Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc. FIRST PERSON/OPINION From Jim Douglas, a cornerworker at the scene, via e-mail: As the turn marshall, I was calling in that another rider was low-siding to rider’s right, far exit of Turn 6 when it became apparent that Rich was following close enough and slightly to the right behind that rider that he had little or no room for evasive action. I proceeded to call in that a second rider was off track in avoidance. To avoid running over the first rider, Rich stood the bike up but was unfortunately at the outside edge of the track at full speed, having just gotten on the throttle. Still trying to avoid the other downed rider, Rich quickly crossed the dirt/grass run-off area, though he was unable to significantly slow the bike. Rich’s bike impacted the base of the unprotected steep hillside leading up to the ‘esses’ of turn 8 & 8A, At impact, the bike appeared to be essentially vertical and slightly to the right of the other downed rider, striking the embankment at about a 30 degree angle. The force of the impact ejected Rich, both bike and rider were airborne, with the rider appearing to come down head first about 1/3 the way up the hill. (Some observers have said that Rich flew significantly higher than the bike and that his feet appeared to be above the crest of the hill, 15-20 ft vertical estimate.) The first turn worker to arrive was there within seconds, he called for an ambulance immediately, and the race was red-flagged within moments. NMP’s were stationed at the turn 8 box immediately above Rich and they responded, arriving nearly at the same time as the turn workers. I have worked Turn 6 many many times over the past 9 years for both AFM and AMA races. For whatever reason, both Saturday and Sunday seemed unusual in that we had more incidents in our turn than I recall for other occasions. Rich is very well known throughout the AFM and his injuries hit us all pretty hard. We wish him the very best. (The cornerworker also reported that one of the riders who crashed to start the chain of events walked away from the incident.)