[windowlicker]

An interesting photo of Jean-Pierre Beltoise returning to the pits seconds after Ignazio Guinti had crashed into the rear of his Matra sportcar he was pushing, during the 1000km race in Argentina in 1971. Guinti's Ferrari burst into flames and the driver perished, Beltoise was left in a state of shock. On returning to the pits a photographer who was balanced on the roof fell trying to capture the Frenchman's tortured image. The Argentinian photographer, Lucio Solari survived the incident.

Check out the thread for various posts of video and photos of the tragic crash.

Its interesting to note what Jean-Pierre thought of the incident. He gave this response to a French TV interviewer soon after the crash, 'I think that the accident was bound to happen as it was caused by an appalling number of circumstances. I think that most drivers would have acted as I did, they would have pushed the car, they would have tried to go back to the pits. I was at the end of a rather slow bend and there was plenty of room on the road to pass. The road was quite wide and I never thought there was any danger. Anyway, I had to take the car away from the middle of the road, because it was stopped in the middle. Before the accident I never felt I was personally in danger nor did I feel that I was endangering other people's safety. I shall certainly not stay for the next event because the organisers have asked me not to compete. Personally, I would not have taken the decision to refuse to compete in that event because I was committed to do so and also because I think this accident was caused by a combination of circumstances and it did not occur through my fault.'

Undoubtedly this tragic day still haunts the ex-Monaco GP winner and will probably continue to do so...

[The Dark]

The interesting thing about the Giunti crash is that he'd actually passed Beltoise pushing his car on the last 2 laps. As can be seen from the photo, Beltoise is on the extreme left of the track, but the crash actually happens when he is in the middle of the track (the pits are on the right side - so he had to cut across the track to reach them).

It's this fact that always made me feel he was culpable, there's just no way his account was entirely honest.

Drivers, marshals have been killed on the track before - Indycar Vancouver 1990 and Beat Fehr at Caserta in 67 are the well known instances but this situation was a horrendous waste of life for a totally avoidable reason. IMO it was only because so many drivers died over these years that harsh sanctions against Beltoise weren't upheld.

Incidentally he is married to the sister of Francois Cevert who died in that awful crash at Watkins Glen in 73.

[windowlicker]

Originally Posted by The Dark ↗

The interesting thing about the Giunti crash is that he'd actually passed Beltoise pushing his car on the last 2 laps. As can be seen from the photo, Beltoise is on the extreme left of the track, but the crash actually happens when he is in the middle of the track (the pits are on the right side - so he had to cut across the track to reach them).

It's this fact that always made me feel he was culpable, there's just no way his account was entirely honest.

Drivers, marshals have been killed on the track before - Indycar Vancouver 1990 and Beat Fehr at Caserta in 67 are the well known instances but this situation was a horrendous waste of life for a totally avoidable reason. IMO it was only because so many drivers died over these years that harsh sanctions against Beltoise weren't upheld.

Incidentally he is married to the sister of Francois Cevert who died in that awful crash at Watkins Glen in 73.

I totally agree, Guinti would not have expected the Matra to be in the middle of the track....but I still really feel for Beltoise. He always comes over as a very pleasant chap and on his day was a top class driver. I'm sure he has had many sleepless nights wishing he had just left his car at the side of the track and walked back to the pits...

[windowlicker]

Originally Posted by windowlicker ↗

Another of my favorites, the Mexican racer Pedro Rodriguez.

He was the older brother of Ricardo, who died in a crash for the F1 non-championship race in Mexico in 1962. (a previous post covers this).

Pedro had raced in F1 and sportcars but his big breakthrough came when he was the suprise winner of the 1967 South African GP in a Cooper.

He then won Le Mans in 1968 in a Ford GT40 run by John Wyer's team who he returned to in 1970/71 to drive a Porsche 917.

For 1970 he re-joined the works BRM team, after driving for a number of teams including Ferrari and won the Belgium F1 race at Spa. In sportscars he won in the terribly wet Brands Hatch 1000km by a remarkable 5 laps in the fearsome Porsche 917.

He went on to win four sportcar races in 1971 and continued to be one of the fastest in F1, by now Pedro was a superstar.

Pedro was asked to drive a privately entered Ferrari 512M at the Norisring in a minor Interserie race in Germany on 11th of July 1971. It is believed his tyre deflated causing him to crash at high speed, the car bursting into flames and after Pedro was finally released he had succumbed to multiple injuries.

Original post from page 47.

A magazine article from the time covering Pedro's fatal crash in 1971.

[windowlicker]

Originally Posted by windowlicker ↗

The fatal crash of AAA National Champion 1940/41, Rex Mays at the Del Mar track in California 1949. He swerved to miss a crashed car and flipped, was thrown out and hit by another car.

Rex took pole at the Indy 500 in 1935, 1936, 1940 and 1948, led 266 laps but never won the race. Best results were 2nd in 1940/41.

Original post from page 68.

A set of photos from an article from the time showing the tragic death of Rex Mays.

The first image is of Mays car losing control over a rut just prior to ejecting the driver.

[windowlicker]

The 1980 Italian GP was held at the Imola circuit and this is Gilles Villeneuve in his Ferrari 312T5 crashing heavily on lap six and completely destroying the car.

[windowlicker]

...and a lap before Gilles Villeneuve crash the 'Monza Gorilla' Vittorio Brambilla demolishes his Alfa at the same corner...

[windowlicker]

A couple more of Alain Prost's crash during practice at the South African GP 1980. Alain broke his wrist, but went on to score four points during his debut season and then on to the Renault team in '81.

[souris]

treated and released

[The Dark]

May have mentioned this before, but Villeneuve's crash was due to a punctured tire, the corner was renamed Villeneuve and in 1994 is where Roland Ratzenberger crashed fatally.

Villeneuve's excellent biography mentions that he temporarily lost vision after this impact, he said he waved his arms because he had no idea if he was still in the car and he wanted people to see him.

People marked him down as a crasher, but it's amazing how many were down to car failures.