MGB Steve Prefontaine's MGB Death

[Guest]

Houston International Raceway.... January, 1981....David Baker, a very popular and well-liked fellow racer was there running his 9-second Corvette (Convertible w/roll bar).... The Tech guys told him repeatedly to put on his helmet chin strap which was just dangling, and to cinch up his very loose safety belt harness... he ignored both warnings, took off from the starting line, hit about 150 MPH, when the the car went sideways and flipped over on the roof. Helmet flew off.... his body weight allowed him to dangle low enough that the roll bar/ground combo decapitated him. The on-site EMT's got there and puked.... and called the county coroner.

His widow sued the place out of business for them being so negligent as to not stop him from making that run...That's why we now have Houston Raceway Park in Baytown.

David was at fault, too.... just as Steve Prefontaine might have had some culpability in the matter....like no seat belt or roll bar....and who's to say that would've saved him?

We could eschew the dynamics of this thing ad nauseum...but nothing is going to bring back either of these or others who died senselessly.

 

[glemon]

I know it has been said already, but I just read this thing all the way through, always a tragedy when a young person, or old person for that matter dies in a traffic accident. But the author is just way off base.

This was the mid-seventies, at that time and MGB, while certainly not advanced, had better chassis/handling than 80-90% of the cars on the road, my Mom's powder blue Plymouth Valiant that I drove for example.

He claims to have been a race driving instructor, glad I never took a class from him, sounds like he is one of those guys who can repeat what he hears, but has no understanding of it or the underlying theory. Yes an MGB understeers, but then to go on and compare it to a modern car, and by this I assume he means close to our own time--hmm modern front wheel drive cars don't understeer?? that is a new one on me.

I would also call the MGB 60s technology, not 50s, certainly not cutting edge, but you will remember, most 60s cars had solid rear axles and drum brakes all around, at least if they came from the good old US of A.

To be honest, althouth he was of my era, and I have always been a sports fan, the name barely rang a bell with me, but today I decided to read this, apparently though his name still has some resonance in the Northwest.



One thing I have learned more and more as I get older is that you can be as careful as you want, and it is certainly a good idea to be careful, but there is just so much that is good luck bad luck/beyond your control.

I am sure we have all had accidents, car or otherwise, where if there was a car in the other lane, or a tree just off the road, or if the whatever was an inch lower/higher/to the left/right etc. it would have taken your eye out/cut the artery, etc. etc. or the guy who jogs/works out/eats right or all of the above, and has the stroke or heart attack in his 40s. Not very heartening, but true.

My point of this is looks like the guy made a bad decision coupled with bad luck, which is usually a recipe for disaster. I don't think it detracts from his other accomplishments, don't know why the writer feels he needs to go through the gyrations he does to be able to say don't blame Steve, etc.

 

[rick_ingram]

The Prefontaine name is strong amongst runners across the continent.

It's too bad he lost his life at the potential prime of his career.

There's a couple of decent movies regarding his running life...as well as a book or two.

I'm not a runner, but my wife and one of my sons are.