![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.doubledeclutch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/2011LeMans24_pm_5731.jpg\" "\\"2011")
<\/a><\/p>\nLike the twin faces of comedy and tragedy, the 2011 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans displayed both the excitement and the potential for disaster that is inherent in motorsport. At a track where more than 80 spectators were killed when a Mercedes plunged into the crowd in 1955, causing the sport\u2019s worst ever accident, Allan McNish\u2019s first hour crash produced a rain of carbon fiber filled debris with the same killer potential as its infamous predecessor.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, no one was hurt but that happenstance was more by luck than anything else. Moreover, one has to admit, that those in danger weren\u2019t a mass of paying spectators, but rather a far smaller group of photographers and race workers. Nevertheless, the lethality of flying debris is a fact of life that all too often has been ignored by the industry, and continues to represent a problem today despite of the safety conscious climate in which racing currently operates.<\/p>\n
Consider for a moment the consequences of the McNish crash happening in an area where there were large numbers of spectators. Would that same luck hold? In aviation there is the phrase \u201ctombstone engineering,\u201d meaning that the industry learns how to fix death causing problems only after deaths occur because of them. Motorsport in general and Le Mans in particular can be said of all too often approaching the issue in the same manner, rather than trying to get \u201cahead of the curve.\u201d<\/p>\n The accident that destroyed McNish\u2019s Audi R18, caused in large measure by the Scotsman\u2019s excess of enthusiasm in trying to pass a slower GT Ferrari when it wasn\u2019t necessary under the circumstances to do, was just one of two heart stopping incidences that could have led to the kind of tragic headlines that so often call the sport\u2019s future into question. The second incident came during the evening hours when Mike Rockenfeller\u2019s R19 was passing yet another GT Ferrari 458 going down the nearly 200 mile-an-hour run to the Indianapolis corner. With Rockenfeller along side, the inexperienced amateur at the wheel of the Ferrari moved over, forcing Rockenfeller into the grass, where it went out of control, crashing and exploding into the Armco barrier.<\/p>\n Such was the ferocity of the impact that many believed there was little chance for Rockenfeller\u2019s survival. Happily, the same stoutness of the Audi\u2019s monocoque that left McNish virtually uninjured, did the same for Rockenfeller who suffered only a severe concussion and a cut arm. Still, the question of why race officials let the amateur drive in the first place remains. Given that most acknowledge that Le Mans, with its high speeds and the great performance differentials between the prototypes and the production cars, is inherently one of the more dangerous events on the calendar, why would one increase that danger by permitting someone with limited, or even no experience in dealing with such circumstances to race in the 24 Hours?<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n