Rafael Sperifico killed is stock car race.

[cart7]

:(

RIP Rafael

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvPOQGU9HIM

[pchall]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nascar/news?slug=ap-brazil-driverkilled&prov=ap&type=lgns


SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Brazilian stock car racer Rafael Sperafico was killed in an accident Sunday during the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The 26-year-old lost control of his car on the sixth lap, slamming into the tire wall and bouncing back on to the track. His car was then struck by the car driven by Rentao Russo, who was in serious but stable condition with head injuries.

Sperafico died from massive head injuries followed by cardiac-respiratory failure, Dr. Dino Altman said in an interview on television.

The accident occurred on the same stretch of the Interlagos track where Formula One drivers Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber were involved in an accident during the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.

:(

[Indy]

RIP.

Are those chassis' up to modern NASCAR standards?

[Sean O'Gorman]

Which car was he in the accident?

[Methanolandbrats]

Which car was he in the accident?

The one that got t-boned.

[pchall]

Which car was he in the accident?

Stuffed it into the tire barrier, then bounced off and back onto the track perpendicular to oncoming traffic and got t-boned.

Those cars can't be built like a Cup car with steel bodywork. I wonder what kind of bodywork they use? When the car was t-boned it seemed to be reduced to just the tube frame and that doesn't happen to a Cup car or a DTM car, both of which use the factory steel from cowl to deck lid.

[trish]

It was reduced to just the tube frame. :(

[Fio1]

I wonder what kind of bodywork they use?

The body is fiberglass. Doesn't protect anything, but the roll cage is strong. We had 3 Brazilian Stock Cars at my work (not lights like the ones in the crash, but they are simular). The body work is 8 pieces; hood, large mid section with rear bumper, trunk, doors, bottom mid-sections below doors and front bumper. The large mid section attaches to the car like an R/C car body (no kidding!). But, the roll cage was very good.

This kid was so talented! I remember watching him at a Skip Barber 2-Liter race at Laguna Seca and thinking if this kid (15 at the time) was this good then imagine in 5-6 years!

[Easy]

Rafael was a funny guy in my limited experience with him. Godspeed.

[Andrew Longman]

Its hard to tell from the video but the cage and drivers coompartment looks pretty intact.

That's a fast corner, and given the fact that Russo also had head injuries also suggests the impact was as hard as it looked.

Still I gotta wonder if they were wearing HANS devices. We've all seen similar shunts that don't result in two head injuries.

Godspeed. :(

[Duroc]

Scroll down for a pic (http://www.stockcar2007.com.br/english/stock-car-the-machines/) of the Nextel Cup frame. Do they share a common frame with the Lights?

[cameraman]

If you watch the video closely the tube frame of his car collapsed. It could not have been up to NASCAR specs.:shakehead

[Andrew Longman]

http://www.stockcar2007.com.br/site_2007/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/chassi.jpg

Not nearly as robust as a Cup (or even Modifieds) frame, at least to my eye

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/nascar-frame.jpg

[Fio1]

If you watch the video closely the tube frame of his car collapsed. It could not have been up to NASCAR specs.:shakehead

They do use 4130 tubing, not sure the wall thickness, but like the picture above shows the car is not nearly as robust as Nascar. We noticed that when we first got one as well. But, you have to remember that a) the Brazilian Stock Car Series doesn't run at Talladega at 190mph and b) the car has a door that works were the driver gets in. It's an LSD door (Lamborghini style), kind of like DTM. To be honest a hit like that in any car is hard to survive; look at the V8 Super Car guy at Bathurust last year or Trans-Am guy a few years ago at Mosport.

[jonovision_man]

To be honest a hit like that in any car is hard to survive; look at the V8 Super Car guy at Bathurust last year or Trans-Am guy a few years ago at Mosport.

I was thinking of the Bathurst one as well, very similar. It's hard to build for that kind of force coming in a side impact, and even if the car held up there is no room for a crumble zone to absorb impact. The net result is a car (and body) being accelerated quickly in one direction while the head wants to stay put... no HANS type device for that direction of impact.

I recently saw another program about Zanardi on Discovery, and one of the observations they made was that it was fortunate he was struck on a relatively weak part of the car! The car evaporated where he was hit, if it had been stronger it would have done what I just described (ie. accelerated his body exposing him to massive unsurvivable G forces).

jono

[emjaya]

look at the V8 Super Car guy at Bathurust last year ....

Mark Porter. Gregg Hansford was killed in a Super Tourer the same way. :(