Billionaire dies on private race track..fails to navigate turn

[Demovictory9]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12235511/Billionaire-James-Crown-vowed-make-Chicago-safest-city-America-dies.html

James 'Jim' Crown was celebrating his 70th birthday at the members-only Aspen Motorsports Park on Sunday when his vehicle hit an impact barrier.

'Mr. Crown was involved in a motor vehicle crash at the Woody Creek racetrack resulting in fatal injuries,' said the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office.

Chief Deputy Coroner Audra Keith said an official cause of death is pending an autopsy. However, 'multiple blunt force trauma is evident' and the manner accidental, she added.

The business magnate was the CEO of Henry Crown and Company, which oversees Aspen Skiing Company that owns and operates the mountains and ski area facilities.

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Billionaire James Crown, 70, is killed in horror car crash at private Aspen racetrack after he failed to turn and hit a barrier: Businessman vowed to make Chicago 'the safest city in America'

[LiberalFighter]

1. Thoughts and Prayers?

[Aristus]

2. It's official: Earth has had enough of the billionaire class's bullshit.

What say you, billionaires? Will you yield your ill-gotten goods back to the people who earned them for you? And this avoid?

[TheProle]

16. Billionaires on average live 14 years longer than their poorer counterparts

I don't think a few isolated deaths by misadventure is going to lead to a superstitious sea change of wealth-sharing...

[Aristus]

17. I know.

I just wanted to use the opportunity to get in a Henry V reference.

[TheProle]

20. I can appreciate that.

I just go with the proxy lowbrow quote from Blazing Saddles:

Bart: Can’t you see that’s the last act of a desperate man?

Howard Johnson: We don’t care if it’s the first act of “Henry V,” we’re leaving!

[WarGamer]

3. Before people mock him... a big (D) donor

$100k to FL Democratic Party recently... Fetterman, Hassan, Kelly... $100k to American Bridge 21st...

[Demovictory9]

4. Yep...spending his money for good

[okaawhatever]

27. Good for him. My immediate thought was, finally a billionaire who actually

created something. Not a hedge fund/stock market billionaire who has added zero value to this country.

[brooklynite]

5. And what'e the relevance on his wealth?

Pretty much anyone can drive a race car if they want to.

https://www.thextremexperience.com/supercar-track-xperience/

[WarGamer]

6. Did you know him? A big (D) donor

[brooklynite]

7. No. No reason to.

I meet with candidates and party leaders, not with other donors. Also, he's not from NYC.

[WarGamer]

8. I just thought maybe you'd bump into other supporters here and there...

No offense intended

[brooklynite]

9. He was in Chicago, not NYC.

[BlueTsunami2018]

10. If I was a billionaire, I'd never drive myself anywhere.

Not on a race track, not on a city street, not on a highway. I’d have a driver on call 24/7.

That’s just crazy.

[MichMan]

23. Even if you loved driving?

[BlueTsunami2018]

25. Yes.

I’d also probably be drunk most of the time.

[Ocelot II]

11. Great wealth is no protection from great stupidity or great carelessness.

The laws of physics apply no matter how much money you have.

[jmowreader]

12. I can tell you where it happened, too

VERY long straight with a hairpin turn at the end? Who the hell even built this track?

[Zeitghost]

13. That's true for most if not all road courses

A good road course will reward power, braking and cornering.

[jmowreader]

24. Take a closer look at the hairpin at the right end of the backstretch

It is really sharp AND it's paved all the way out to the catch fence.

At Road America the turn at the end of the straight is a sweeping turn with a big sand runoff area.

Watkins Glen doesn't have any really sharp turns.

Sonoma has sharp turns but no long straights - and there is a lot of uphill at Sonoma.

At Circuit of the Americas, the last third of a mile of the straight is a fairly substantial hill. They have a second "straight," which is curved.

The sharpest corner at Road Atlanta is at the end of a 350-foot-long straight.

Those guys at Aspen are in dire need of permanent chicanes on the backstretch. If nothing else it would make the track more fun.

[bullwinkle428]

31. Watkins Glen has that hard (near 180) right bend at the end of

the back straight, but after J.D. McDuffie died in the NASCAR Cup crash in the early 90s, they put a permanent chicane to slow all the cars down before entering that bend. Seems to work pretty well as far as action through that part of the track, as well as from a safety perspective.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

21. why have a wall for a car to slam into, have hay bundles or something softer

[Hotler]

30. It wasn't always a private track. My first amature motorcyle roadrace was on the track around 1979.

The button hook on the end of the straight was the infamous turn-9. It was a great equalizer, no matter how fast your were down the back straight or, how much horse power you had you could only get through it so fast. 100mph± to 25± in a heart beat. I could hear my front tire chirping under hard braking. MRA (Mountain Roadracing Assoc.) used to have an annual 6-hour endurance. Back in the day instead of hay bales we hard safety boulders. Good times.

[onethatcares]

14. he should have

turned "Left" like the NASCAR drivers do

Did he really own the mountains or just think he did?

[2naSalit]

15. What if he...

Had a heart attack or a seizure?

[LakeArenal]

18. I'm sure there are some poor people who are sad and will miss him. Not just rich people.

Probably provided jobs to people like me.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. We Have One Of Those Clubs Near Here

Very pricey memberships, and garage space on the site makes the membership look like the cost of a pack of gum
Initiation fee is $45k, and membership is $510/month.
Garage space can run as high as $4,000 per month, excluding tool & diagnostic gear rental.
Total cost could easily be $70,000 per year, for a single membership. Family plan could be closer to ninety grand.
Not a place for even upper middle class folks. Geez, you've got to have a $60,000 car to even bother.
But, there are Porsches, Lambos, Cobras, BMW M Series...
Definitely a wealthy families playground.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

22. and the member would need to have the funds to hobnob with the other members

restaurants, travel, clothing, etc

[Mr.Bill]

26. What jumped out to me was

someone 70 years old driving a race car. The greatest race car drivers retire long before that age.

[brooklynite]

28. Because older people don't like to drive fast cars?

[Mr.Bill]

29. What he is doing in that video is not racing and that's not a race car. n/t

[MichMan]

32. I assume you never heard of NASCAR HOF driver Red Farmer

He is still competing regularly and is way older than that.

I have a friend who is 72 who is still racing in a top-level professional race series. Beats a lot of 20 year olds.

[GenThePerservering]

33. An avid enthusiast is a bit different than a professional

right down to the nervous system.

[Mr.Bill]

34. Oh, there are exceptions, to be sure.

But it's unusual. Eddie Hill, former Drag racer, Drag Boat racer and Motorcycle racer is still driving open-wheel race cars at 87. Paul Newman also race to a late age.

[Kennah]

35. He died in an Aspen?