Le Mans 2011..a very near miss.

For anyone who ever questions the advice given on POTN (never turn your back on the cars, etc)....

The way the R18 flipped over the wall and then some how twisted back over onto the gravel side was miraculous. I'm not a religious person but it was like an invisible hand pushed the car away from those people. And then the luck of the photographer in blue, who kept walking away. If he'd stopped where he stood when the impact happened that flying wheel assembly would have landed on top of him.

i'm still trying to figure out how that landed on the track-side of the wall.

I was watching that live, scary stuff.

Watch the video and look close, and you'll see an 800mm take a fall glass-first and jam the hood down onto the barrel...

The guy at the bottom is the luckiest SOB ever - he's completely oblivious through the whole crash - has his back to the Audi and when he does eventually realize that there is something going on he's looking at the Ferrari. He never sees the wheel and hub bouncing right next to him and then diagonally behind him and I'm not sure he ever sees the Audi and just how close he came to being a stain on the concrete.
He gets my vote for no credential ever again.

It looks like the guy with his back to the crash is texting something with his left hand and why he has no idea something is going wrong

Wow that has to be one of the scariest experience a photographer could be in.If you watch the slow motion replay you can see one of them dropping a big L lens straight down to the ground as gocolts said.I hope he had the hood mounted because it landed with the front part of the lens first and then bounced.

YouTube link for anyone interested.

636 wrote in post #12640002
YouTube link for anyone interested.

HD: http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=JW3NDGk6YQE&h​d=1

There was another near miss today in the Grand Am race at Road America. A Camaro cleared the fence and missed two photogs by about 6 feet. By cleared the fence I mean went completely over the 10-12 foot catch fence and down the bank on the other side. Somehow the driver walked away.

autoidiodyssey wrote in post #12655588
There was another near miss today in the Grand Am race at Road America. A Camaro cleared the fence and missed two photogs by about 6 feet. By cleared the fence I mean went completely over the 10-12 foot catch fence and down the bank on the other side. Somehow the driver walked away.

I saw where the photographer's were in that clip. I used to auto-x, I can't imagine working a corner in anything but an off canter line to a path for a car.

That driver of the Camaro, Gunter, is my cousin's husband. He was going 161 when he impacted the wall. Rear brakes went out, then the throttle got stuck open when he hit the Mazda in front of him, at which point he became a passenger. We're all glad he walked away.

One of the photographers at Road America, David Wilks, kept shooting as the camaro came right at him. His pictures are linked on his facebook page.

aphphoto wrote in post #12680269
One of the photographers at Road America, David Wilks, kept shooting as the camaro came right at him. His pictures are linked on his facebook page.

Yep. Gunter has that on his Facebook page. Dave tagged him.

aphphoto wrote in post #12599891
The guy at the bottom is the luckiest SOB ever - he's completely oblivious through the whole crash - has his back to the Audi and when he does eventually realize that there is something going on he's looking at the Ferrari. He never sees the wheel and hub bouncing right next to him and then diagonally behind him and I'm not sure he ever sees the Audi and just how close he came to being a stain on the concrete.
He gets my vote for no credential ever again.

The Guy in the Blue Vest is actually a lady, well known on the ALMS beat for many years. I understand that she is hard of hearing, that, plus wearing industrial strength ear protectors, meant that she missed the events unfolding behind her. Fortunately with no lasting effects. However if we are honest, we have all missed incidents at the tracks.

There have been several other occasions that have seen cars vaulting the barriers in the past few weeks:

http://www.youtube.com …CwtbtwLqscU&fea​ture=share

http://www.youtube.com …CAaGNqYLA&featu​re=related

http://www.youtube.com …LWDfilvPc&featu​re=related

And of course there was the Camaro that cleared the fences at Road America.

I know the circuits have been asked by the FIA to review their Red Zone policy after Le Mans and these incidents will surely mean big changes to how we shoot races. My prediction is that trackside access will be extremely limited, probably behind debris fences. I also suspect that the numbers of media, both pro and non-pro, will be restricted further. Of course putting up more fencing is expensive, so the solution will be driven by cost, get rid of the photographers.

I have to say that some of the hoops that we go through to get accreditation are pointless when those without tabards end up standing with us at the barriers. I was shooting at the Dunlop Bridge just before Allan got airborne, I saw the first part of the move that would take him past Timo and into the Ferrari. Next to me were four idiots with Audi hospitality passes, armed with mobile phones capturing the action. No one challenged them and to be honest in the past when I have confronted folks who are in the wrong place , all you get is abuse, especially from those who have arrived via a hospitality unit.

The coming restrictions will be a further nail in the coffin. Mind you, that lid is pretty secure already.

I think that would be an overreaction.