WERA death at VIR

[the_weggie_man]

WERA racer Thomas Doherty, 53, of Chapel Hill, NC, died in a crash during LT WT practice at VIR Sunday morning.

Tom is survived by his wife, Pearl, and two children.

Cards, letters may be sent to:

Pearl Doherty
105 Umbrio Ln.
Chapel Hill, NC 27517-8336

God Speed Tom.

Please see www.wera.com for more information.

[stumpy]

Not a good start to the year :'(  

Godspeed Tom.




Stumpy

[oldguy]

And the weekend before, a rider was fatally injured in a crash at Jennings GP in FL at a private track day. Had my son not blown his engine at Jennings, we were going to stop at VIR on the way home for the season opener. I'm afraid if we had and had seen another fatality we would have hung it up on the spot. I'm saddened by both, and the trauma of witnessing the passing of a fellow rider is an emotional drain. Godspeed to them both.

[Bernie]

This has been a tragic few months. :'(

[xseal]

what happened?  Anything we can all learn here?

[the_weggie_man]

My understanding is there were no witnesses. One racer gone and the other had a concussion and can't remember what happened.  Apparently in a section of track though that is not good for passing. Somehow the two bikes tangled with bad results.

[motomadness]

From what I read, wasn't it a practice crash.  I know I have experienced many serious scares during practice session because everyone is not going  at the same pace.

Can we all agree that practice needs to be practice where you should not take too many risks.  Back off, because you don't know and can't expect the person in front of you to be working on the same things.  In fact, most of the deaths I have read about in the past several years have occurs during practice.  

Why does this have to be?

[Love944]

It is such a sad thing. My heart goes out to his family.

[ahastings]

I think they were friends and one was expert and the other novice in lightweight practice they were riding together and both guys were in their 50's so I doubt it was an aggressive passing situation, just an unfortunate accident through the turn 5-6 area.

[cuda]

From what I read, wasn't it a practice crash.  I know I have experienced many serious scares during practice session because everyone is not going  at the same pace.

Can we all agree that practice needs to be practice where you should not take too many risks.  Back off, because you don't know and can't expect the person in front of you to be working on the same things.  In fact, most of the deaths I have read about in the past several years have occurs during practice.  

Why does this have to be?

I know both riders and I knew Tom pretty well as I raced against him.  I can assure you that he did nothing too aggressive or risk taking.  It was not in his nature to do so.  I did not see tha accident and we will never know for sure, but I would bet my bike that it was a totally random event.  Both riders were conservative older guys just out having fun.

[xseal]

As an older guy that is racing for fun, I think that makes me feel more concerned, not less.  

[james-redsv]

As an older guy that is racing for fun, I think that makes me feel more concerned, not less.  

Me too.