RIP - Carlin Dunne

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Carlin Dunne was called "King of the Mountain" as a 5x Pikes Peak Hillclimb winner. He was riding a 2019 Ducati V4 Streetfighter prototype, and had the fastest qualifying times this week.

For those unfamiliar, the hillclimb started in 1916 and is 12.4 mi (19.99 km) with 156 turns, gaining 4,720 ft (1,440 m) in elevation along the course. Winning times on a mc are sub 10 min.

He died today 20m from the finish, when he went off the right side of the course.

Here is a video from his 2018 winning run. You can see the area where he would have crashed at the end, and why it would be fatal.

 
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I saw that, sad news for sure.

Speeds have sky rocketed since the surface changed to hard, not that it wasn't dangerous in the old days.


There is a big difference in getting sideways and getting a knee down, it is not Pikes Peak of yesteryear, just a road up a mountain now. (imho)
 
Yeah, I kinda agree on that. Still, 120mph on a Multistrada up a mountain road 156 turns in that elevation gain and where a crash puts you falling a LOOONGG way is nothing to sneeze at.
 
It would be scary until the end.
I forget which year, the 1980's and a three man team on a RM250D (iirc) .. I did the first and final lap... all well until I slid off the top ridge T at Riverhead forest... We (+ bike) landed on the slope into a cut in track maybe a power pole height down, off the edge of that was a maybe a 200 foot drop to a river (which looked the size of a string)... It is very quiet for the time you are free falling.
If I had gone off wheels up, who knows.

I never forgot that, Gods Speed Carlin Dunne.
 
Was checking for results yesterday and saw this. There has been some outcry about the poor pavement contributing to the deadly accident. At those altitudes, frost heaves tend to destroy the roadbed and turn the surface into a roller coaster of whoop-dee-do's. Remember this is a public road, and like the real-road racing across the pond from here, there are normally no small get-offs. and not a lot of safety features.

R.I.P Carlin Dunne
 
Check out his video of the Day 3 recap. He talks about using the frost heaves as berms to get more speed and that the course was so rough it was like riding motocross at 120 mph. Scary.

 
Until the last few seconds where it was like, "Oh shit, I think I fucked this up..."
 
I was still going to the track regularly when Carlin started racing as a youngster at our local track, Willow Springs, and we chatted occasionally at the track. He was a genuinely nice guy, friendly and without the extreme ego quirks of some racers, but it was obvious from the start that he had talent. His death was a real loss to the racing community.

Ken
 
Until the last few seconds where it was like, "Oh shit, I think I fucked this up..."

If you think too much about crashes, you would never ride a motorcycle. You might not have noticed, but if you are racing a bike and have a bad moment, things take forever to happen - so you have plenty of time to get the bike back under control. If you fell off the side of a mountain on a motorcycle, in your mind you would probably never reach the ground. You would have a lot of time to think about what was happening. It is one of the effects of adrenalin. If you take a beta-blocker, you get even more time to react without the grab around the heart.
 
But his death might have been worse. Without the accident he might have reached a ripe old age and finished up with the horrors of an aged care facility. I don't know which would be worse. Going early doing something you really love might not be all bad. I am 77, should I stop riding my bike because I might have a stroke and die ? I have already had three. What is important ? - For me, it is only the way I will be remembered.
 
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Agree with you for maybe first time , only advice would be to use the slowed down time perception during your get off to avoid hurting any innocents in reach , with all your experience should be not too difficult ... enjoy your ride as long as you can !!!
Also you will be remembered here for some of your more colourful posts for ever , if that is important to you
 
I've been checking videos of record runs such as Chris Fillmore's and Carlin Dunne's own 2018 winner. I sort of remembered the last turn from riding PP several years ago, but even in CF's 2017 hvywt record run, you can see and hear the bike hop over the whoops while slightly leaned over. There is a tight spot at the beginning of the turn, then it opens up for WFO to the finish. Possibly one of the heaves launched Dunne over the cliff under the brutal acceleration of the Duc V4. Rennie Scaysbrook said Dunne was at least 5 seconds faster than he was and the new record he set this year was 5 seconds faster than Fillmore's best from 2017. Five seconds is a huge margin in a 45-minute MotoGP race, 10 would be a runaway. Ten seconds better than the record set 2 years ago in a 12-mile race is a tremendous difference. The thing that bothers me the most is, Dunne could have let off the throttle though that fatal last bend and still would have won AND set a new record.
 
Many of us have major psychological problems. Once the motor in my bike fires up, I am never going to crash again. Is that reality ?
 
Frost heave, dirt, paint, or just a finish line suspension of concentration - something got him.

Roads are built differently than race tracks. They are crowned and striped. Morning dew lingers on the paint and it’s off camber on the other side of that slippery line; in that first video you can hear wheel spin as he crosses the double yellow on many of his exits, and even as he powers over some of the inside white lines too.
 
Frost heave, dirt, paint, or just a finish line suspension of concentration - something got him.

Roads are built differently than race tracks. They are crowned and striped. Morning dew lingers on the paint and it’s off camber on the other side of that slippery line; in that first video you can hear wheel spin as he crosses the double yellow on many of his exits, and even as he powers over some of the inside white lines too.

+1 on that:(. Roads are far scarier than race tracks. We just had a bunch of road repairs where they filled cracks with asphalt/tar, otherwise known as tar snakes. They can be very slippery when fresh, particularly on hot days. I've had both front and rear wheel slips going over them, and that's really slowed me down in those areas. Someone like Carlin would have been flying over them at full throttle, slipping and sliding, with no worries. The really good racers are just a different breed than the rest of us.

Ken
 
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