250 pro crash scary

[brian]

http://www.vmix.com/viewArtist.php?ID=31473

[Lights]

Wow that was way scary. I hope my wife does not see it. Or I will have a hard time getting into my boat for my first race.

[nbranews]

Those guy's are both lucky they didn't get hurt, specialy the first one in the water.

[Corin_Huke]

It is/was a scary incident and I have to admit that it doesn't get any better watching it nearly 12 months later!!

I was there at the time - it was a pro 250 race in 2005 at San Nazarro, Italy, (only a few miles away from where Mr Rossi works his engine magic!) It was a real heart in the mouth accident and we all hoped and prayed that both were okay - thankfully they were

The lad that fell out, Marco Bobbioni (Italy) didn't have a scratch on him and the guy that ran over his boat, Ilkka Rytkönen (Finland) had a few cuts and bruises which were caused through him cart-wheeling out of the front of the boat. You can see photos of the boat, and Ilkka's bumps and bruises on his site (http://www.66-racing.com/eng/)

At the time we thought that Marco sheltered behind his upturned boat, but when speaking to him after the accident, he said, "No, I was THIS side of the boat", which you can see from the video

Two very very lucky guys!!! It goes to prove that there is such things as Flying Finns in boat racing and not just ski jumping and that Marco must have had the Virgin Mary looking down upon him that day......

Here's something to ponder upon. The boat that was hit was made out of a carbon fibre composite and Ilkka's boat (the hitter so to speak) was made from traditional ply wood. Of the two Marco's composite boat was more damaged - in fact it lost the whole side (front to back) whereas Ilkka's although smashed about a bit, only needed a few hours in the wood shop to fix......(in fact they started work on it there and then - they breed em tough in these parts you know! )

[Dave M]

What Was Said ?

The Cameraman sounded excited on the video, was he cussing ??

[HRTV]

Crash Video

[14-H]

Cursing Announcer

The Cameraman sounded excited on the video, was he cussing ??

Dave: only Tony Staron does that. Ed.

[epugh66]

Interesting crash video.
Was there more to the story? Or did he just hit a crashed boat that had been sitting off the racing line for about 10 seconds?

[Corin_Huke]

Interesting crash video.
Was there more to the story? Or did he just hit a crashed boat that had been sitting off the racing line for about 10 seconds?

Eric - there is a bit more background to the incident. The lead (white) boat caught a wave in the turn and spat the driver out. The red flags were shown at the start/finish line, however, the second boat had passed the officials by the time the red flags were shown. As he turned the buoy (and before he had passed a rescue boat on the other side of the course, which was also showing a red flag) the second boat drifted wide (obviously not seeing the stationary boat) and simply drove into it

In the past I have seen, instead of red flags, flares that are used and the best of all, smoke flares. The smoke from the later drifts in the air and really does highlight to drivers that the race is stopped, even before they get to see a red flag

[RandY Aveline]

ya that could have been nasty for sure !!

but i feel its not near as scary as me nosing my DMOD hydro in in front of 11 other racers

when i hit i smashed steering wheel with my chest , bruised my knees on same steering wheel, then hit tops of both feet on said steering wheel.

when i came up for air all i could think about was the other 11 running up my
proverbial so called behind LOL

looking all around i finaly found my boat 2 feet to my left, with 2 strokes of my left arm i was at boat (water still falling like rain and counting pieces of my rig)
i tried to climb up on overturned hydro as to be seen better and couldnt as i felt great pain mostly in my right knee (was only badly bruised) as were the tops of both feet , the worst was i had bruised an collapsed my right lung
and swore my right collar bone was broke (dr said if i had hit 1 inch to the left
would have bruised my heart and probably died WHEW) p.s. lost my big rt toe nail almost 1 year to day from bruised foot

my buddy pulled killswitch jumped in before his rig was even stopped
he later told me i was just babbling in my mind i was telling him what happened
was a 45 min ride to nearest hospital it seemed like 5 min ride ,i had passed out !
drs couldnt figure out what was wrong took 3 of them to determine i had collapsed lung and was bleeding internaly next thing i know im in intensive care ! pulling on nurse cord intensively and talking sensibly asked to be takin to X-ray as i felt my collar bone was broken nurse said i had already been to x-ray he left came back with the biggest needle i ever saw rolled me up on left side stuck me 5 times when i rolled back to my back i felt like i was hanging 1 foot above bed heheheh dont know what he gave me but it worked LOL
so after 3 days in intensive care and 2 more days in a regular hospital room
dr came in and told me i was very lucky and that if i hadnt been in terrific physical condition i probably would have survived (moral get in shape and stay there)
i was released went home was back at work in 4 days ,stripped old hardware
from totaly destroyed hydro , pitched boat in local dump think it cost me another 5 bucks as well as 2700 dollar stay at hospital
back at work in 1 week and 2 weeks to the day was running my DMRowboat
in another race

the very 1 thing i did learn from all this was if you see 3 Large rollers close to gether DO NOT BACK OFF THROTTLE hang on and stay back in position and you will most likely stay upright and drive rt on thru it
traveling at 80 mph the nose stays up and walks over all 3 rollers when you see them its totaly too late to slow down enuff to not nose it in

i hope this never never happens to any of you i feel sure you all have some horror stories as well ,as we cant tempt disaster the way we do and not at 1 time or another get so called bit

Randy 23-H

ps that was on 6/6/1981 and so far i have never done it again thank the lord