One of the greatest coincidences in motor sport

2025-11-30T12:00:00+10:00

Up to 1999 I had been watching various forms of motorsport for a decade or more and I had never seen a pit lane incident where a crew member had their head run over before.

Then in 1999, I was watching a CART racing event, the Miller Lite 225 at Milwaukee. As the cars came in to pit lane the commentator mentioned that for the first time some teams had elected to have their pit lane crew wear helmets as Bell had supplied helmets free of charge to teams for the event.

Michael Andretti's crew were wearing helmets and within moments of the commentator mentioning this, Michael Andretti stopped and had his tyres replaced and was waiting for refuelling to be completed when, through impatience, confusion or malfunction, the car started pulling away before refuelling had finished. This resulted in the "Vent Man" getting knocked over by the car and – you guessed it – having his head run over by the rear left wheel.

I think it's safe to say that without a helmet this man would have been killed.

Even with a helmet he was injured, but he did not have any head injury.

His name is Ty Manseau and this has to go down as one of the greatest coincidences in motor sport.

You can see what happened on YouTube, including an interview with Ty a month after the incident.

The Abandoned Catalina Park Raceway in Katoomba

2020-02-29T12:00:00+10:00

Despite living only 15 minutes away for the last four years, today I finally went for a walk around the remains of the old Catalina Park Raceway in Katoomba (Sydney Blue Mountains).

The racktrack opened in 1961 and was used for all sorts of racing including touring cars, open-wheelers and motorcycles throughout the 1960s.

In the 1970s the circuit was used for Rallycross, and by the 1980s and 1990s the track was only used for lap dashes. The circuit closed in 2001.

It's 2.1 km long and the lap record is 53.4 seconds set in a Matich SR3 (Group A Sports Car) -- an average speed of 141 km/h.

The track is now in a state of decay and the area is now known as The Gully. Much of the track remains, including the bitumen, and the Armco and wooden barriers.

It's only a short walk from the Katoomba town centre, and you can walk the entire circuit in about 30 minutes or so. You can enter from Wariga Street, where there is a carpark.

johna's automotive blog

One of the greatest coincidences in motor sport

The Abandoned Catalina Park Raceway in Katoomba