I remember those CanAm days up close and personal. I was a SCCA corner worker at Road America back then, stationed with the yellow flags just a few feet from the edge of the pavement, back to back with a second corner worker looking over each others shoulders so we could see both ways, but also pull each other out of the way of an errant car. No protection barriers, no safety equipment at all.
This worked just fine in the era of Scarabs and Birdcage Maseritis, etc. before ground effects. When one would start to loose it under braking entering a corner, we corner workers had plenty of time to stroll out of the way.
However, one day working in a light rain at corner six (the down hill right hander after the very hard left just after the bridge at the end of the short uphill straight) Hap Sharp came out of the corner ahead of us in his fully ground effects Chaparral really fast and the did a lighting fast snap spin right at us! We dived out of the way headfirst up the slope and Sharp actually brushed my shoe as he spun by!
I retired from corner working on the spot and spent the rest of my time at SCCA working timing and scoring in the safety of the scoring building at RA and at the last corner hut at Brainard.
A couple of years later at RA two corner workers were killed at corner 5, the sharp left hander at the end of the long back straight and they were on the inside of the track, far back, and even behind a barrier, but a spinning car that lost it under braking way far upstream went off in a very unusual way and collected them.
Like Daytona yesterday, once in a while you relearn that high speed auto racing can be more dangerous for everyone than you could imagine.
Frank Van Alstine
