Driving Instructor dies in "Exotic Driving Experience" Lambo

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

Very sad for all involved, and the driving instructor community at large. This senior, skilled Petty-Group instructor dies for as yet an unknown reason. Prayers to the family, and PLEASE ensure your own mechanicals on HPDE cars are up to par. Don't take HPDE for granted. So Sad..... RIP

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/fhp-investigates-fatal-incident-disney-property/nkr9W/

[GBS]

Very sad!

[viper_eddie]

Definitely very tragic! Anyone familiar with the track and how fast you'd be going around there?

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

One of his friends and team mates shared this:
""""Gary was a great guy & good friend. We lost one of the best yesterday & we will be forever changed."""

Fellow Instructors: Please allow his untimely passing to help cause us all to improve our own safety focus while instructing.

[Vprbite]

Heartbraking. Makes me wonder if some of these "driving experiences" will go away because people don't realize they are getting into a maching that can kill you or someone else. Someone was quoted in the interview as saying "it's kind of scary to think accidents do happen even though it's a ride and there are precautions." Which leads me to believe people were thinking of this as any other ride and were not respecting what they were in control of and the damage that could be caused.

My heart aches for him and his family. R.I.P. Mr Terry.

[Fatboy 18]

Very sad to read this :(

JonB, Being as I'm in the UK, please could you tell me what this means "Don't take HPDE for granted." What's HPDE?

[viper_eddie]

Very sad to read this :(

JonB, Being as I'm in the UK, please could you tell me what this means "Don't take HPDE for granted." What's HPDE?

HPDE is High Performance Driver's Education.

[Fatboy 18]

HPDE is High Performance Driver's Education.

Got it, many thanks.

[XSnake]

The reason isn't unknown. The course they were driving was setup and being run in the opposite direction the track was designed. They hit the end of a guardrail that was designed to work for cars coming the opposite direction. In this case, since they were coming the other way it impaled the car.

This article was written by a friend of mine who I spent 2 days at Daytona with last week.
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/please-stop-killing-my-friends-1697610915/+pgeorge

[Fatboy 18]

That's unbelievable!

Speachless!

[GTS Dean]

Being in the highway construction business, I spotted the issue right away. The track didn't even install an old-fashioned guardrail "turndown" which might have vaulted the car, but it would not have impaled it (and the occupant). Take a look at highway bridge end guardrails. They have progressive attenuation of impact force with end terminals that extrude the Armco rail elements to the side, away from the vehicle, while the timber posts are pre-drilled to shear away with reduced force.

[SA Heat]

The reason isn't unknown. The course they were driving was setup and being run in the opposite direction the track was designed. They hit the end of a guardrail that was designed to work for cars coming the opposite direction. In this case, since they were coming the other way it impaled the car.

This article was written by a friend of mine who I spent 2 days at Daytona with last week.
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/please-stop-killing-my-friends-1697610915/+pgeorge

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I've been wondering how and why it was even possible for them to hit the end of guardrail like that.

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

Here is the most important element of that fantastic article: a Go-Fund Me help for that family.

"There but for the Grace of God" go any of us who like to drive fast on race tracks, and/or help others do the same. Please, spare $5-$100 for Gary's family? It will be the best thing you do today. Thank you.

http://www.gofundme.com/garyterrymemorial

[Vombomb]

I gotta feel bad for the kid driving, to have that on your conscious... God...

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

I am relatively certain that these "Driving Experience" cars have in-car video captures, as a customer souvenir of the event.
FL State Patrol will have it. The facts will be known.

[Leslie]

One of his friends and team mates shared this:
""""Gary was a great guy & good friend. We lost one of the best yesterday & we will be forever changed."""

Fellow Instructors: Please allow his untimely passing to help cause us all to improve our own safety focus while instructing.

So agree Jonb. Road and Track did a write up after the instructor died at Summit Pt.
Every time I get in a student's car I ask a LOTTA questions!

[AZTVR]

So sad. We usually do not appreciate the risk the instructors take, even though they probably have a higher awareness of that risk than anyone. I assume that is especially the case in this incident because these "Driving Experience" things usually attract folks that have never been on a track before. I see in the linked stories that the instructor was senior operations manager and also was a stock car racer. So, I would assume that he was well aware of the dangers of this particular track configuration. We get so used to things going right so much of the time that we forget about what can predictably go wrong.