I'm suprised I haven't seen this posted here yet. In thursday testing at Road America (Elkhart Lake), Christiano Da Matta struck a deer intering turn 3 (or turn 6, I've read conflicting reports).

Press Report

I've heard of birds and rabbits and the like, but a deer? Woah. Apparently, this has happened before at Elkhart Lake aswell (91 I think it was). Hope Da Matta can pull through this one

Seems a strange but sad incident.

I'd have to raise the question about safety if animals can wander all over the track!

Christ, my dad hit a deer in a little Vauxhall Nova, and that damn near wrote it off, god knows what would happen to him

Hopefully he makes a full recovery.

Animals are hard things to keep off tracks. You need holes in the walls etc for marshals to access the track so it's not hard for them to find a way onto it.

This reminded me of my near miss with a segal. What a scare that gave me. Was probably doing 70 odd mph in a kart and this segal was about to land on the bit of track in front of me. It must have been such a close call, naturally I closed my eyes.

Johansson hit a deer at Austria in 87.

Hope Shorty recovers soon

Don't they have marshals working the track during test days? I know a deer could easily jump over the crowd fence and the track walls... But I just woulda figured a marshal would have seen it.

Quote from keiran :

Animals are hard things to keep off tracks. You need holes in the walls etc for marshals to access the track so it's not hard for them to find a way onto it.

Heh, I recall at St. Jovite after the bridge turn there was a groundhog who had burrowed a hole under the wall to get on to the track. Lazy little bugger couldn't walk around the wall to one of the openings Thankfully he didn't wonder onto the track surface; he just stayed by the wall away from the fast loud thingies going by.

as far as my understanding goes, it wasnt the deer that did ALL the damage. it was hitting the wall flat out without lifing the throttle.

The head injuries were most definately from the deer because the body of it hit him in the head doing ~180 MPH. I'm sure he sustained some other more minor injuries from the impact with the wall, though. The only information released is about the head injury, no other information has been given (AFAIK).

Quote from MAGGOT :

The head injuries were most definately from the deer because the body of it hit him in the head doing ~180 MPH. I'm sure he sustained some other more minor injuries from the impact with the wall, though. The only information released is about the head injury, no other information has been given (AFAIK).

Telementary and skid marks show that he saw the deer and made an attempt to brake. He brought the car down to 90mphs according to the team before he hit the deer.

Quote :

Don't they have marshals working the track during test days? I know a deer could easily jump over the crowd fence and the track walls... But I just woulda figured a marshal would have seen it.

They do, but it's just one of these things. The marshals might have been a good bit away and just seen it as it jumped the wall onto the track into Da Matta's path.

Quote from keiran :

They do, but it's just one of these things.

That's what I had assumed.

Hitting the wall wouldn't have caused anything serious, even flat out. These cars are extremely safe, the injury would almost certainly have been a dear hitting him in the head at 90mph.

This highlights the need for safer testing, Mark Webber and other F1 drivers have been pushing for improved safety at test days...hopefully all motorsport will take it up.

i have raced at road america and i tell you one thing it is really really big
and the forest is very very dense in spots
Deer get in often and i have hit a turkey or something with feathers once in a formula ford, pretty gross and i can imagine a deer in there..marshall would have to link arms every where to prevent it.
these animal show up like POW and you have so little time to do something

It's sad when a racing driver is hurt, but that's why there's signs all over the place when you goto a race track or fill out a race entry form. It's part of the business.

I wish him a full recovery, safe in the knowledge we'll be talking about somebody else next week.

Quote :

This reminded me of my near miss with a segal.

Hollywood actors can be extremely dangerous to hit, not just for the damage, but the course cases that follow.

Quote from Becky Rose :

Hollywood actors can be extremely dangerous to hit, not just for the damage, but the course cases that follow.

LOL!

But on a serious note...i wish Chris the best of luck and my prayers are with him. It was really not a surprise when I first heard: Road America + Accident + Animal...The first tracks i woud think of that have high "ANIMAL WARNING" signs would be Nordschleife and RoadA...its just unfortunate how the event took place and the fact that it took out such a talent like Christiano...

Quote from GT Touring :

i have raced at road america and i tell you one thing it is really really big
and the forest is very very dense in spots
Deer get in often and i have hit a turkey or something with feathers once in a formula ford, pretty gross and i can imagine a deer in there..marshall would have to link arms every where to prevent it.
these animal show up like POW and you have so little time to do something

I have been on RA too, there are trees all around the track. I hope he pulls through. A thing about deer in Wisconsin too, they regularly hit 200-300 pounds and are not the size of most deer, they are more like a mini Elk =P (Not really but they are larger than deer from other areas)

Deer in Minnesota are serious business too. They are by far the deadliest animal in Minnesota and Wisconsin, IIRC, they cause more deaths than all other wildlife combined...

I've never personally hit one, but I've them get hit, and seen the aftermath. I missed a buck by less than a foot, and that's as close as I ever want to get

The closest I ever got to hitting a deer was on my way to school one late afternoon/evening. It had just gotten dark out and as I drove along at about 35 mph, I saw this blur off in my peripheral vision. A quarter second later, I saw something fly about 10 to 15 feet over the roof of the SUV in front of me. I saw the deer land and, to my utter astonishment, run off. I'm sure it must have died shortly thereafter.

Soo, noone formulated this into an improvement suggestion yet?

Also think of the scientifical value. With our current crash physics we'd be the first to launch deer into space. Would also make the food on the ISS less boring.

Quote from Becky Rose :

Hollywood actors can be extremely dangerous to hit, not just for the damage, but the course cases that follow.

bah, stupid spell checker sea-gull if thats the right spelling ...

i remember about 3 years ago in the Bathurst 1000 V8 supercar race in Australia- a car hit a kangaroo while going up the mountain. it caused some damage to the front of the car, which also resulted in damage to the following car when it ran into the back of the first car.
neither car lost control, probably because a kangaroo doesn't have the same mass as a deer.

it happened when i wasnt watching Zoltuger, but i found a replay of that elsewhere :P

big difference between an animal hitting the front of the car, and hitting the front of your face, helmet included

LMPs basically scoop up obstactles straight to the pilot's head.
Example

That driver wasn't hit in the head by anying, IIRC. The Ferrari he hit was snapped in half though.

I recall reading about that accident a couple months ago as I hadn't remembered seeing it IRL. Apparently it was caused because some of the lower class cars were dangerously off the pace. The sanctioning body agreed to let them start the race, but if they were off the pace in the race they would black flag them. They didn't black flag them, and in the final turn there one WSC hit the off-pace car, hit and hit the tire barrier. Now, safety issue here; none of the tires were tethered together or to the wall, so the tires flew everywhere. I don't remember what it was that prompted the yellow Ferrari to spin, but IIRC it was related somehow to the tires from the wall. The rest is pretty much in that video.

BTW, that was at Road Atlanta. I think it was that accident that prompted some major changes.

I can see a deer jumping out on the track. I go to Road America 2-3 times a year, and the total area of the place is quite large; from turn 3 to turn 5 is a fast jaunt through the forrest. Though where the car hit the deer is very odd. Here is a picture I took of the straightaway going to turn 6, so you can see the scenario.