His brakes failed, he aimed the car at Gugelmin to try and slow down before the wall but missed, tried to spin it but was too fast. Thats from his own description of the crash.

By coincidence, I now live in the same town as Mark Blundell in the UK. Sometimes see him around, would love to chat with him about but still too shy to bother him! These were best days of Indy racing, I remember as a kid being able to stay up late to watch every other Sunday night on Eurosport. Loved Zanardi, but it was a great series with so many top drivers, the likes or Moore (RIP), Andretti, Vasser, Tracy, Unser Jr, Gugelmin, Rahal, Blundell, de Feran, Herta….. the list goes on. This was a great circuit, rare to have an oval with heavy braking zones, but also quite dangerous - MB was lucky to get away with that. Doesn't exist anymore, along with the road course it all got ripped up and turned into a sports venue for the 2016 Olympics.

Adrenaline is amazing stuff. Blundell managed to walk away from the crash until the adrenaline wore off and the pain from two broken legs hit him, which is why he collapsed.

@miguelelgueta5830

7 жыл бұрын

glitchesnbugs yep its crazy, in youtube theres lots of videos of people suffering serious injury and always the first reaction is to put yourself in two legs instinctively.

@cameronw3159

3 жыл бұрын

Don’t forget a blood clot in the brain, lungs had collided with his rips. Muscle ripped off his sternum and his head hit his wheel and the wall

Rio was a strange oval. Turns 1 and 4 were quite tight and the track didn't have much banking. It made it more like a road course having just left-handers.

@stephanierodriguez5461

7 жыл бұрын

It was called a Roval, and it was great

@bradydicarlo9143

6 жыл бұрын

It sure was. Shame they stopped going there, I thought it was a really cool track.

@chrish931

5 жыл бұрын

@@bradydicarlo9143 Yeah what was left of it was torn up for the Olympic park too, so they'll never race there again.

@thiagom.6679

4 жыл бұрын

His crash angle reminds me Senna’s accident at Tamburello corner in Imola 94.

@2themoon863

3 жыл бұрын

I wish someone would build a duplicate of that track (Jacaparega) here in the U.S.; it reminds me somewhat of Pocono, the way turns 1 and 4 are real sharp over 90-degree turns, while 2 and 3 looked more like two Tunnel turns at Pocono, or even the back stretch at Phoenix.

I always wonder when i see old vids with Greg moore what he could have achieved had he not had that tragic accident! He was young , a bit of geek but sooo tallented. RIP

@stefanolov

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah surley F1 material in that young man .

@sultanabran1

4 жыл бұрын

i felt bad when i saw greg moore

@billymc2681

4 жыл бұрын

Moore had some good years in front of him.

@brianpeters7847

4 жыл бұрын

Miss him in Canada

@ervinthompson6598

4 жыл бұрын

Head on into that unyielding wall at Fontana , at what appeared to be full speed - there was no chance - RIP

I watched that crash live, and 22 years later I still have no idea how he survived much less got out of the car by himself.

@obscurereference6298

2 жыл бұрын

1. Hit on his side not head first which makes it less likely your brain will get knocked around in your skull. (your head swings forward much farther than to it's side, so less launch) 2. Dissipation from the car debris. 3. Also because it hit on the side meant it wasn't a complete stop so there was some momentum left with the car still moving and the body didn't have to absorb it. (kinda like how flipping is better also) 4. That safety team should always get more credit then they do. 5, Blundell's driving to hit the brakes, use the grass to give himself more track to scrub off speed and the way he angled the car. That's a calm driver in the moment.

@R9naldo

Жыл бұрын

Chassis was built to split in half so that the man doesn't split in half

Mark Blundell just took 122G's of impact-force here... Wow... I can't believe someone could survive that at all, let alone get out by their own power. Just... Wow...

@urmo345

9 жыл бұрын

cockpit is stronger, Gordon Smiley died in very similar crash, car just shattered into pieces....

@Wowthatsfail

6 жыл бұрын

sideslick1024 adrenaline can do weird things

@TheMW2informer

5 жыл бұрын

sideslick1024 in a normal street car with the crash test dummies they say over 60-80 is fatal.. that impact at full speed makes me wonder how he survived!

@a.l.264

10 ай бұрын

I remember he said in an interview that the safety belts had stretched 3-4 inches!

@nathanwilliams2152

6 ай бұрын

@@a.l.264- absolutely. Unlike poor Gordon Smiley though, the impact was not head-on, and the chassis was far stronger. His hit was quite side-on, which meant that there was energy being dissipated away from him rather than into him. Lucky man.

Je-sus ! How did Blundell survive that impact? Those engineers at Reynard saved his life.

@fxb0412

3 жыл бұрын

I really think the fact the right front hitting the wall first took some of the blow away from him. If he had hit head on or on the right side flush, different story. It's amazing the g forces the drivers are subjected to just going around the track, especially when they hit the wall this hard.

@941phantom

3 жыл бұрын

Reynard built their Indy Cars like tanks. Sure miss those cars.

@R9naldo

Жыл бұрын

By this time the cars were built to break like this on impact

@ianwalker4030

Жыл бұрын

@@941phantom different strength Reynard to Herbert’s F3000, then…..in MBs’ accident drivers legs still too far forward in this design? Even so MEGA impact/obviously so pleased MB survived this.

Not the biggest Blundell fan but what a hard bastard. How he escaped with minor injuries is beyond me. No safer barriers back then either.

Most bad ass thing I've ever seen is him getting out of that car. Ever.

@matsimmo6208

5 жыл бұрын

the reason he fell over afterwards is because his leg was completely broken, he had that much adrenaline that he didn't notice until after he'd walked 10 meters.

@MarkPentler

5 жыл бұрын

Bryan Carey more like “didn’t know he was injured” H

@alastairjones0

4 жыл бұрын

Mat Simpson he’d have done anything to get out, car could have easily gone up in flames.

Thanks for the vision Tony. You really made it better.

Wow, Mark Blundell beat the concrete wall that day. He even popped the steering wheel and hopped out of the car on his own, right away... busted leg and all. Amazing.

At 3:35 You can see Senna's Cartoon right next the Honda outdoor...

@erikrost22

8 жыл бұрын

.-.

@protalukoriginal4560

4 жыл бұрын

.___.

@dennin2178

4 жыл бұрын

He is a very,very popular cartoon in brazil,he's name of the cartoon is senninha

i honestly think this rio track may be the best racing track devised. 2 long straights with hard braking at either end. amazing for racing

@3:35 : Senninha

anyone else notice the blimp in the air at 0:38 doing flips n shit?

@ItsDSP

6 жыл бұрын

Chase Ponder I never knew a blimp can move around that fast. That’s some next level stuff.

@RodFelix

4 жыл бұрын

@ThirdGear Now yes

Emocionantes vueltas!! Que gran categoria y que gran circuito!!

Somehow he didn't get a basal skull fracture, which is unbelievable in that era.

why should you skip? there is great racing in the first minutes!

his brakes failed. Mark said the disc bell exploded so he couldnt slow down. so he aimed for Gugelmin, missed him and hit the wall at a shallow angle. it was a 122g impact

Man, Greg was something else. Mark is one hard man. Great Driver. Tough mawfhawk

You got Zanardi who would lose both legs, Greg Moore who died... crazy.

@ADadasadasdadw

3 жыл бұрын

There's also Jeff Krosnoff, who unfortunately lost his life in the same year in the Toronto race.

I was 11 years old at that time and I watched this racing at house of an aunt of mine by Brazilian broadcast.

FUCK! When they show it at full speed that is such a nasty impact!!!

@davedavidson9996

3 жыл бұрын

Senna's crash in the long shot looks a lot like the end of Blundell's here . Quite fast and a similar angle into the concrete. The zoomed in version of Senna's accident distorts the impression of speed across the track.

The noise of the impact was the most sickening, it sounded like a bomb going off.

Man i miss the days when indy raced on ovals. My ps2 indy game is only ovals and the sense of speed is unreal once you slide you are done. These battles were so great. I understand the safety concerns of why they run only 2 or 3 a year now but i pine for these old races

Absolutely stacked field, damn!

I forget how long we've had the SAFER Barrier until I see an impact like this and realize that I'm hiding behind the furniture. "We used to think this was normal? HOW?" Edit: What a beautiful track design. Wikipedia tells me that this place no longer exists; what a crying shame.

@frederico.cavalcante

4 жыл бұрын

Rio 2016 Olympic Park was bulit on this site. Jacarepaguá road course and this “road oval” were great tracks indeed.

That is a huge accident and nearly nailed the back of Gugelmin's car The replay shows that Blundell locks the brakes

I was there! Incredible video!

@proro1974 I don't know about aiming for another car to slow down. Later in this season Blundell said his brake pedal went to the floor and he intentionaly pitched the car into the grass to try to scrub off speed and cause rotation to impact the wall with one of its rear corners. It all went wrong when he slid back on track and the car snapped in the other direction.

Autosport. :) i had too you tube it as well. proro1974 is right, his brakes failed. he hit the wall at 198mph and smashed his head on the steering wheel and wall! which he struck at an 11 degree angle, almost head on! hes so lucky to be alive.

Man I miss Champ car racing!

pure racing!

That's one of the hardest impacts I've ever seen. Thank heavens Blundell got out of that.

I like how they always say that energy is leaving the car when it breaks up. I don't care how much energy leaves that's still a helluva lick!

@geek49203 At this time? No. CART's decline didn't occur until the dawn of the millennium, They still retained a balanced roster in 1996.

The racetrack turned it into the venues for 2016 Rio Olympics

Woho... thats a bad one, very lucky that he survived that crash. 10 or 20 years earlier and death would be instant on a crash like this.

RIP Greg Moore

@ludaheracles7201

4 жыл бұрын

RIP kronsnoff

That was a hard hit!

Fantastic work from the designers of the chassis. Car splits in half so that the driver doesn't split in half

I remember watrching this live that was real scary

This was a great track imo

Damn. Wow.

Well..I think the current IndyCar roster is pretty balanced. What those cars need are more horsepower because the product on the track has been really good otherwise.

these cars are still amazing.

Seen a few hits like this at Indy in person.... Sam Schmidt in the late 90s and Kanaan several yrs later. Saw Jimmy Johnson and Jimmy Spenser w the same issue in turn 3...only in a stock car. Video doesnt do justice to the violence of these crashes. Break failures have to be a racers nightmare.

@AutomotionMedia

7 жыл бұрын

how was this a brake failure though?

maybe the most brutal impact i ever saw a driver walk away from

was there a landfill behind the wall? wow, zero impact absorption! now I understand why the car broke in half ...

It wasn’t as head on as people say, from watching it back all these years later. More an angled hit. Probably helped.

My goodness what on earth has happened to open wheel racing in the US today.

@steaustin8789

Жыл бұрын

It's all gone to shit

Que saudades do autódromo do rio de janeiro. .

This is why we have SAFER barriers...

RIP Greg Moore ☹️

no fuckin safety wall at this time.. Damn that was a hard impact.. At first i thought it was fatal.. Damn that hurts

i think something broken. look at 3:24. The car turn very fast left.

Skip to 3:20 for the crash ;)

Im not saying you have to, just some people (Like myself at the time) just wanted to see the crash and then move on.

"lucky impact for him to walk away" *falls down realising he was actually badly injured

I miss Greg Moore.

that was a very very very big hit !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Que pancada.

that was a big time car wreck

Good to see greg moore!rip

A one o’clock hit - worst there is , and more justification for safer barriers!!

Looks like a sticky throttle.

Wow. Horrible hit.

Big Crash!

Billy had after that a good carrier...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Adrenaline definitely was on high after that car stopped the thing should have blown up into flames.. Martin is a lucky man

Rip jacarepagua

3:29 U can thank me later

@FOH3663

4 жыл бұрын

Many will appreciate the info ... but they'll miss some fantastic racing

Looked like his helmet came damn close to hit the wall

@kwasg3

4 жыл бұрын

A And no hans on when he gets out. Can't remember if they were using them in 96, I don't think so.

@solitaryclusterofneurons598

2 жыл бұрын

@@kwasg3 HANS wasn't a thing until the millenium iirc, might've been about in 98 or 99

Looks like he took a harder hit trying to avoid his teammate.....

@tomw5107

6 жыл бұрын

Joshua Krome he actually wanted to hit him to scrub off some speed. He was aiming for him and missed.

How the hell did he have the strength to get out on his own

@patriley5333

4 жыл бұрын

I would estimate high adrenaline and a sudden state of shock combined with fear of burning to death when he came to a stop gave him the energy to overcome his broken bones

He JUST missed Gugelmin! His TEAMMATE!

@deadbeatsociety4705

7 жыл бұрын

In a couple of interviews later in the season, MB said he was aiming for his team mate. As soon as he realised his brakes had failed, he was hoping to soften the hit by running into his team mate. He provided guest commentary on the season highlights show and specifically said this during the highlights for Brazil race. You have to remember, back in those days, a head-on hit at that speed was fatal more often than not. So him aiming at his teammate was more-or-less a last ditch attempt at survival.

@RobJaskula

4 жыл бұрын

@@deadbeatsociety4705 read an interview with him where he said after he missed Gugelmin, he tried to spin and then accepted death

Fwd to 3:30

Damn... Greg Moore was a hell of a racer. RIP :( Mark was forever 'running out of talent' and crashing, just look at his F1 days. (glad he was ok though)

@thiscocks

5 жыл бұрын

I think he ran out of brakes there. Blundell had plenty of talent.

@8-bitsteve500

5 жыл бұрын

I think his results say otherwise. lol

@thiscocks

5 жыл бұрын

@@8-bitsteve500 What like winning Le Mans?

@penskepc2374

4 жыл бұрын

Didn't he duel it out with Senna for year in F2? I read that somewhere along with his career being plagued by poor equipment and misfortune.

@RobJaskula

4 жыл бұрын

@@penskepc2374 that's Martin Brundle in F3 in 1983. There's a great documentary about the season on Dailymotion (might be Vimeo) called Senna v. Brundle. Martin was extremely unlucky to never win a Grand Prix, and he was forever fighting an uphill battle - a terrible crash at the 1984 US Grand Prix in Dallas cost him the ability to left foot brake, a tremendous disadvantage for the rest of his career. Brundle still managed a whole heap of podium finishes, but never won a race. Mark Blundell had three third places in F1 and scored points six different times the year before this crash, so he was far from a reject himself. The two were teammates a couple of times, and had a business together for several years.

Thud

His brakes were working. The throttle got stuck from what I remember. Greg Moore pulled off a great pass from the outside to win. Zanardi blames Arnd Meier. Awesome race! I wish this track was still in good shape.

anyone know if he was hurt ?? that was one nasty hit

@RobJaskula

4 жыл бұрын

Broke his foot/ankle and his back

@mikeabner5935

4 жыл бұрын

He also had a subdural hematoma that wasn't discovered until he arrived back in England

@carlosbarton763

7 ай бұрын

​@mikeabner5935 Surprised that you're the first person I've seen mention that here, Blundell discusses that detail in a few interviews including the Smithsonian one

mark's son goes to my school

Wow are these carts? *I thought carts were smaller*

@edisaacsson9614

4 жыл бұрын

Nah these were big-ass, heavy cars. It was just before the series split into Indycar and Champcar and was in my opinion the greatest 4 or 5 years of American open wheel racing. As good as F1 at its best. I miss it a lot. The cars and the drivers.

what are you talking about....first the brakes exploded at a near u-turn corner this fact backed up by friends on the pac-west team, second, greg moore did not pass anyone to win at rio in 1996....we won that race, tasman and driver andre riberio, the driver you were bad mouthing on the road america video....dude, pull your head out of your ass and get your facts straight....

I think he lost pressure on the brakes and hit the wall very hard. He had a bruised toe and forced to sit out for 3 races

The crash was more exciting than the boring race.