Mike Harrison, the one in the air, was involved in
both accidents, the video and the still photo. He currently is building engines for vette racers. I met him at Carolina Motorsports a few years ago, he was hanging out with Greer and Rich Shaffer of Cool Shirts..
He was lucky, he was knock out with his car burning, he never new who pulled him out. broke his back and legs. dont think he ever raced again.
His injuries were not that severe...he did race after that for several years in a Coupe (appears as a 1982 GT-1). I drive the car from time to time now in some vintage events. We have almost completed restoration of the "roadster" in the photos. I met Mike when I was in High School (mid 70s) and practiced/developed my Corvette collision repair skills on his racecars. He's still a great friend and we still plan on going racing together, with both of the #11 cars at the same time...
Can you fill us in on the details of what lead up to the crash and some of the racers involved. Do you know who was in the camaro everyone was hitting and ending up in the trees? Which car caught fire first. I sold him some BBS wheels years ago, lost his info. He was in Southern CA..
Who pulled Mike out of his car or was he thrown out. Always heard he ended up on the guard rail. Would like more details, would find it interesting to hear it from someone who witnessed it or was there. My info was second hand. Are you the owner of Rocket Roy, Vintage Dirt racing? Did you and Mike race together at the 83 runoffs?
So the 82 GT1 is being race by you now? where you guys racing at, what series. Would enjoy seeing the cars run together.
I apologize for the slow response, but that's a bunch of questions...I am the owner of "Rocket Roy" along with other strange junk, I teach a High School Motorsports Technology program, and we will work on or build whatever the kids are interested in (within reason).
The photo with Newman (PL) was at the bridge in the 1983 runoffs, the video(?) of the fire was in the spring of '84, after the Roadster was rebuilt after the PL event. I was not at either of these races, but was invlolved in the repair/rebuild of the cars. The Spring pile up resulted from a sudden rain shower (read, torential down pour) almost exclusivly in turn 7 (?) that took everyone by surprise...especially 17 of the 20 race participants. I've got newspaper articles in a scrap book about both events. I'll try to get Mike to sign in here and tell the WHOLE story.
I've never been on the racetrack at the same time with Mike, I just hung out and helped when I could and over the years he has probably been one of the real true friends in my life. He's about 15 years older than I am so I used to look to him for "fatherly" advise from time to time...I had no idea until later in life how dangerous that was.
I try to run the coupe at least once a year just for the sake of driving the car...for me it is such and honor...and Mike always shows up to help, and it's always a blast. In my opinion he is one of the most knowledgable people I know when it comes to running a race car. There may be a lot of stuff he don't know, but he KNOWS how to get a car around a racetrack, by whatever means neccessary. Back in the day he was very intense when he was in "Race Mode" and even today he can be relentless, even when he doesn't feel well. I love the old dude, he's a hoot to hang with, once you get to know him.