Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Shutter Speed The day the music died
When the teams convened in Zolder two weeks after the Imola race the tensions between FOCA and FIA plus the tension between Gilles and Didier had not diminished. All of the teams this time showed up and got to work. The media had fanned the flames between Gilles and Didier. Gilles had vowed to never speak to that man again. He was true to his word and they avoided each other in the pits.
Since the 1981 race that saw the death of one mechanic and serious injury to another, the pit and paddock area had been replaced by a completely new and safer installation.
Friday morning there were two sessions, one for pre-qualifying and one for regular untimed practice to sort out the cars. Near the end of the second session a short rain began to fall. They halted the session. By the time qualifying began the rain had stopped and the track was dry. Gilles spent some of Friday evening with the mechanics as they prepared the cars for Saturdays final qualifications.
Saturday morning it was cool and dry. Rain threatened both the untimed morning session and final qualification in the afternoon. Prost and Arnoux were in fine form and held down the first and second fastest times with Rosburg in third and Lauda right back on form in fourth.
Nigel Roebuck later told me he had chatted with Gilles in the pits when Didier pulled into the garage. They moved out of the garage to continue their conversation. He said Gilles was fine. He was not behaving strangely. He was not distractedhe was very resolute. Gilles had said he had had heated words with Marco Piccinini, the team manager, because he really felt he had not had the support from the team during the aftermath of Imola.
With ten minutes to go until the end of the final qualifying session, Gilles was in eighth with a lap of 1 minute 16.616 seconds. Didier was in sixth with 1 minute 16.501 seconds. Gilles had sat patiently in the car as qualifying wound down. Ha had a mixed set of qualifying tires that would only last one flying lap. He intended to make good use of them. Gilles drove out of the pits with only one thing on his mindthe pole!
The tires werent in mint condition, but Gilles was absolutely going for it, recalled Roebuck. He came upon Jochen Mass who was on his cool-off lap. Jochen was heading back to the pits. It was a classic case of bad luck. Jochen saw the approaching Ferrari and moved to his right to give Gilles the faster line. Gilles did not know that Mass was going to move right. He had committed his Ferrari to pass on the right. He had nowhere to go.
The result was the committed Ferraris front left tire came in contact with the Marchs right rear tire. Gilles famous number 27 became airborne at almost 150 miles per hour. The nose of the car lifted quite high as it flew a considerable distance before it drove itself into a soft sandy area. This caused almost complete deceleration. The Ferrari then struck the guard-rail and ricocheted off an embankment, all the while disintegrating.
The car landed in soft sand, said Roebuck. It wasnt like hitting something hard and flat and just skimming along. The sand absorbed the energy of the car and nearly stopped it. The deceleration, according to Dr. Sidney Watkins, the Formula One medical advisor and one of Gilles good friends, was unsurvivable. The fact that Gilles had been thrown from the car had little to do with the final outcome of the accident. Gilles was dead before he left the car.
What was left of the chassis headed for its final resting place in the centre of the track. After the collision with the embankment, Gilles was thrown from the car. His helmet was torn off. The six-point harness had let go at the points between his legs and his hips. The two points at his shoulder-blades held. The seat remained with him as he flew into the catch-fencing he knew too well.
Mass was very fortunate not to have had the flying Ferrari hit his March for a second time. He stopped quickly and rushed to Gilles side. He was joined by Rene Arnoux and Derrick Warwick. A doctor quickly arrived at the scene. Didier stopped to help as well. The doctor quickly went to work on Gilles who had no vital signs, but still had a heart-beat. He was taken to the medical centre then flown to the local hospital. He had a broken neck and severe spinal injuries.
Within minutes the word that Gilles had been involved in a serious accident had spread around the world. It was determined that Gilles would not survive as there was no brain activity. Joanne was still in Monaco. She was summoned to Belgium where she needed to consent to the life-support system being removed from Gilles, She arrived in the early evening accompanied by Jody Scheckter. The graphic scene of Gilles last moment at the wheel of his Ferrari stunned Canada and the world as it opened many national newscasts.
Next: The return home and the book takes on a different theme.
Read the whole Shutter Speed Series.
Related posts:
- Shutter Speed: They all hoped for better things
- Shutter Speed: Terror in Zolder
- Shutter Speed: The first book and the first nine!
- Shutter Speed: Two in a row
- Shutter Speed: The new kid on the block
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