http://www.katu.com/stories/78380.html
I can’t believe this happened last night. I used to participate in these races all the time when I lived in Portland…just freakin’ unbelievable. Were any ST’ers there?
You might get some more info here:
I was happy to miss it but was at a BBQ last night and 2 guys who were there showed up after the race. One guy was one wheel ahead of the now deceased, the other was an official 300m down at the finish area.
It was the last lap and the sprint was winding up. It is a car racing track, so width is not an issue (probably 30 bikes wide), but everyone seems to go to the wall anyway. There is a break in the wall to allow people to get across the track, I’m not sure why, but there is a pole there, I don’t specifically remember it right now. Apparently, this deceased had his head down to crank it up (30+mph) and rode directly into an immoveable object without braking and was just about dead on impact. Apprently there were 2 doctors racing last night who performed 2 tracheotomies to try to revive him. Apparently his skull was fractured and bleeding. Pretty gruesome sight. The friend of mine who was one wheel ahead was helping trying to revive him. An ambulance showed up in about 5 minutes and they pronounced him dead.
I hate when people crash at PIR, it seems ridiculous because it’s so wide open and it’s only freakin’ PIR-- a stupid Monday/Tuesday night training race.
Craziness! I was always surprised by the amount of competition - bumping, nudging, etc., at those Monday night comps. It was always pretty physical. Regardless, this is just plain ol’ sad.