The Crash – A Personal Account
2007 by Joey Foster
The previous race had been held in Holland two weeks before. It had turned out to be a frustrating race weekend even though I had closed the gap to Championship leader Ho-pin Tung. I had had pole position for both races but had misses out on converting them into wins. The first race I had dropped back to forth after running wide on oil and in the second race the rear tyre exploded whilst I was leading.
I felt confident that the Lausitzring Oval race would present the opportunity to overcome the previous bad luck and re take the lead in the Championship. My combination of my great team (HS Technik) and the Lola chassis I was driving had meant we had never struggled for pace the whole season. I knew they would be better than most the other teams in the paddock at adapting the F3 car to the oval. Formula 3 cars were never built to race on ovals and had only twice before in previous seasons at the Lausitzring. So it was always going to be demanding not just on the driver but for the teams as well. Harald my Latvian team mate had raced it the previous year and told me "It is flat out all the way you know". I was revelling in the challenge.
The 26th and the 27th were Oval training days for the drivers and for the spotters. Briefings and test runs in road cars around the track to make sure we were all clear on what to expect. We all had to have a spotter that stood at the very top of the impressive main grandstand which overlooks the whole track. I had chosen Alex Kemp as mine. I needed someone I understood and who understood me in a racing situation. Alex is a friend but may as well be a brother as he helped me as a mechanic in my early karting days and had lived in my parent's house in Cornwall throughout the time we were at college. So he was the perfect man to have to relay the information about the whereabouts of the other cars on the race track. After the two days of often tedious test runs and briefings all the drivers were eager to get out onto the track in the F3 cars. By the end of the Thursday the 27th every driver had a 2006 Oval competitors licence.
Lausitzring 28th July 2006
The day started well. Harald my team mate set out onto the oval first. On his return to the pits I leaned into his cockpit and asked him if the circuit was still flat out just like it was the previous year. "Yes, but a touch more bumpy in turn 2" he said as he smiled.
With the car and the team all ready I jumped in the Lola and headed out towards the exit of the pit lane. Alex was given a code word at the top of the grandstand (which didn't make much sense as Alex's version of German is to just talk English and add "en" onto the end of every word) which I relayed to the guy at the lights. It was their way of checking each driver had clear communication with the spotter up in the grandstand. I remember doing two build up laps then on the third lap I kept my foot to the floor heading into turn 1. The approach felt quick. As I looked into the turn it suddenly looked a whole lot sharper and longer than it had on the test runs with the road cars. With the concrete retaining wall on the outside shaping the bend ahead it really gave me an impression of the speed we were carrying. I knew it was flat so I didn't lift off the throttle. I kept it low and the car loaded up with the down force. I felt the bumps but the car didn't move. As I expected the grip produced by the wings on the car was so great it was easily flat out. After a couple of laps we were down to a good time. We gathered some more data to review and then I pitted.
Harald and I knew we had an advantage over the other drivers. We worked well together and we knew we could run closely on the track with the understanding of how each other was going react in a situation. This meant we could get the best out of one another's slipstream. We ran closely and it was working well. The lead car of the two of us would pull the car behind around the first two turns giving him a sling shot out to pass into the third and final turn. The other car would then lead. Every other lap we would sacrifice for each other. It was a huge advantage. The momentum we achieved from this threw us to the top of the time sheets clear of the rest of the field by a complete second. It was looking very rosy for the weekend ahead.
Over lunch I had a chat with Harald. I had an idea but wasn't sure if he would be willing to run with it. He agreed with me and we had a plan for the afternoons running. The idea was to try bump drafting. Used in America frequently on the ovals during NASCAR races it in theory was going to work. It was just going to be fraction more risky in the F3 cars. We agreed Harald would slipstream up to the gear box on my car then on the straights give me a push with his extra momentum before backing out again before the turns. This way we could both get the advantage of the extra momentum and in a race situation we could possible break from the chasing pack. I didn't know at this moment we would never get a chance to put it into practice.
I had a chat with Erich my engineer. We made some small changes to the setup of the car involving the tracking on the Lola. We could create less drag if we squewed the car on the straights. Giving it a crabbing effect. The change would be small enough that I wouldn't really notice whilst in the car yet it would make a difference possibly to lap time.
Once again we were ready to go. Harald followed me out of the pit lane and onto the circuit. We steadily built up speed. By the third lap once again we were flat out. Looking in my mirrors I could see the blue and yellow colours of Harald's car about 6 car lengths behind. He would over the next lap or so tow up to my car and we would put the plan into action. When we had completed our 6th lap he was still no closer. I thought maybe our changes to the car had given us an advantage even over my team mates machine. I decided to see what lap time I could achieve by myself before we tried anything else.
Approaching turn 1 starting the 7th lap I could see a slower car up high. Great for me as this meant I wouldn't have to alter my line as I was going to get close to the line on the inside of the turn to keep the shortest line possible. I knew that was the fastest place to be. Alex called out "slower car up high" I had already seen it. "Slower car moving down" he called again. I saw him moving down but knew he would have a spotter warning him about me so I kept my foot flat down. The car kept moving down and Alex called again. He hadn't seen me. I had to react or catch his left side as I passed on the inside. I moved all I could to the left and missed him. However, my left tyres had caught on the kerbing on the inside and the force pulled the Lola onto the top of it. I couldn't lift as I knew the car would spin, I had to ride it out. With my foot flat to the floor on the throttle I got the car pass the middle point of the turn then it let go. The rear end lost grip as the kerb ended and it was facing backwards in an instant. I thought I had done enough to avoid a monster shunt. I had seen the exit of the turn and I believed I could put in enough lock after the car had turned to keep the car down from the wall. At that speed the momentum was too great. The car rode up the track and hit the concrete retaining wall square backwards. The impact was enormous. I cannot describe it. It was over faster than I could blink and made a sound that I never want to hear again. The car bounced off the wall and slid back across the track. A following car narrowly missed collecting me at high speed as it appeared through the dust and smoke and gearbox parts that were rapidly ejecting themselves from the Lola. The car continued sliding along the race circuit and I found it difficult to breath. When it stopped I eventually caught my breath. I believed I was ok just winded. I reached down to pull the radio paddle on the back of the steering wheel to tell Alex I was still conscious and was ok. However, the wheel was missing and my legs had shifted back and were up against the bulkhead. That is when I first felt the pain in my lower back. I couldn't move and just decided to concentrate on breathing and wait for the circuit doctors to arrive. I managed to get some movement out of my feet and my first thoughts were "whatever happens from here, in the long run, it is all going to be fine". My second thought turned to the fear of fire. Wondering if the fuel lines and been ruptured. Thankfully the incident crews took little time to arrive.
I realised that I had to explain to the doctors everything that I was feeling to make sure they could do their job in the best way possible. The adrenaline was still running and I was thinking clearly. It now seemed as though I had become the race car and now they were the engineers. For them to help fix my problems I had to tell them everything I knew about what was happening to me. Just as a driver you would help the engineers fix the car as best they could so you would have the best setup. Unfortunately the medical crew had had no experience using the extraction seat which is used in exactly these types of situations. So they had to lift me out using sheer man power. I think there were seven or so of them around me and when they lifted I knew I was in trouble. The pain was immense in my lower back and all I could do was shout. A friendly face appeared above me and I asked him for something for the pain. "You will be ok now" he said, and immediately the pain went. Morphine was about to become a close friend of mine for the next week at least.
From there the next 15 hours was quite a daze. I remember Alex looking over me in the medical centre and I was the one trying to reassure him. He looked worried. He obviously wasn't flying as high as me. A helicopter arrived and took me to a nearby hospital in Cottbus. No familiar face was there and it seemed so surreal. One minute I had been in an environment I knew so well and loved the next was truly bizarre. The doctors and nurses lifted me from one scanner to the next and the pain was overwhelming the morphine. Broken English was being spoken to me but it was difficult to understand. Most of the people in that area had learnt Russian as their second language due to Cottbus being close to the border. The memories get vague and I remember a very German looking doctor explaining I had broken my back and they needed to operate right away. I knew already I had done just that. An oxygen mask appeared and then bang, lights out!
They operated three times in the space of four weeks and I remained in the Karl-Theim-Klinicum hospital in Cottbus for 7 weeks in total. I had broken three vertebrae in my neck and three in my lower back. One in my lower back was shattered completely and was replaced with a metal cage in the third operation. I also broke my collarbone which was just left to heal by itself and mainly provided an annoyance compared to my lower back. The doctors explained to me just how lucky I was to still be able to walk after such an accident and I knew a guardian angel had been watching over me that Friday afternoon.
The seven weeks in hospital proved to be the toughest in my life by a mighty long way. Although I was overwhelmed by all my friends, family and also people that I had never met before who lifted me up and gave me what I needed to get back on my feet. The room on the hospital was full of cards and flowers and all sorts I had been sent and it really gave me a boost. This website contains many messages in the archives of the guestbook that I received, and I am so grateful for all of them.
I owe so much to the medical team at the track and also the doctors at Cottbus for using their expertise to fix me back up and get me walking again. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else in that situation.
There are pictures now available to see in the photo section which is exclusive to this site from moments after the crash and through the hospital period.