Subaru Rally Team USA driver & codriver killed in stage accident

freakray · #1 07-13-2003, 11:13 AM

Article here: http://www.speedarena.com/artman/pub...cle_3081.shtml

Quote:

Subaru Rally Team USA superstars Mark Lovell, 43 , and Roger Freeman, 52, both of England, were fatally injured Saturday during the first special stage of the Oregon Trail SCCA ProRally event.

The first car away from the starting line, driver Lovell, and co-driver Freeman, left the prescribed course moments into the stage and struck a tree in their Subaru Impreza WRX. The two were pronounced dead at the scene by emergency medical personnel. Details of the incident were held until the families were notified.

This is a tragedy, Lovell was a great driver and teamed up well with Freeman, I hope they can get to the bottom of what went wrong for the sake of them and their families.

The only consolation is they went doing what they enjoyed......

RIP Mark and Roger.

Ray

ales · #2 07-13-2003, 11:15 AM

RIP

z33guy · #3 07-13-2003, 01:18 PM

I just read that and could not believe it

My prayers to out to their families

Guido · #4 07-13-2003, 03:57 PM

yet another loss for the rally world. 2003 is no good.

Veyron · #5 07-15-2003, 08:46 PM

Tragic. I saw him race twice at the Cherokee Trails Rally, he seemed nice and really attacked the course.

ales · #6 07-20-2003, 01:20 PM

So any news on this? On the cause? Because I still find it hard to believe that both the driver and the co-driver can be killed just like that in a contemporary rally car. Over the years we've witnessed huge acidents in WRC, and the drivers generally walked away or suffered only minor injuries. I thank god for that. Kremer's shunt a year ago springs to mind as something I would not want to see again.

freakray · #7 07-20-2003, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ales
So any news on this? On the cause? Because I still find it hard to believe that both the driver and the co-driver can be killed just like that in a contemporary rally car. Over the years we've witnessed huge acidents in WRC, and the drivers generally walked away or suffered only minor injuries. I thank god for that. Kremer's shunt a year ago springs to mind as something I would not want to see again.

Alex, I wish there had been more news, but it has been eerily quiet.
I too find it hard to believe considering the same reasons you mention.
I recall seeing Possum's car bounce down a straight on Rally Oz head over heels and he still walked away with only bruises, so something serious happened in this most recent fatality.

I have been watching several sites for more word on what happened, I don't know why it has been so hush-hush.
I will do some additionally searching now, for both of our curiousity.

Ray

Luka3000gt · #8 07-23-2003, 05:50 PM

Damn, hope that 2004 will be a better year for rallying

We will miss you

Jay! · #9 07-23-2003, 05:57 PM

Duuuuuuuuude.

RIP.

XspudX · #10 07-27-2003, 11:26 PM

Met these guys before the Pikes Peak Hill Climb at our Subaru dealer. Very friendly fellows, even signed a poster for me.

ukemaxxer · #11 08-13-2003, 03:52 PM

Our thoughts are with their families. I have only just heard about this.
2003 has been one of the worst I can remember with all the great names we have lost both from the rally scene and also the recent deaths of Daijiro Kato, David Jefferies, and Steve Hislop from the Motorcycle world.
May they all RIP

JUNXR34 · #12 08-16-2003, 11:38 PM

Dang....
RIP............................................... ............

paulblackgsx · #13 10-18-2003, 09:45 PM

This was awful news when I heard it. To this day though, I'm still curious what happened in the accident. As mentioned above, Rally cars have a lot of safety in them, and although it's not unheard of for an accident to cause injuries, deaths are rare and it really makes you wonder what the circumstances were around this accident.

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