Boat Racing and Safety

**Ron Hill** · 11-13-2011

Three people killed this weekend (11/12-13/11) in the Key West World Championships.

After one death in Las Vegas, a few weeks back a vowed to NEVER go to an INDY CAR race again, unless MAJOR safety improvements are implemented.

A flat bottom racer was killed this year in a capsule.

We had a bad accident at the Parker 300 Enduro.

I believe boat racers quit because of injuries or fear of injuries.

Seems that Offshore Boat blew over like the one in Dubai last year...Are the capsule reinforced for blow overs or just stuffs?

**Mini Kat** · 11-13-2011

http://youtu.be/9YPAxuoPpXo

**mulfcarla** · 11-13-2011

It has been a sad year in racing all together, off-road community has lost some of their own as well.

It seems to me that the safety side of racing is in it's own race of catching up with these amazing machines that are out in today's race world. We all can only hope that within these accidents that they will be able to improve for future generations to race!

**Lars Strom** · 11-13-2011

Originally Posted by Ron Hill

...Are the capsule reinforced for blow overs or just stuffs?

The offshore capsule on bigger boats need to be way stronger...
Lots of improvements need to happen right now..!!
Many details are just not good..

**Lars Strom** · 11-13-2011

This is from the final race in Key West today...
I have read that the driver and co-pilot is OK..

http://nikonmiami.blogspot.com/2011/...-warpaint.html

**Lars Strom** · 11-15-2011

Very intresting reading..

http://speedonthewater.com/commentar...e-of-what.html

**Master Oil Racing Team** · 11-15-2011

It is indeed interesting reading Lars. It reminded me of an upcoming Texas stock car racer who was killed at a young age. It didn't say anything in the story if the capsule failure was the cause, but the proof of what unlimiteds did is out there. The crux to me was too many organizations and no one central safety authority overseeing designs, inspections, and accident investigations, and what worked and what didn't. The author alluded to the fact that some teams may do their own thing within the spirit of the rules, but were allowed leeway.

This young driver, Clarence Lovell, was killed in 1972 or 73 when Joe and I were covering all types of racing for Motorsport. We had seen him race quite a bit at Myers Speedway in Houston, and he definitely was destined for big time stock car racing. He was T-boned at an ARCA race when he spun sideways. It turned out that his roll cage was made of thin tubing and it was crushed inward. I don't know how ARCA did their safety inspections back then, but if it would have been NASCAR, I doubt the car would have passed inspection.

Having been carted off to the hospital twice, safety was our utmost concern. I sat on the bank while others raced in conditions that could cause stuffing. We sat out the UIM OD World Championships in Berlin in 1978 because of the rollers our boat could not handle. It was a big expense shipping all that stuff over and then not race, but safety was number one. Some of the racers criticized me, but the guys I knew all supported our decision.

One of the reasons besides economic that Pro racing lost a lot of drivers 1979 to 1980 were the deaths of Erwin Zimmerman, Erwin Zoller, Jim Stone and Raymond (brain freeze) in just that short period of time. The capsules on the 500cc and above hydros, have no doubt saved drivers from serious injury or death, but it comes at a cost. Because of the expense of such rigs fields are much smaller, and they are not run at a lot of events, but safety has to come first.