The car you’re looking at used to be an Aston Martin V8 Vantage. It was being driven by Ivan Thompson and Karl Francis in the Rally Calder event on the weekend. You can see video of the massive crash after the break.
Be safe knowing both driver and co-driver are okay. Although the co-driver was taken to hospital for x-rays where it was discovered he had a dislocated pelvis, but he was cleared of any neck and spinal injuries.
Thankfully, questions over the use of the concrete barriers are the major outcome of this impact. It could have been much, much worse.
[Thanks to Ryan for the tip]
UPDATE: Photos of the crash can be seen on Joel Strickland’s Facebook page.
The Australian Rally Championship has sent out an official press release and photos of this incident. They have been added below.
Aston Martin Destroyed At Rally Calder
The opening stage of day three of East Coast Bullbars Rally Calder has been marred by a major accident involving the Aston Martin V8 Vantage of Tasmanians Ivan Thompson and Karl Francis.
The half million dollar Aston Martin made heavy contact after sliding wide on wet grass and contacting a concrete barrier at high speed destroying the left hand door of the car.
Co-driver Francis was transferred to a local hospital for precautionary x-rays following the incident and has been diagnosed with a dislocated pelvis but has been cleared of neck, shoulder and spinal injury. Thompson walked away from the accident without injury.
Car owner Dave Thompson is assessing whether or not the car can be repaired for the remaining rounds of the Bosch Australian Rally Championship.
Meanwhile, Steve Shepherd holds the outright lead in the Four Wheel Drive Championship with the final two stages of the event being held this afternoon and Honda drive Eli Evans heads controls the Two Wheel Drive Championship.
15 replies on “This is gonna hurt”
WTF? Why on earth did they have a concrete barrier? If they had a simple plastic one nobody would have been hurt and the car could have probably continued Obviously they need concrete barriers on the edge of the track, but this one looks like it is sticking out like a chicane? . I’ve never been to the venue, so there may be some reason that I can’t see?
Why is that wall there!?!?!?!?!?!
That passenger was soo damn lucky not to be hurt!
Words [almost] fail me!
Never cease to be amazed at some of the stuff you see in allegedly reputable events like this.
Remember the maximum speed event at Eastern Creek some years back?
When we did motorkhana type events on tarmac in Dutton Grand Prix Rallies going to Adelaide,you could just about bet that they’d set up the timing table right where you’d end up if you lost it around the last cone-despite having a area the size of Tasmania to put it safely.
I spent half my Rally making them move stuff to somewhere sensible.
That wall the Aston hit is typical of the stuff that goes on.
Someone needs a major arse-kick for that peice of wall placement.
Just lucky it wasn’t much more serious.
Hope the Aston driver sues them…
Cheers
Len
Can you really sue them?
Surely not… you enter the event knowing full well that you have a chance of crashing and writing the car off… I am sure there is a contract that you have to sign saying damage to the car is not our problem.
????
Hey that looks like my old car. I hope not! 🙁
Before public roads are opened they have to pass a safety audit, not to mention numerous design checks, before the thing is built. It beggars belief that similar measures do not seem to exist for motorsport events such as is.
A chance of crashing is one thing,having a concrete wall in your way if you do [that wasn’t a permanent fixture]is another thing altogether.
Signing a waiver doesn’t let them off the hook for negligence/incompetence etc.
Motorsport is dangerous enough without this sort of thing to contend with as well.
Cheers
Len
If the competitor involved agreed to accept the conditions and layout of the course by entering the course, I don’t see them having any grounds for a lawsuit against the event organisers. The waiver system exists for a good reason, to give promoters a good reason (the threat of competitors withdrawing) to get the danger of their event down to a reasonable risk before the event rather than taking a punt on putting up a good defence in court afterwards.
Letting a US-style litigation culture take hold at sporting events of any kind, motorsport or otherwise, in Australia is not something we want to see. The concept of personal responsibility is something we must not allow to die.
@Dave, normally I would agree with your sentiments, but this isn’t an “honest” mistake. The concrete barrier defies all logic. If they wanted cars to take a makeshift “chicane”, a concrete material is not my idea of a logical choice. How many motorsport classes would have a concrete chicane? I can’t think of any…
I’ve been to race tracks around Australia, some major tracks, others like Broadford which are nothing more than an oversized go-kart track, and never have I seen a concrete wall chicane.
Dave, I’ve competed in a few of such events. Problem is, you don’t know what the layout of the events look like before you start each event, let alone what barriers they use.
Bottom line is somebody was injured and somebody could have been killed. A car was trahsed. Why.? A plastic barrier (like they use in every other rally I have ever been in) would have served the same purpose from a competitive point of view.
Yeah when I was at the WRC in NSW a few years back now they used hay bails for chacaines in the power stages…
far out that was very lucky that no one was injured seriously! Concrete. Idiots
lucky that the initial contact was with the plastic barrier, then the concrete one, or else passenger may have been fatally wounded.
off topic, who would rally an aston martin though?
Same people that do it with lambos Ferrari amgs…