[Buford61]

Wolfgang Von Trips 1961 Monza

[mtakala]

Björn Waldegård, the first WRC champion, has passed away today due to cancer. Do we have anything on his great African adventures - he won on that continent quite a few times.

[Buford61]

Alan Stacey 1960 Spa F1.

[Buford61]

Bob Courtner 1959 Indy practice.

[The Dark]

Alan Stacey is an interesting story, he had a false leg so used modified controls to get by, and faked his medical exams with the help of colleagues. The Spa 1960 GP is the deadliest event ever with Stirling Moss injured & Mike Taylor paralized in crashes before the race. During the race Chris Bristow was decapitated in a horror crash and then just a few laps later Stacey had his incident just a few hundred yards further up the track.

Initial reports said a bird flew into his face, killing him instantly but later it was reported that he was actually killed by the fire after the car rolled into the fields.

Spa was the epitome of the dangers of racing in those days, it's still a wonderful track but obviously scaled back since it's 8 mile heyday.

[fortythree]

Italian rider Guido Paci is killed at Imola in a national event in 1983

[fortythree]

Paci aftermath

[fortythree]

Elio De Angelis, practice crash in Austria. Anyone know the year?

[Norwegian1]

Are you sure this crash was in Austria? I am almost sure that this happened at the Paul Ricard circuit in France.. the rear wing of his BT55 detached at high speed resulting in the car losing downforce over the rear wheels, which instigated a cartwheel over a trackside barrier, causing the car to catch fire. The impact itself did not kill de Angelis but he was unable to extract himself from the car unassisted.

The situation was exacerbated by the lack of track marshals on the circuit who could provide him with emergency assistance. A 30 minute delay ensued before a helicopter arrived and De Angelis died 29 hours later, in a hospital in Marseille from smoke inhalation. His actual crash injuries were only a broken collar bone and light burns on his back. Oh, and to answer your question, it was in 1986, if I am not terribly mistaken.

[Norwegian1]

The rear wing did not detach, it malfunctioned.. hate the non existing edit button