- Jan 17, 2001
- 2,528
- 10
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Was anyone else watching this DASH series race yesterday afternoon??
Full Story Here
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. ? A worker at Daytona International Speedway was struck and killed by a paraplegic driver going more than 100 mph during a race for compact cars Sunday. The worker, 44-year-old Roy H. Weaver III, was standing in the middle of the track picking up debris during a caution period when he was hit by a car driven by Ray Paprota of Birmingham, Ala., track spokesman David Talley said. Paprota, who doesn't have use of his legs and drives a car equipped with hand controls, was trying to catch up the main pack of cars after a two-car crash at the opposite end of the track brought out a yellow flag. Weaver was struck in turn two on the 2½-mile trioval.
I (an admitted lifelong race fan) was looking forward to sitting down with my son to watch the DASH series race yesterday. On lap 17 there was a horrendous looking crash. As the safety workers were removing the driver from one of the cars the field continued to circle under caution. Suddenly they panned to pit road and showed a car that was not involved in the initial wreck (Paprota's car) and the entire back end was ripped apart. What struck me as odd is that after that video of his car, the commentators said NOTHING about it. They then mysteriously red-flagged the race and just said "there was more debris on the track than originally thought". After a LOOOOONG delay they finally made a comment about a track worker being injured. I continued to switch back and forth to speed channel, but it took hours before they reported what happened.
This is just so sad and ironic. They spent some time showing how Ray Paprota controlled his car with hand controlls since he had lost functionality of his legs in an auto accident in 1984. Then his car failed to start at the beginning of the race (I felt bad for him). Then he gets the car going just after the big accident on the track and he has this incident. To add to the irony of the tradgedy it was the birthday of the track worker who was killed (turned 45).
My heart goes out to the familes of all involved. Not a way to start a new series sponsorship
Full Story Here
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. ? A worker at Daytona International Speedway was struck and killed by a paraplegic driver going more than 100 mph during a race for compact cars Sunday. The worker, 44-year-old Roy H. Weaver III, was standing in the middle of the track picking up debris during a caution period when he was hit by a car driven by Ray Paprota of Birmingham, Ala., track spokesman David Talley said. Paprota, who doesn't have use of his legs and drives a car equipped with hand controls, was trying to catch up the main pack of cars after a two-car crash at the opposite end of the track brought out a yellow flag. Weaver was struck in turn two on the 2½-mile trioval.
I (an admitted lifelong race fan) was looking forward to sitting down with my son to watch the DASH series race yesterday. On lap 17 there was a horrendous looking crash. As the safety workers were removing the driver from one of the cars the field continued to circle under caution. Suddenly they panned to pit road and showed a car that was not involved in the initial wreck (Paprota's car) and the entire back end was ripped apart. What struck me as odd is that after that video of his car, the commentators said NOTHING about it. They then mysteriously red-flagged the race and just said "there was more debris on the track than originally thought". After a LOOOOONG delay they finally made a comment about a track worker being injured. I continued to switch back and forth to speed channel, but it took hours before they reported what happened.
This is just so sad and ironic. They spent some time showing how Ray Paprota controlled his car with hand controlls since he had lost functionality of his legs in an auto accident in 1984. Then his car failed to start at the beginning of the race (I felt bad for him). Then he gets the car going just after the big accident on the track and he has this incident. To add to the irony of the tradgedy it was the birthday of the track worker who was killed (turned 45).
My heart goes out to the familes of all involved. Not a way to start a new series sponsorship
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