Supercar tragedy renews calls for safety move

Phil Stewart in Wellington yesterday with the racing seat he was in when his car was hit at 160km/h at Pukekohe in 2004. Picture / Mark Mitchell

Watching a car plough into Mark Porter's driver's door was like reliving a nightmare for former Wellington race driver Phil Stewart.

The collision last Friday during a V8 race in Bathurst left Hamilton-born Porter, 31, with critical chest and head injuries. He died two days later.

"My heart dropped to the ground when I saw Porter's accident," Stewart said.

"I couldn't believe it. It spooked me. What happened to Porter was almost identical to what happened to me."

Porter's Holden Commodore spun sideways, stalled and was left stranded in the middle of the track on the 12th lap. Blind to oncoming traffic, the helpless Porter held his hands in the air just before another race car smashed into his side door at 180km/h.

It left a sharp sting in Stewart's throat, taking him back to the moment when his life flashed before his eyes, in November 2003, when a V8 car slammed into the driver's door of his stalled and stranded Commodore at 160km/h.

"The last thing I remember was trying to start my car, then waking up in the ambulance," Stewart recalls.

His pelvis was broken in six places and he spent a week in hospital and three months off the race track.

After a brief comeback, Stewart decided to hang up his driving gloves in January after a career spanning 10 years. At the forefront of his decision was his young family - his wife and three children, aged 7, 4 and 1.

Watching the collision that claimed Porter's life has not only reinforced his decision but also highlighted a glaring issue.

"The driver's door is a weak spot," Stewart said. "We've got great gear for a frontal impact - if [New Zealand V8 driver] Paul Radisich (who crashed head-on into a tyre wall at 200km/h last weekend) didn't have a head and neck device, I don't think he'd be with us - but that spot is still a weak part of the car.

"The sport's safety standards are fantastic, no doubt about it, but you're still at risk when you get into a race car. And it's hard to reinforce the driver's side."

Others, including Bathurst 1000 winner Craig Lowndes, are adding their voices to the chorus.

"Side impacts are always the dangerous ones," Lowndes told Sydney radio station 2KY. "Maybe we have to look at repositioning the drivers further inboard, more central, but we definitely have to have a good close look at how you make these cars safer and better."

It comes at a time when motorsport safety is again in the spotlight. Last month, the sport mourned the loss of driving legend Peter Brock, who died when his rally car crashed into a tree in Western Australia.

Their concerns have not gone unnoticed here, where 5500 drivers - including track, rally and ClubSport - and thousands of trackside fans share a love of the high-risk sport.

Ross Armstrong, general manager of Motorsport NZ, the sport's governing body, said: "Porter's crash has highlighted it and there's email traffic with drivers saying, 'What can we do to our cars to make them safer?"'

Armstrong is waiting reports into Porter's crash from Australian motorsport authorities before deciding what could be done, if anything. Motorsport NZ enforces strict rules, including safety requirements on tracks, vehicles and driver apparel. These must comply with standards set by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, the world's governing body.

Mr Armstrong said there were always going to be tragedies in a sport where speeds reached more than 230km/h, but banning it would have little effect, such was its popularity.

"[Rally legend] Possum Bourne was killed and he wasn't even competing. Mark Porter - it's sad, really sad. Young lives are taken. But we do everything possible to ensure the safety standards are equal to or above the level required, providing a healthy way for people to compete. Our safety standards are second to none."

Armstrong said the sport had suffered four fatal crashes in the past 25 years, the last one claiming 15-year-old Michael McHugh in 2003, whose Formula Ford crashed into a Pukekohe barrier at more than 170km/h.

Spectators are also at risk. In April, a car crashing into a barrier at Pukekohe caused a section of post to fly off and hit a trackside photographer, breaking his leg.

Armstrong said there had been 17 crashes in 120 racing events over the past six months, with the worst outcome being moderate injuries. In three crashes, drivers escaped injury altogether. "Motorsport is not even on the horizon in terms of dangerous sports. Rugby would have more injuries than we do."

But for Stewart, now comfortably on the sidelines, the risk factor is enough of a deterrent.

"I always looked at my accident as a freak accident but now the same thing's happened and someone's died. That makes me pretty nervous - and nervous for the sport too."


Safety rules

Covering tracks, events, vehicles and driver apparel, these include:

* All occupants of vehicles must wear protective gear including a helmet and fire-retardant overalls; in top-level events, a head and neck restraint must be worn.

* Vehicles must have approved roll protection and safety harnesses in seats, including shoulder, lap and crotch straps.

* If the likely impact on a circuit boundary is frontal, a device for deceleration (gravel bed) or stopping (tyre barrier) should be used.

* The public should be at least as high as the track, with metallic fencing around seating at least 1.2m high and behind one or two lines of approved track protection.