike, but i know a couple people at the track know who he was. If we can get confirmation on those two bikes I think we'll have a pretty detailed account of what happened.

So to try and sum it up one more time...

818 Tad - Highsided after turn two into the grass. Really messed up Red R6. First crash I believe.
513 Jeremy - Went wide on the exit of 2 into the grass. Rode it out. No crash
79 Nolan - Slipped on oil and went wide on the exit of 2. Crashed in grass and slid into enterance of 3.
219 Jeff - Low sided in 2 and slid to the left side of the track
454 Alex - Major highside and hit the wall in turn 2. Airflighted out.
??? Unk bike 1 - Believed to have crashed into turn 2 wall behind Alex
??? Unk bike 2 - laid the oil down to cause crash. Pulled off into left hand turn before 5. Think its called 4b. Was told he was pitted accross from the silo on the straight. or around that area somewhere.

Is that everyone and the general consensus of what happened so far?

I thought 5 ppl crashed as well, but i was told 4 by a ccs official, i new that the order of crash was this
#1: 818 (Tadd)
#2: 219 (myself)
#3: 454 (alex)
#4: 79 (Nolan)

I wasn't aware of anyone else, but i could be wrong