Willow Springs Racing Tragedy 5/24
 

Joe Drey dies after injuries suffered when he flipped his Mini Cooper at turn 9 at Willow Springs.

http://www.nasaforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=22368

The racing community is saddened by his loss, and our condolances go out to his family.

Thats terrible, always sad to hear of a racer going. How was He "partially ejected from the vehicle" with a harness and bucket? Not in tight enough?

NASA has been trying to keep a tight lip on the incident but from the reports from the safety crew on sight, the MINI went air-born and rolled multiple times. The car did not have a rollbar but the driver was wearing a 4 point harness (the smaller 2" kind). After that the details become sketchy. Some were saying that his seat collapsed (which if you saw the car could easily understand how that would have happened), that the driver was partially ejected and a few other items that are a little to gruesome to discuss here. Again, how much of this is true or just rumor I cannot say. A truly horrific crash.

Man... that sucks. :( My condolences to the family as well.

It would be nice to know what happened because the car looks like it held up fairly well even without a cage (passenger compartment looks pretty intact)... if there are safety issues with those DOT harnesses (Schroth?) that would be very important to find out since lots of people run them.

Details aside, this is a good reminder that driving is dangerous... not just on the track, but all the time.

That is very saddening.

The driver's seat is definitely aftermarket. I can't read the logo. Can't see any restraints coming through the shoulder holes though but that is not surprising.

From what I read, what NASA meant by "partially ejected" was that somehow the driver wound up OUT of the belts, laying across the pax seat. That to me means the poor guy submarined -- likely soft tissue damage was the ultimate COD. But I'm just speculating based on what I have read.