[NCNCA] The great narrative to accompany the Albany Crash photos

[Raphael, Jess]

There is just no way I can keep this within the BBC. It's got to be
shared among the community. This was a dialogue between BBC members Mark
Estes (the pro photographer and the closest course marshal to the crash)
and Pete Van Slyke (the Albany race promoter):

 

  

 Mark Estes <mephoto at pacbell.net> wrote:

  
I elected to skip racing the 4's as I was completly out of gas BEFORE I
did the 40+ 3/4's. 
Possibly divine intervention seeing all the crashes.

But one scene many of you probably did not see was so ridiculously
tragic as to be hilarious. Since I wasn't racing, I was out at turn 2
watching when the big pile up occurred, early in the race. Everyone got
up except for one guy who was down a long time. I asked him if he wanted
medical attention and went to get Hanns. [the medic] Not finding Hanns
at the registration tent, I returned to Turn One to try and find the
injured guy. That's when the wierdness began...

There were these hefty women trying to cross the course at Turn One. Two
of the women appeared to be disabled, walking with canes. Because of the
crash, the field was VERY spread out and there was no large gap to get
the women across. But one woman was standing IN the course AT the apex
of the turn. I asked to get back immediately. She refused, saying it was
urgent that they cross NOW! I insisted, even raising my voice in a stern
but kind way. She relented and moved a couple of inches up the curb,
just barely within safety. Then her friend, 250+ lbs., begins crying and
sweating and yelling she "has to keep moving because of her bad back"
and begins to collapse. I grab one arm, her friend grabs another arm,
and we struggle to keep her upright. All the while I'm watching the
course to see if I can get her across the street.

Then the serious wierdness begins. Right as this woman is in full
distress and losing it, two riders at the apex go down, sliding within a
couple feet of us and slide out across the street. As soon as they get
up, within seconds two more riders go down, tires exploding, as if there
is a trip wire across the street. A second later, another rider
completely crosses up his front wheel and goes down, scraping metal and
tumbling to a stop.

I can't hold this woman much longer and she's really in distress now. So
I yell at some spectators across the street to bring their chair for
this lady to collapse in. Then I grab a guy on a bike and tell him to
get Hanns down here now, thinking this woman's appearance and actions do
not look good.

Thankfully the officials alertly stopped the race and the waterfall of
crashes.

Once I got the women across the street, all seemed fine. One woman was a
director of the Albany Pool disabled program, and gave me a talking to
about not being notified that the race was happening and how her clients
had been inconvenienced. 

Whew!  

________________________________


This was the making of the Perfect Storm...not the one we thought would
happen with the Bar B Q.  I was standing in between the referee tent and
the corner when I heard the "pops".  Turning to look I saw the marshalls
and the spectators reacting.  Then a lone rider was hitting the turn
hard and I saw him go head over the handlebars.  Steve Stein came
running up and yelled to neutralize the race.  I could only imagine the
carnage out of my line of sight.  As I was running up to the referee
tent I saw the lead pack bearing down - hard.  I looked back at the
corner and the marshalls were out of sight and I assumed they were
attending to the downed riders.  There was possibly no one to caution
the thundering herd and slow them down.  The Perfect Storm was brewing.
I yelled at Barry to neutralize the riders.  He said he couldn't because
there was a gap, so I said to stop them not knowing if there were riders
strewn on the course or not.   This was good communication from the
corner to the referee.  As it turned out the riders amazingly got right
up.  The race was restarted with the gap and continued without another
crash.  Whew!!
  
Pete

 

 

________________________________

Mark Estes <mephoto at pacbell.net> wrote:

 Wow! I thought I was in a filming of a Twilight Zone movie with
perfectly executed stunts one right after another. The lady I'm holding
is crying and I saying WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!?!

 

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