Deaths
In the 50 years of racing, three drivers have died while competing in the Bathurst 1000.
In 1986, Sydney accountant and privateer entrant Mike Burgmann became the first fatality in the race's history when his car (Holden VK Commodore), travelling at 268 km/h (167 mph), struck the tyre barrier at the base of recently constructed Bridgestone Bridge (Then called John Player Special) on the high-speed straight known as Conrod Straight. "The Chase", a large three-corner chicane, added in 1987 to the straight was dedicated to Burgmann with a plaque embedded in the concrete barriers.
In 1992, former Formula One world champion Denny Hulme, after complaining of blurred vision, suffered a heart attack at the wheel of his BMW M3 whilst travelling along Conrod Straight. After veering into the wall on the left side of the track, he managed to bring the car to a relatively controlled stop on the opposite side of the course. When marshals reached the scene, Hulme was unconscious; he was pronounced dead at Bathurst Hospital after suffering a second heart attack.
In 1994, Melbourne privateer entrant Don Watson died during practice when his car (Holden VP Commodore) left the circuit and hit a barrier on Conrod Straight.
Additionally the 2006 event was marred by the death of New Zealand driver Mark Porter in a Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series support race on the Friday of the meeting. Porter had been scheduled to compete in the 1000 as a driver for the Brad Jones Racing team.
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Famous quotes containing the word deaths:
“This is the 184th Demonstration.
...
What we do is not beautiful
hurts no one makes no one desperate
we do not break the panes of safety glass
stretching between people on the street
and the deaths they hire.”
—Marge Piercy (b. 1936)
“Death is too much for men to bear, whereas women, who are practiced in bearing the deaths of men before their own and who are also practiced in bearing life, take death almost in stride. They go to meet death—that is, they attempt suicide—twice as often as men, though men are more “successful” because they use surer weapons, like guns.”
—Roger Rosenblatt (b. 1940)
“As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)