to check up for a Lights car, only to get shoved off by Brabham," he replied. "Geoff was hit, too, Balto," Stan put in. "What?" Balto asked. Both he and Jenna looked up toward the top of the pit box where Stan was sitting. "Yeah, he was," Stan replied. "Apparently, after you got tagged, Geoff was also hit from behind and pushed off as well." Eventually, the work was completed and Kyle was back in the race. On his out lap, Kyle drove carefully through the turns to make sure that all the debris was cleared out of the brakes. But it wouldn't last very long. Coming down the long backstraight on the next lap, Kyle weaved through some slower traffic. As he entered the braking zone for the Esses, both front brakes locked up, causing tire smoke to be emitted. The car then skated over the gravel trap, hit the tire wall, plunged through, and stopped just as the nose of the car hit the guardrail on the other side. The TV cameras immediately shifted focus to the scene of the accident just before the moment of impact. The track announcer practically jumped out of his seat when he saw it happen. "We've got a huge crash out there somewhere!" the track announcer exclaimed. "It's the Fox/Ridgemount Porsche!" The location of the crash wasn't known at the time. Still, a sense of initial panic sprang up in the team's pit area. Up in the ESPN commentary booth, the shock was equally big. "That's Kyle Fox!" commentator David Hobbs exclaimed. "Kyle Fox has gone off somewhere and has had a huge impact with the tire barrier! We don't know where it is exactly, as we have no confirmation of location as of now." Kyle was moving around in the cockpit afterwards, which caught the attention of commentator Bob Varsha. "Well, he's moving in the cockpit, so that's a good sign," said Bob. "Yes, Bob, that is good," put in David, "although Kyle looks like he's struggling to climb out. I wonder if he's hurt his legs. That is indeed a huge impact. Both front wheels were torn off, left front off, right front too. I saw Kyle slamming the steering wheel down, but I don't know whether that's through frustration because he's out of the race, or whether it's through frustration because he knows he's injured something." "Well, one thing for sure is that Kyle Fox won't taken any further part in this race, and we could very well see the end of his championship hopes for 1989, and no one would have wanted it to end this way." "Where's that at?" David said, sounding puzzled. "Is that into the braking zone for the Esses? We didn't actually see him other than spearing across the gravel trap. That is indeed the gravel trap at the end of the backstraight. Still can't tell what caused him to go off." Even though a replay ran, it offered no clean indication as to the cause of the accident. The next one, shot from a different angle, did. Nobody was close enough to make contact with him, which ruled that possible cause out. Nor was anybody right ahead of him, so he couldn't have had to check up for another car. The new replay that was now airing cleared it all up. "Oh, he's locked his brakes, it's as simple as that, it's a mistake, and now he can't slow down!" David called out. "A simple driving mistake by Kyle Fox! The team had to do some brake work during their most recent pit stop, and the brakes probably lost a lot of heat during that time. Pair that with the tires not being up to working temperature, and it's a recipe for disaster. And worse yet, was that the gravel trap did nothing to slow the car down, as Kyle was going way to fast for it to stop his car in time. And what gravel he did hit just launched the car upward enough to clear the ridges in the trap itself. Even if it were flat, it wouldn't have been much help. The result would probably have been similar." This is a common problem with the gravel trap: It really is designed to stop a car that's spinning, which would give itself a chance to dig in and slow it down. Because there's no surface adhesion, a car traveling straight on at high speeds just skates over the surface, and the driver, by now merely a passenger, is unable to do anything to slow down or stop the car. Because GTP cars had ground effects tunnels that ran along the under tray, they offered at least some resistance in order to bring the car to a halt. With the open-top World Sports Car (WSC) category that would be introduced in 1993, and would eventually replace GTP for 1994, this became a bigger issue. WSCs had a flat bottom, which in the situation Kyle was just in, would just toboggan across the top of the gravel trap. And if a car is stopped by the trap, it gets mired in the gravel, and can't rejoin the race, which is not good for the car count. Rescue crews were on the scene shortly after the accident and immediately started attending to Kyle. "I am not at all happy seeing these pictures," Bob Varsha spoke up. "A truly great driver, a two-time GTO champion of the Camel GT (pre-GTP) era is out of the race and has been injured. Dr. Jerry Punch is down in the Fox/Ridgemount pit area right now. Jerry, what can you tell us?" "Well, it's a rather somber, in fact, an absolutely stunned atmosphere down in the Fox/Ridgemount pit area," Dr. Punch replied. "They can't believe what's just happened. Kyle's co-driver, Balto Wolf, looks especially worried. I saw him attempt to radio Kyle several times, as had Stan Ridgemount. Apparently Kyle's radio was broken, so that didn't help matters. There's no frantic rushing around, no panicking, it's just a state of absolute shock. There's even a lot of speculation amongst us pit reporters that maybe the throttle had stuck open." The replay, however, showed no sign of a stuck throttle. If a stuck throttle did play a role, the rear wheels would have been spinning all the way into the gravel trap. By now, the pace car had been sent out, which would slow the field down and enable the rescue vehicles to get to the scene. Before that, the medical car and the other rescue vehicles had been sent to the crash site. The car was well off the racing surface, as were the rescue vehicles, so there was no need to put out the red flag, which would stop the race. During the attempts to remove him from the car, Kyle kept looking down at his right leg, as if it had been injured in some way. Initially, Kyle was left in the car for the first few minutes, because if he had any back injuries, the best thing to do would be to first get him stabilized. By now, the crowd was totally subdued, as one would expect them to be. They had come for a day of joy and pleasure, to follow stateside sports car racing at its highest level, and they generally don't expect something like this to happen. Race fans go to races to see racing, without the interruptions (and sometimes tragedies) that go along with it. And seeing the sheet screens being erected in order to stop people from looking would more than likely remind some people of past situations that they don't even want to think about. But at least he didn't have any major head injuries, as he was moving around. Balto himself knew all to well, firsthand even, how bad it can get. After his Le Mans crash last year, a former GTP rival of his named Bradley Steele filled in for him until Balto returned for the end of the season. During practice for the race before Balto was scheduled to return, at Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, California, Bradley had an absolutely massive accident at Turn 10, just before the pit entrance. The car spun off at the end of the Esses due to a rear suspension failure and hit the concrete wall after missing the end of the tire barrier. The entire left side was smashed inward and disintegrated into numerous shards of debris. Somehow, the seat was thrown out into the middle of the track with Brad still strapped in. The car couldn't be rebuilt in time, so they had to wheel out a backup car and Kyle went solo for the race. Brad survived somehow, albeit with multiple very serious injuries, and was still in recovery when the current season started. In fact, there were rumors circulating that the crash might mark the end of his GTP career. So far, nothing came up in that regard. Bob Wollek also had a nasty accident at Sears Point in 1987. Going into the fast Turn 1, the right rear tire exploded on Bob's 962. The car spun, went up the embankment, and then tumbled back down, landing upside down on its left side. Bob was not seriously injured. After about ten minutes, Kyle was later moved to an ambulance that was scheduled to take him to a more advanced medical facility. En route to the vehicle, Kyle stuck his left had up in the air and waved to let the spectators know that he was okay in the sense that he was still conscious. They stood up and clapped when they noticed that he was still alert and responsive. This caught the attention of both the track announcer and those calling the race for ESPN up in the broadcast booth, all of whom could now breath a sigh of relief knowing that Kyle was still alert. The sheets that head been put up were mainly to protect him from the indignity of cameras nearby catching him in a great deal of pain. The overhead shots of the scene from a helicopter didn't get any really good close-ups. With Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course being located far from any major cities, the nearest medical center was a long way from the track. The quickest way to get Kyle to one such facility was to take him to the paddock in the track ambulance and get him to a medical helicopter once there. That plan did go off without a hitch, and Kyle was soon on his way.   Chapter 7: Accident Aftermath   The race eventually resumed, with Geoff Brabham and Chip Robinson taking the win in GTP and the overall win for Electromotive Engineering. Charles Morgan

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