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#1
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03-07-2009, 06:14 PM
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 ★ Legacy Member ★ Poster Rank:358 Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 3,406 Mentioned: 3 Post(s) Quoted: 74 Post(s)
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Tom Pryce Crash @ Kyalami S.A. 1977
Thomas Maldwyn Pryce (11 June 1949 – 5 March 1977) was a British racing driver from Ruthin, Wales. He was famous for winning the Brands Hatch Race of Champions (a non-championship Formula One race) in 1975 and for the circumstances surrounding his death. Pryce is the only Welsh driver to have won a Formula One race and is also the only Welshman to lead a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix: two laps of the 1975 British Grand Prix. Formula One World Championship career Active years 1974 – 1977 Teams Token, Shadow Races 42 Championships 0 Wins 0 Podiums 2 Career points 19 Pole positions 1 Fastest laps 0 First race 1974 Belgian Grand Prix Last race 1977 South African Grand Prix On race day the Welshman's DN8 made a poor start to the Grand Prix and by the end of the first lap was in last place. Pryce started to climb back up the field during the next couple of laps, overtaking Brett Lunger and team mate Zorzi on lap two, and Alex Ribeiro and Boy Hayje the following lap. By lap 18 Pryce had moved from 22nd to 13th place. On lap 21, Zorzi pulled off to the left side of the main straight, just after a brow of a hill and a bridge over the track. The Italian was having problems with his fuel metering unit, and fuel was pumping directly onto the engine, which then caught fire. Zorzi did not immediately get out of his car as he was experiencing trouble in disconnecting the oxygen pipe from his helmet. The situation caused two marshals from the pit wall on the opposite side of track to intervene. The first marshal to cross the track was a 25-year old panel beater named William (Bill). The second was 19-year old Frederik Jansen Van Vuuren, commonly known as Jansen Van Vuuren, who was carrying a 40 lb fire extinguisher. George Witt, the chief pit marshal for the race, said that the policy of the circuit was that in circumstances involving fires, two marshals must attend and a further two act as back-up in case their extinguishers were not effective enough. Witt also recalled that both Bill and Van Vuuren crossed the track without prior permission. The former made it safely across the track, the latter did not. As the two young men started to run across the track, four cars driven by Hans-Joachim Stuck, Pryce, Jacques Laffite and Gunnar Nilsson were exiting the final corner and coming onto the main straight. Pryce was directly behind Stuck's car along the main straight, Stuck himself sensed Van Vuuren and moved to the right to avoid both marshals, missing Bill by what Tremayne reports to have been a matter of "millimetres". From his position behind Stuck, Pryce could not see Van Vuuren and was unable to react as fast as Stuck. He struck the teenage marshal at approximately 170 mph. Van Vuuren was thrown into the air and landed yards in front of Zorzi and Bill. He died upon impact with Pryce's car. The fire extinguisher smashed into Pryce's head, before striking the Shadow's roll hoop, which threw it over the adjacent grandstand. It came to earth in the car park to the rear of the stand, where it hit a parked car and jammed its door shut. The impact with the extinguisher had wrenched Pryce's helmet upward, and he had been partially decapitated by the strap. Death was almost certainly instantaneous. Pryce's Shadow DN8, now without a driver or a roll hoop, continued down the main straight towards the first corner, Crowthorne, coasting slowly. The Shadow left the track towards the right, scraping the metal barriers before veering back onto the track after hitting an entrance for emergency vehicles. The Shadow then hit Laffite's Ligier putting the latter out of the race. As for Van Vuuren, the injuries to his body were so severe that he was identified only by exclusion after the race director summoned all of the race marshals and Van Vuuren was not among them. The eventual race winner was Austrian Niki Lauda, his first win since his near fatal accident during the 1976 German Grand Prix. He later announced it was the greatest victory of his career, but was told on the podium of Pryce's death and said that "there was no joy after that". |
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#3
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03-07-2009, 06:24 PM
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| ★ Legacy Member ★ Poster Rank:358 Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 3,406 Mentioned: 3 Post(s) Quoted: 74 Post(s)
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Re: Tom Pryce Crash @ Kyalami S.A. 1977
There is another youtube vid of the ogrish piece, which has a photo montage at the end with additional images, but for some reason it won't link.  |
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#8
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01-10-2010, 08:00 PM
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 I POOP ON U Poster Rank:126 Female Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 12,645
Contributions: 3
Mentioned: 12 Post(s) Quoted: 1263 Post(s)
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Re: Tom Pryce Crash @ Kyalami S.A. 1977
Yeah, 'cause he died.  Anyway, this is easily my favourite moto accident video. |
