Andrew Palmer and Jorge de la Torre accident and recovery discussion, Pirelli World Challenge

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sk8er913

sk8er913

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Sk8er913
This is the place to discuss the horrific crash that happened between the Bentley driven by Andrew Palmer, and Aston Martin, driven by Jorge de la Torres. May both drivers have a full recovery. :(
 
LumpiestFish
Is there any footage of the accident at all? Not meaning to sound a bit morbid,must I'd like to see what actually happened.
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I'm not sure that posting it would be allowed, would it?

EDIT: Definitely not;

Andrew Palmer and Jorge De La Torre have been airlifted to Hartford Hospital following a massive accident in warmup for this afternoon’s Pirelli World Challenge round at Lime Rock Park.

Palmer’s No. 87 Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3 made heavy contact with a a stationary No. 4 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 of De la Torre in the Turn 1 runoff.

Eyewitness reports indicate that Palmer’s car catapulted over the Aston Martin upon impact and flew into the air before coming to rest in a wooded area, past several tire barriers.

The cause of the accident is unknown, although de la Torre’s car had stopped in the runoff area prior to Palmer’s arrival, at nearly full speed.

It took more than 20 minutes to extricate Palmer from the car.

Both drivers were initially transported by ambulance to Sharon Hospital, and per a track representative, have since been airlifted to Hartford Hospital, a Level 1 trauma center.

Their conditions have not been disclosed.
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LumpiestFish
Is there any footage of the accident at all? Not meaning to sound a bit morbid,must I'd like to see what actually happened.
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TenEightyOne
I'm not sure that posting it would be allowed, would it?

EDIT: Definitely not;
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I haven't been able to find footage anyway, any curious souls might just have to wait for it to surface.

Though, what I (and probably others) would like, while staying within the rules too, would be a description of what went on in the crash. Like why was there a stationary car on track?
 
Carbonox
Though, what I (and probably others) would like, while staying within the rules too, would be a description of what went on in the crash. Like why was there a stationary car on track?
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I posted a description above. It says nothing about a stationary car on track.
 
TenEightyOne
I posted a description above. It says nothing about a stationary car on track.
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"Palmer’s No. 87 Bentley Team Absolute Bentley Continental GT3 made heavy contact with a a stationary No. 4 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 of De la Torre in the Turn 1 runoff."

Not within track limits, I guess, but it still sounds more hazardous than things should be on normal practice conditions.
 
Carbonox
Though, what I (and probably others) would like, while staying within the rules too, would be a description of what went on in the crash. Like why was there a stationary car on track?
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TenEightyOne
I posted a description above. It says nothing about a stationary car on track.
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It sounds very much like De La Torre spun onto the runoff area and Palmer ran wide slightly and collected him. De La Torre's injuries (broken bones) make it sound like it was a blunt side impact, Palmer's head injury is unspecified but I'd presume since the conditions for cockpit intrusion are so slim it'd more likely be an effect of the rapid deceleration - hitting a stationary car at full tilt doesn't offer much in the way of energy dissipation.

It's rare to see such serious injuries in modern GT racing, so it seems like a very unfortunate series of events that ended badly on both sides.
 
Cannot say for sure as I've not seen any video of this crash, but it sounds quite like the 2015(?) Daytona 24 Hours crash where the one Ferrari GT car lost power and was slowly rolling on the left side of the track in between turns 2/3 when it got slammed by the DP car, who was trying to pass someone and didn't see it.

Driver of the Daytona Prototype was Memo Gidley if memory serves, not sure on the Ferrari driver.

Edit: Ferrari driver was Matteo Mallucelli thank you @Furinkazen
 
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FireEmblem10
Cannot say for sure as I've not seen any video of this crash, but it sounds quite like the 2015(?) Daytona 24 Hours crash where the one Ferrari GT car lost power and was slowly rolling on the left side of the track in between turns 2/3 when it got slammed by the DP car, who was trying to pass someone and didn't see it.

Driver of the Daytona Prototype was Memo Gidley if memory serves, not sure on the Ferrari driver.
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Matteo Mallucelli.
 
Would pictures of the cars damage after the wreck be against AUP? Because that could tell most of the story about the impact points. It is rare for such injuries, so what part of the car was impacted?
 
prisonermonkeys
Am I the only one who is confused as to how we can have a discussion about an accident that we know nothing about?
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The Jules Bianchi crash had a discussion thread posted almost immediately. When I heard about this accident and saw no threads on the topic the next day I decided that they deserved there own thread too. So far we do know a few things though. We have the official statements from Aston Martin and Bentley. And we know that they crashed because one of them stopped on the run off area in turn 1.
 
sk8er913
The Jules Bianchi crash had a discussion thread posted almost immediately. When I heard about this accident and saw no threads on the topic the next day I decided that they deserved there own thread too. So far we do know a few things though. We have the official statements from Aston Martin and Bentley. And we know that they crashed because one of them stopped on the run off area in turn 1.
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No it didn't. It was discussed in the thread for the race, which became the discussion thread for Bianchi later on.

This was also being discussed in the GT thread.
 
GTPorsche
No it didn't. It was discussed in the thread for the race, which became the discussion thread for Bianchi later on.

This was also being discussed in the GT thread.
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I don't often come on the motorsport section. I searched PWC and Pirelli World Challenge. And I didn't find anything on the first page, so I thought it wasn't being discussed. Thank you for pointing out that thread.
 
sk8er913
So far we do know a few things though. We have the official statements from Aston Martin and Bentley. And we know that they crashed because one of them stopped on the run off area in turn 1.
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So we know that there was a crash, which may or may not be like a previous crash that was extensively discussed.
 
I was at Limerock all weekend and was hanging out with officials at a party on saturday night. I was not at the track when the accident occurred during practice but was staying across the street and heard ambulances leaving the track with sirens wailing...very unusual so we knew something was up. The crash was a crazy and horribly ill timed coincidence. The Aston Martin had taken the escape road at the end of the straight at Lime Rock. He was either executing a "u turn" or was immobile in the middle of the escape road when the Bentley came screaming off the straightaway and down the escape road. He was reported to be at FULL speed, no braking, and with a possibly stuck throttle. No current explanation but he appeared to be at full throttle with no braking when he came down escape road and hit the Aston pretty close to broadsides. The Bentley launched, got major airborne and cleared the barrier into a wooded area. The crash was not visible to most spectators as it was way down the escape road. Only those sitting in one small section of the outfield could see it. A smoke plume was seen rising from the woods. Full course red and emergency crews on scene for at least 20 minutes before ambulances left. I was told that both drivers were pinned in cars but that Palmer was especially hard to get out and car had to be dismantled and cut. Cars came out of the area fully tarped over on flatbeads. This together with a two hour delay in race program and what was clearly an investigation by the State Police led to rampant rumors at the track that one or both drivers had perished. We now know that this was not true.life flite helicopters picked up the two injured drivers at the tiny regional hospital in Sharon and airlifted them to a bigger facility in Hartford CT where they are still hospitalized. The two cars were taken out of the track to the garage facilities of Skip Barber racing (owner of Lime Rock) and are under tarps in garage bays there. Still no answers to why the Bentley came off the straight away at full throttle with no braking observed.
 
Well its been 2 days since we were supposed to expect news, and still silence. :grumpy: I wish they would give us an update.
 
sk8er913
Well its been 2 days since we were supposed to expect news, and still silence. :grumpy: I wish they would give us an update.
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I thought the update was that both drivers are still being monitored in hospital? In Palmer's case particularly, I guess no news is good news.
 
There were reports that an update would come out yesterday.

I don't see how that's been two days. The families and the drivers are entitled to their privacy. It's not really any of our business on how they're doing currently.
 
GTPorsche
There were reports that an update would come out yesterday.

I don't see how that's been two days. The families and the drivers are entitled to their privacy. It's not really any of our business on how they're doing currently.
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It was posted on Tuesday evening, that it would be later that evening (Tuesday) or tomorrow (Wednesday) ... today is now friday.
 

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