La Carrera Panamericana 2012 ran its third day yesterday, and we’ve got a report of a five-cars-over-a-cliff wreck during yesterday’s race segment ending in Querétaro.
TTAC’s correspondent in Mexico is Christine The Arc Angel, known to thousands of 24 Hours of LeMons racers as the woman who welds the barnyard animals to their cars after a bad-driving bout. She’ll be sending us photos and descriptions as cellphone service in rural Mexico permits; you can also keep up with the action by reading her blog.
Christine is serving as interpreter for Taz Harvey’s and Rudy Vajdak’s Datsun 510 team, which took the Class A Historic win for Sunday’s race session.
Here’s Doug Mockett’s amazing ’54 Olds, which you may recall hauling ass up the mountain at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb.
The hot topic in Santiago de Querétaro was the five-car crash that ate some very nice machinery. Here’s Christine’s account.
Paul Hladky and Adrian Gerrit in a Studebaker lost it on a corner and stopped , when a Porsche hit them and pushed them about a off the road on the hill. They were fine, until another Porsche lost it and hit the first Porsche, who hit the Studebaker and stuffed it down the rest of this small hill. But then, the story gets crazier. An Alfa driven by Trevor Pettennude and Joshua Finkleman spins out at the same turn and stops, both driver and navigator get out just in time to have a Mercedes lose it and hit their car, bringing the car collection at the bottom of the hill to a ridiculous toll of FIVE cars! Incredibly, everyone is fine, only one broken ankle to report.
Sadly, the first day of La Carrera claimed the life of Javier Dávalos Valenzuela, whose Studebaker rolled in Puerto del Aire.
It’s a shame for classic race cars to go out like that, but we’re sure at least a couple of them will be fixed up to race again. Meanwhile, the trophy girls are getting ready for tonight’s awards ceremonies in Morelia.
The post Carrera Panamericana Crash Destroys Studebaker, Porsches, Alfa, and a Benz; Everyone Survives appeared first on The Truth About Cars.
