Categories
MINI Motorsports

MINI All4 crashes out of Dakar

MINI All4 Racing

Word has come through via twitter that the MINI Countryman All4 has crashed out of the 2011 Dakar Rally. Ironically the race-ending incident happened during a test run on the rest day.

Despite suffering technical problems on the first day of racing and dropping to 78th, the MINI had been making good progress since then and had consolidated a top ten outright position.

It’s understood that while driver Guerlain Chicherit was kept under observation following head trauma, he was not hospitalised and no major injury was suffered.

UPDATE: Picture of the crashed MINI added—look at the state of it—courtesy of the Stage 7 Dakar update (see below).

[via MotoringFile]

Categories
Holden Motorsports

Fabian Coulthard’s Bathurst crash from the inside

Fabian Coulthard's Bathurst crash

We’ve already shown you the spectacular footage of Fabian Coulthard’s first lap crash from the 2010 Bathurst race. We’ve even shown you amateur footage captured from the side of the track. Now, Walkinshaw Racing brings us the view from inside the car. It’s an amazing piece of action. Check it out after the break.

Categories
Holden Motorsports

Another look at Fabian Coulthard’s spectacular Bathurst crash

Here’s a couple of new YouTube clips of Fabian Coulthard’s violent crash from lap 1 of the recent Supercheap Auto 1000 at Bathurst. The two clips were recorded by fans from the inside of The Chase and give a good insight into the crowd reaction.

Categories
Red Bull Racing

Adrian Newey hospitalised after Ginetta G50 crash

Adrian Newey

Adrian Newey, full-time F1 technical director for Red Bull Racing and part-time racer, found himself in a spot of bother on the weekend while taking part in a Ginetta G50 race at Snetterton in the UK.

On lap 10 of the 18 lap race Newey was pushed wide by a competitor before suffering reasonably heavy contact on the final corner with Tony Hughes. After the impact Hughes was able to free himself from the car and he appeared okay. Newey, however, was taken to hospital for observation.

Lawrence Tomlinson, Ginetta chairman released the following statement, “Adrian has been taken to a local hospital as a precautionary measure after being clipped by Julien Draper of Barwell Motorsport which caused Tony Hughes of Speedworks to have a side on collision with Newey’s DynoJet car.

“It’s testament to the strength of the G50 roll cage that the car withstood heavy impact and there were no serious injuries.”

A YouTube video of the incident is available below.

[Source: autosport | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

Categories
Lamborghini Motorsports

Lamborghini Super Trofeo driver survives horrific crash at Brno

Super Trofeo crash @ Brno

The driver of this Lamborghini Gallardo competing in a Super Trofeo race in Brno yesterday has survived with relatively minor injuries. Unconfirmed reports suggest the lucky driver escaped with a broken arm and first degree burns to his legs. (See update below.)

Such injuries would usually be cause for concern, but take a look at the series of images after the jump and you will understand just how fortunate this guy is to be alive. It’s a sickening crash. Fortunately the impact happened on the main straight and Czech Republic marshalls and safety officers were quickly on the scene.

As well as the images below you can also see a YouTube clip of the accident. More images can be seen by following the source link.

[Source: foltyn.cz | Thanks to Chris for the tip]

UPDATE: Here is a link to an official statement from the Super Trofeo website. It reads, in part: “The driver of car number 22, Giorgio Bartocci, was taken to hospital following an accident at the start of the first race of the weekend.  He remains in intensive care in hospital in Brno, where his condition is currently stable.”

Categories
MINI Challenge

2010 MINI Challenge – Round 3, Queensland Raceway

2010 MINI Challenge - Australia

At the end of an action packed Round 3 Chris Alajajian still leads the 2010 Australian MINI Challenge. But he didn’t have it all his own way. A qualifying infringement cost Alajajian points and sent him to the back of the grid for Race 1.

Alajajian made good progress in the opening race to finish in sixth place. Defending MINI Challenge champion Paul Stokell crossed the line first, but it was that spectacular accident from Kain Magro that grabbed the headlines and made news clips around the world. Magro’s car rolled seven times, leaping into the crowd on its journey. Amazingly just two spectators suffered minor injuries. Magro also walked away from the crash unscathed.

The second race returned to normal on track action and was won by a fast charging Alajajian. Race 3 was red flagged following Sarah Harvey’s rollover. It happened on the same corner as Magro’s crash the previous day. Despite heavy contact with the tyre wall, Harvey suffered no serious injury. These MINI Challenge racecars are tough little buggers it would seem.

Races 3 and 4 were both won by Alajajian, with Warren Luff and Stokell sharing the podium. In fact, Luff and Stokell finished in the top three placings for all four races over the weekend. Even though Luff didn’t win a race, his consistency and Alajajian’s lost qualifying points ensured Luff claimed the round win. Stokell finished the round in second place and in the process moved up the points table from fifth to second, cutting Alajajian’s overall series lead by four points.

Television highlights, driver quotes and the current championship table can all be seen after the jump.

Categories
Volvo

Crash test dummy

Volvo S60

Sometimes you just shouldn’t get out of bed in the morning. That was probably the conclusion Thomas Broberg, Senior Safety Advisor at Volvo Cars, came to after a demonstration featuring the new S60 saloon went a little bit pear shaped.

Assembled media and onlookers were supposed to see how the svelte looking S60 could avoid a rear end accident thanks to its collision warning system. As you can see from the image above things didn’t quite go to plan. Fortunately there was only a crash test dummy at the wheel of the car at the time of the 35km/h impact.

You can see a video of the incident below and listen to a red-faced Broberg explain what went wrong. If you can speak Swedish you might even understand him. (As of Monday 10 May the video has been removed from YouTube, an animated GIF below shows what happened). Apparently a battery failed causing the system to remain inactive. Volvo say had a human been at the wheel of the car they would have realised the system failure and had time to take evasive action.

[via World Car Fans]

UPDATE 10 May: It would seem Volvo are keen on removing footage of this oops crash from the interwebz. For now, a new video can be seen at the end of this article sourced from a Swedish news report, which starts off explaining how the system should work.

Categories
MINI Challenge

Another MINI Challenge crash at Ipswich 300

Sarah Harley's MINI Challenge racecar crashes into the tyre barrier

The MINI Challenge series has seen another spectacular crash at the Ipswich 300 event held at Queensland Raceway today. Sarah Harley’s car reportedly had a sticking throttle, forcing her car to understeer off the track and into the tyre wall. The impact happened at high speed and she was lucky to walk away with no serious injury.

After the incident Harley was taken to hospital for observation but was soon released. On her return to the track she said, “That was a really big hit this morning and it is a testament to the MINI and its strength that I walked away with just a bit of whiplash. It was scary heading into the tyre wall so fast I kind of tensed up and braced myself. It was a hard impact but all the safety features on the car did their job and officials worked really quickly to help me out of the car and secure the situation.”

News footage of today’s incident from Channel Seven can be seen after the break. The clip also includes a brief interview with Kain Magro, the driver involved in yesterday’s dramatic incident.

In on-track news the round was won by Warren Luff, who was making his MINI Challenge debut. Defending champion Paul Stokell ended the round in second place, while current series leader Chris Alajajian came home in third. A highlights package of this round will air nationally next weekend on the Seven Network (check you local guides for details).

Photos of the two crashes can be seen at the Catch Fence Photos forum.

Categories
MINI Challenge

Two spectators injured after MINI Challenge crash

MINI Challenge crash @ Ipswich 300

An incident in the first race of this weekend’s MINI Challenge round at Queensland Raceway has resulted in injury for two race goers.

A statement from MINI Challenge organisers reads, “Two spectators were injured and transported to Ipswich Base Hospital. The extent of their injuries appears to be relatively minor, pending full medical evaluation. Both were conscious whilst being treated at the scene. There were no other reported injuries.”

The accident happened after a car was involved in an accident and flipped into the air, cartwheeling over a safety barrier. According to the official statement the driver was taken to Ipswich Base Hospital by ambulance for precautionary tests and is believed to be uninjured. FoxSports have reported the driver involved was Kain Magro.

More details as they come to hand. The full statement from MINI Challenge is available below.

[Pics: 7 News]

UPDATE #1: A Channel Ten news segment reporting on this incident can now be seen below. It is worth noting that the Channel Ten report stating the driver was injured is incorrect. Thanks to smarm providing a separate link to crash footage.

UPDATE #2: News footage from host broadcaster Channel Seven is also available below.

Categories
Formula 1

The wheels have fallen off

Sebastien Buemi, Chinese GP practice 2010

Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Buemi got the shock of his life during Free Practice 1 at the Chinese Grand Prix on Friday. As you can see from the image above the wheels literally fell off his Formula One car in a spectacular incident. Luckily the only damage was to the car and Buemi did not suffer any injuries.

Speaking after the crash he said, “There’s not much to say about what happened in FP1. I braked, the wheels came off and that was it. Physically, I was fine though.”

Fine, yes, but not happy, “But I have to say, I am extremely disappointed that, once again, through no fault of my own, I have been unable to run for almost all of the three hours available. I will have to try and catch up on Saturday morning and we will be relying on Jaime’s data from today to see which way to go.”

A bit surly perhaps? The team’s Technical Director, Giorgio Ascanelli, explained fixing the cause of Buemi’s accident was straightforward, “Sebastien’s accident this morning was down to a technical problem on the right hand upright, which proved simple to identify once we got the car back. We have resolved the problem, which the many laps completed by Jaime this afternoon confirms.”

If you have not seen any vision of the incident, you can see a video clip below. Like the cat, I expect you will be amazed, too.

Meanwhile, Red Bull Racing duo have once again hogged the front row all to themselves with Sebastien Vettel snatching a last gasp pole position from Australia’s Mark Webber in yesterday’s final qualifying session. Best of luck to both for this afternoon’s race.

[Thanks to Chris for the tip]

Categories
Ferrari News

Cristiano Ronaldo’s fortunes take a dive

Cristiano Ronaldo is a prat

Cristiano Ronaldo. He earns eleventy squillion dollars a minute, has a stable of auto exotica that would make any captain of industry blush and has the world’s best footballers at his mercy. But plenty of people say he is a prat, and worse, they say he is a filthy diving cheat. If you happen to think that is the case, then you’re probably indulging in a touch of schadenfreude and relishing this chance to get one up on a guy who seems to think he can do no wrong. For he has done wrong, very wrong, by writing off his new Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano in a Manchester tunnel. (What is it about these cars?)

Of course, like any good footballer it wasn’t his fault and he is protesting his innocence to the ref by claiming there was oil on the road that caused him to lose control.

Ronaldo was on his way to a training session for Manchester United when the crash took place. He was uninjured in the incident and given a lift to United’s training ground by teammate Edwin Van der Sar who was following Ronaldo as he put the Ferrari into the wall. Apparently Ronaldo was all smiles as he drove home in his Bentley Continental GTC.

I think those people could be right (looks like they read guardian.co.uk).

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Categories
MINI Challenge

2008 MINI CHALLENGE – Round 7 wrap up




Last weekend’s MINI CHALLENGE racing at Tasmania’s Symmons Plains raceway had plenty of action at both ends of the field. Up front, former Tasmanian Paul Stokell had a dominant weekend winning all three races. However, at the back of the tightly packed field UBER-STAR driver Jason Akermanis got off to an eventful and rather embarrassing race debut by rolling his car on the warm up lap (see clip above).

Akermanis, often a human headline in the world of AFL, certainly attracted plenty of attention. Both he and Stuart Appleby had set solid qualifying times for Race 1, although both were starting from the rear of the grid. Appleby’s time was 1.3 seconds off pole, while ‘Aka’ was 1.5 seconds from the front. But Akermanis didn’t see any race action after his roll on the parade lap, although he did return for Sunday’s two races after a mammoth effort from the UBER-STAR team. The crew worked until 4am to have his car ready and to Akermanis’ credit he finished race 3 with his head held high, setting a best lap time of 1:03.7. His time compares well with the fastest lap from the race, of 1:02.9, set by former Bathurst winner Jason Bargwanna.

But it was Stokell creating all the headlines at the front of the pack, finally bringing an end to Bargwanna’s great run of consecutive victories by stringing together three of his own. Stokell’s success created the biggest impact on the series leader board as well, moving him into second position behind Neil McFadyen.