"What have YOU done today to make you feel proud?" Heather Small (2000)
"What have YOU done today to make you feel proud?" Heather Small (2000) |
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4th March 2002 |
GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED SET TO CONTINUE The future of Goodwood's Festival of Speed is said to be secure, although safety measures will be reviewed in the wake of the accident on 24th June which claimed the lives of competitor John Dawson Damer and marshal Andy Carpenter, and left another marshal, Steve Tarrant, with serious injuries.
Dawson Damer lost control of his ex-Mario Andretti four-wheel-drive Lotus 63 exiting the final corner of the 1.16 mile hillclimb course, and crashed through the finish gantry, behind which the officials were standing. An inquest will determine the cause of the driver's death. The 59-year-old Australian-domiciled Briton, making his third appearance at the annual event, is known to have had a heart condition fuelling speculation that he may have suffered a coronary.
Organisers have defended the safety record of the Festival, run through the grounds of Goodwood House. The one previous fatality, that of motorcyclist Chas Guy in 1993's inaugural event, was put down to a medical problem.
Competitors have also rallied behind the Festival, which continued on the Sunday at the insistence of the families of the deceased. Remarkably, Jacqueline Tarrant, wife of Steve who lost a lower leg in the accident, returned to marshal the following day. Her husband continues to make progress in hospital.
Festival founder Lord March, a friend of Dawson Damer, was convinced that the Motor Sports Association licensed course was as safe as any temporary venue can be. "We work continuously with the MSA and the BARC to make sure that every appropriate safety standard is in place."
A spokesman for the MSA told our sister publication Autosport that the crash "was not, in our experience, a foreseeable accident." Naturally, a detailed review of procedures - including the siting of marshals' posts - is underway. Suggestions that future Goodwood Festivals of Speed should not be timed, and that the track should be shortened to reduce speeds over the flying finish, will doubtless be among the subjects for discussion. MP ____________________________________________ Jackie and I were very upset at the inference of this report that she had returned to marshalling duties whilst I was laying in hospital, and therefore the following apology was printed in the next month's magazine. ____________________________________________ CORRECTION In last month's Matters of Moment, the lead story incorrectly stated that Jackie Tarrant, wife of Steve, the marshal critically injured during John Dawson Damer's fatal crash, returned to Goodwood on Sunday to continue marshalling duties. We would like to make clear at no stage did Jackie marshal at this year's Festival; she briefly returned on Sunday morning to thank medical staff and update marshals and officials on her husband's condition. MOTOR SPORT apologises to Jackie and Steve for any upset our story caused.
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