Just read that article. Hadn't realized that Duhamel's crash was due to a tire failure. Sheeeit! What a place to have your rear end go to pieces. I have done endurance races at Road Atlanta and the combination of going through the blind turn and then underneath the concrete bridge is plenty hairy - all by itself. Viewers on the TV don't really see what that's like because, the film crew can't spare a camera for a turn where nobody ever passes (You'd be nuts to do so) and the on-board cameras go blank and cut out as the rider passes under the bridge. Anyhoo . . . you've just caught your breath and said "Thanks Lord for not leaving any downed riders in the middle of the blind turn" (under a concrete bridge) and there you are at the top of very steep hill, that the cameras can't really do justice to - and then you're on the way down and it's a ....... roller coaster drop all the way down to the turn where Duhamel crashed. Although the wall behind the bales and air-bags isn't really that high, I can tell you that when you're narrowly focused on the apex and trying to see your way around the turn, that wall pretty much blocks out the horizon. It might as well be three stories high. That turn always intimidated the hell out of me. Only a dim-witted caveman doesn't have fear of, or at the very least, huge "respect" for that turn, with that <u>downhill</u> momentum, and the front end totally loaded up, with virtually no run-off.
