Michael Park RIP

[Tumbo]

A sad day for rally fans. The latest stage of Rally GB has been cancelled after Markko Martin crashed his Peugeot into a tree. As a result of this incident his co-driver Michael Park was critically injured and has tragically passed away.

This is a huge blow to the WRC community, Park has been co-driver Markko for a number of yrs and was well respected amongst other drivers and co-drivers. As a mark of respect the rally has been cancelled.

RIP Michael Park :(

[Tumbo]

The only good news to be added is that Markko Martin was unhurt in the incident. Condolences to Park's family :(

[lachlan]

:(

[singer]

:( :(

[rallying83]

As a loyal follower for so many years, I am in absoulute shock right now. Its been a privelage to watch beef in action. My heart goes out to his family and Markko who I am sure has lost a great friend.

[skaifefan]

This is not good news :(

[wayno]

Martin and Park had been together since 2000 and won five rallies together.
Words fail me.

[wayno]

Latest news.

Norwegian Petter Solberg won the Rally of Britain on Sunday after Citroen's Sebastien Loeb took deliberate time penalties to ensure he did not win the Championship in the wake of a fatal crash.

Briton Michael Park, co-driver for Estonian Markko Martin at the Peugeot team, died during Sunday's 15th stage and the French manufacturer withdrew their other car driven by Finland's Marcus Gronholm.

Gronholm was Loeb's closest title rival and the Frenchman, leading the rally since Friday by a comfortable margin, would have been Champion had he won in Wales.

Organisers said the Frenchman did not want to win in such circumstances and finished third, behind Belgian team mate Francois Duval.

It was Solberg's fourth British win in a row for Subaru but he will not consider it a victory.

There were no celebrations and the drivers and crowd held a minute's silence when the leading cars arrived at the finish in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

What a classy gesture from Sebastian Loeb in the wake of trgic circumstances. He's just gone up 10 points in my estimation.

[badboyau69]

I am so shocked about this. I only heard about it from Wayno.


My deepest Sympathy goes out to the Park Family.




RIP MICHAEL PARK



Russell

[bigdave]

this is very sad news, Rest in Peace.

[thekid_600]

"It is with deep reget that the organisers of Wales Rally GB confirm that Michael Park (39) of Newent, Gloucestershire, UK, co-driver in car number 8 has been fatally injured following an accident in Special Stage 15, Margam.

Michael's family have been informed.

The driver of car number 8, Markko Martin is uninjured.

Margam 1 has been stopped and Margam 2 will not be run.

On the advice of the FIA Safety Delegate Special Stages 16 and 17, Resolfen 2 and Margam 2 will not run.

Competitors will return for the finish in Cardiff, scheduled for 14:00.

There will be no champagne celebrations at the finish and the post-event FIA press conference has been cancelled."

this is a tragedy for international motorsport, not just rallying.

he went doing what he loved. he will rest in peace.

[spoonster05]

Another of the finest navigators in world rallying has tragically lost his life, my condolences to Michaels family and friends.

[Holden2003]

Condolances for the park family. This is not what we want to see happen in WRC or any motorsport. As to the result of Wales Rally GB I think the round should be scratched from the results. Its the only fair and respectable thing to do :(.
Rest In peace

[Andrew]

This is indeed shocking news.
I, like Wayno, am numb after hearing it.

I have watched 'Beef' and Markko for many years, right from their days at Ford and Subaru, to Peugeot.
Who can forget the in-car footage of Park mockingly calling out, "Markko, where are you???" as the pair crossed the line to win Rally Finland in the Focus. It was in response to suggestions that Martin was not up to the standard to win WRC events.

And now Michael Park has tragically passed away. :(

I am stunned and saddened beyond words.

My deepest sympathies and best wishes go out to Markko Martin (who will live with this for the rest of his life), and importantly, his wife and two young children.

This is a sad day for world motorsport.

Rest in Peace Michael 'Beef' Park.

[Tumbo]

other forums now report that Markko will never rally again. He was considering retiring at the end of the yr according to sources during the season, but to leave on this note :(

One has to feel sympathy for Park's 2 children. Their father was one of the most respected co-drivers of the modern era.

In addition latest reports are that Richard Burns will not recover from his brain tumour. His last public outing was in a wheelchair and news does not sound good :(

[rallying83]

118 posts on fuel prices....just 14 on this one and its already dropping to the bottom of the list. Quite sad.....

[Nick Short]

Everyone's affected by fuel prices, but not everyone follows rallying and so they don't feel Michael's death as strongly. If a top lawn bowls player died it might not affect you so much, but to lawn bowls afficionados it might be the biggest piece of bad news in decades. For rallying fans it's been quite some time since a top WRC competitor was killed, and Michael was well-liked by many people, so it has hit hard.

I'm sure Michael used to co-drive for Richard Burns (and Colin McRae), and so the news on Richard's health is a double blow.

[wayno]

Originally posted by Nick Short
I'm sure Michael used to co-drive for Richard Burns (and Colin McRae), and so the news on Richard's health is a double blow.

Did he co-drive or work preparing their pace notes? I know 'beef' did work with Burns and McRae, but I'm not sure it was in the second seat.

[basman]

I was already dissapointed by Peugeot's withdrawal from the WRC effective at the end of 2005 as this is the team I have supported since watching rallying on Channel 10 a number of years back but this is so insignificant when compared to what happened on the weekend to Beef. A truly great character in the world of rallying has been lost to all.

May his memory live on and I pass on my condolences to his family.

An unfortunate reminder that there are TWO competitors in each car and I for one would like the WRC to go back to the old days of 2003 and put BOTH driver's names on the windows instead of the current practice of just the driver (a practice put in place in 2004). The Co-driver deserves as much recognition as the driver in this sport and I feel they are not getting it these days.

[wayno]

Originally posted by basman
An unfortunate reminder that there are TWO competitors in each car and I for one would like the WRC to go back to the old days of 2003 and put BOTH driver's names on the windows instead of the current practice of just the driver (a practice put in place in 2004). The Co-driver deserves as much recognition as the driver in this sport and I feel they are not getting it these days.

Hear! Hear! I think it's a massive insult to the navs to put the drivers name up there so prominently. I think this was done for tv originally and a lot of the teams now have the co drivers name there as well if you look hard enough.

[rex555]

My condolences to the whole Park family. A sad day indeed.

It goes to show how safe the sport has become, that there have been some huge crashes in recent years, yet this is the first fatality in a long time. It is very unfortunate but you don't strap yourself into that seat without knowing the risks.

I agree with all those sentiments that the co-drivers name should be on the side of the car too. To me it is down right rude to fail to acknowledge the fact that they are in the car risking their lives as well as the driver.

[Tumbo]

Wayne is right in that Park only helped to prepare notes for Burns and McRae, for all interested here a site listing all his co-driving in recent yrs http://rallybase.nl/index.php?type=profile&driverid=43

With regard to the windows the annoying thing is that some privateers are exempt from the rule........:mad: the FIA just dont understand the fans anymore

[wayno]

Michael Park tribute video here. Click on 'Telecharger cette video.

Here (http://www.rallyeshots.com/)

Try to keep a dry eye. I failed.

[Tumbo]

I myself found it great to look back over the "good times" and see Markko and Park together- highly recommend it everyone

[Holden2003]

Just as a side issue to this tragic event, Will it stop the next few rallies? They probably need to determine, if anyone, was negligent in causing this crash. This could be like the organisers not following safety standards or some spectator tampering with the road. I don't know how the crash happened, only that the car's impact was on co-drivers side. One would expect an FIA enquiry at the bare minimum to the factors in this accident and determine any necessary changes. At the moment it looks like just a really bad crash with no one at fault.

[Tumbo]

the reports are that the wheels left the racing line, the car then slid off the road. Unfortunately the car hit the tree on the B-pillar, the area w/ least protection against a side impact.
Peugeot immediately after the incident said that they would pull out of the remaining ralliers but we will have to wait and see what happens. One can assume Markko will not enter any events for the remainder of the yr (if this is the case would be nice to see the no.8 retired for the rest of the season). If Peugeot were to return it would be a nice touch for a plain livery, similar to the 9/11 one Ferrari ran after the September 11 attacks.

It would be a real shame for the season to end on this note, especially as one would be put Michael's death as being unnecessary. When Toivonen was killed in (86?) the season continued as that is what he would have wanted. We just need to remember that this is motorsport and as such has inherent danger. We need to cut back on them so that we don't have these incidents occurring again.

[wayno]

Seems safety improvements were already on the cards.

The FIA and Peugeot were already finalising a joint project to improve side-impact protection on WRC cars before the fatal accident that killed co-driver Michael Park on yesterday's Rally GB.

With motorsport's governing body due to receive crash data today to start their own investigation into the accident, an FIA spokesperson has confirmed that plans were already underway to examine ways of increasing driver and co-driver protection.

Park, 39, was killed when his driver Markko Martin left the road yesterday and collided with a tree. It was the first fatality in the WRC in 12 years.

With the crash re-opening the debate into whether side-impact protection can be improved on WRC cars, sources have revealed that Peugeot bosses met with the FIA on the eve of last weekend's Welsh event to discuss their joint project into the matter.

It is understood that Peugeot will be supplying cars to the FIA Institute for laboratory crash testing.

An FIA Institute spokesperson said: "The FIA Institute has been developing a research programme on side impact protection for Rally cars. The project is being conducted in collaboration with Peugeot.

"Crash test simulations of side impacts are about to start at European test labs and the current Euro NCAP pole test is being used as the starting point for the development of a crash test protocol which meets the higher demands of motor sport and for specific application in rallying."

Only last month, ex-F1 medical delegate Professor Sid Watkins visited the Rally Finland and was concerned about the level of side-impact protection.

He told Autosport: "We are now looking more into the forces involved in the sport and their effects on the pilot and co-driver driver inside the car.

"Another very serious problem is the potential for intrusion from the side, which is one of the main areas we are looking at."

Just a pity it has come too late.

[Nick Short]

Unlike F1, where runoff areas have been hugely extended, walls and armco removed or moved further back, curves realigned, chicanes put in etc, rallying still has to contend with walls, trees, big drop offs, rocks, piles of logs, and of course instead of smooth consistent bitumen they have ice, snow, mud, gravel, dust, changing throughout a rally (or even a stage). An improvement in passive safety in the cars is one of the few things that can be done, unless they move to a rallycross type set up where cars compete on specially adapted circuits with all the safety features associated with race circuits. But that would fundamentally alter the whole nature of rallying, as a timed event covering public roads and varying terrain. Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto died (it was '86, Tumbo, on the Tour de Corse) because their Lancia left the road on an elevated section, dropping some metres into trees and catching fire. The year before on the same event, Lancia driver Attilio Bettega was killed because he hit a bridge abutment. Toivonen's death could have been avoided by better passive safety in the car's design, and Bettega's by padding the bridge, but how do you pad every tree and wall? Any car hitting a solid object at 140 kmh will cause serious injury to its drivers, and I'm not sure what passive safety features could save them. The Goodwood Festival of Speed has straw bales lining every metre of the track, to prevent cars hitting trees or spectators, but this would be impractical on a WRC event.

[Tumbo]

I read recently that Timo Salonen believes that Toivonen may have remembered the stage wrongly, that there are two similar corners. If this is the case then it just adds another dimension to the tragic accident :(

[Tumbo]

found another touching tribute to Park:

http://www.wrcfm.com/Michael_Park_Tribute.wmv

Yet more footage showing a man with his life in front of him :(

[Kiwiracing]

WOW I don't where I have been but I didn't even know of the accident, till I read this thread - RIP Michael.

In the second tribute to Michael video it that their accident near the beginning of the video?

Kiwiracing

[Tumbo]

its part of the incar footage from Rovenpera's car showing the accident site. The creator didn't want toinclude much as he didn't want to pset anyone. You can see Martin just pleading for help but apparantly he was a mess :( truly a sad day for rally fans.

[wayno]

Originally posted by Tumbo
its part of the incar footage from Rovenpera's car showing the accident site. The creator didn't want toinclude much as he didn't want to pset anyone. You can see Martin just pleading for help but apparantly he was a mess :( truly a sad day for rally fans.

Just so sad to see how frantic Martin was. Just heart wrenching stuff. I really hope he can get over it.
The load he must be carrying at the moment must be unbelievable.

[Tumbo]

from Rally-live.com

"Marie, Victoria, William and all of Michael's family wish to thank everybody in the World of Rallying, in Britain, Internationally and in particular Estonia, for their kind words and messages of love and support.

It is impossible to respond personally to everybody, but we really appreciate the genuine kindness at this difficult time.

Michael Park's funeral will be held at 12.00pm on Thursday October 6 at St Bartholomew's Church, Much Marcle, Ledbury, Herefordshire.

Messages of condolence should be sent to joanna.tp@turning-point.com.pl

These will be collated, bound and presented to the family after the funeral. "

[Nick Short]

With pace notes I wonder how Toivonen could have remembered it wrongly? If one bend was tighter than the other it should have been clear in the notes, unless he thought he knew it and was ignoring the notes. Cars back then were relatively flimsy, with plastics, flammable alloys and exotic fuel brews, so a modern rally car would probably have saved them. But as Michael Park's accident has shown, there's always that one factor that catches people out, when they think they've got safety covered. The introduction of HANS devices, raising the sides of F1 cockpits, wheel tethers, all brought in after tragedies caught people out. Even things like straw bale barriers in F1 removed after Bandini's awful accident at Monaco. Hopefully Michael Park's accident will bring in safety features that may save future competitors, but no form of motorsport will ever be completely safe.

Martin apparently doesn't remember the accident, so maybe that's merciful. An awful experience for him.

[rex555]

Nick,

Have you ever been at full noise in a rally car? Things happen REALLY fast. I can understand entirely how you can mistake one corner for another. Can you imagine trying to learn all the corners for the Tour de Course? Even with pace notes it can be really difficult to find your place again. There is a certain French driver who has tried to learn events on his mountan bike tho'.

As you say we can only hope that this crash brings about safety changes for competitors that may even flow on to road cars. A far more likely scenario than F1 technology filtering down to road cars.

And if the sport was 'safe as houses' would anyone really want to do it?

Regards

Neil