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R.i.p Ashley Cooper

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Cooper dies after support event crash

Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series driver Ashley Cooper died today, following a crash during one of the main support races of the Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar event in the Adelaide Parklands.

Cooper, from Ulladulla, New South Wales, was competing in the second V8 Supercar Development Series race when he appeared to clip the inside of the turn eight sweeper before sliding sideways into the wall on the exit, hitting the wall at over 200 km/h, before spinning to the inside of the circuit.

He was removed from the car and taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital with critical injuries, including severe head trauma, swelling of the brain and internal injuries. However, he succumbed to his injuries in hospital today.

Australia's motorsport governing body CAMS issued a statement about Cooper's passing, with CAMS President Colin Osborne commenting that Cooper's passing was something that would be felt by the entire Australian motorsport community.

"Firstly our thoughts and sympathies go to Ashley's family and friends, particularly his wife Casey and two children and parents Alan and Maree," said Osborne.

"It is always a very sad day when any member of the motor sport community is taken from us. The motor racing community involves a close knit group of competitors and officials and I know that everyone will be feeling the loss of Ashley.

"CAMS will conduct its own full independent investigation to determine the circumstances leading to the incident. In the mean time, CAMS and event officials are working with the relevant civil authorities to assist with their investigations."

It is the second fatality as the result of a crash in the V8 Supercar's support series in the last two years. In October 2006, New Zealand driver Mark Porter died following injuries he sustained in a multi-car crash at Mount Panorama Bathurst.

The turn the accident occurred at was reprofiled in 2002 into its current fast sweeper configuration after drivers complained that the original configuration, which included several large kerbs and was tighter and slower, was too dangerous.

Cooper's crash was not the only major crash during the weekend's racing. The most serious of them was during the final V8 Utes race, when there was a multi-car collision exiting the Senna Chicane, with Holden driver Matt Kingsley the most seriously injured, currently in intensive care with a suspected spinal injury.

There was also a rollover in the Formula Three race when Samantha Reid spun at the hairpin under brakes, and Chris Reindler flipped after tripping over her rear wheel, not forgetting the three-car collision between the front-running Fords in the second race of the Clipsal 500 event itself.

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May He Rest In Eternal Peace.

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Off he goes to the great podium in the sky...

R.I.P Mr Cooper.

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RIP. I obviously had never heard of him, but to see anyone die so young is just terrible :(

This is the second touring car death in a few months (Sperafico was the first*), which really shows it might be time to re-evaluate.

*While labelled stock cars, the car Sperafico crashed in looks like and is like a touring car.

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Same corner that almost claimed Mika Hakkinen his life back in 1995 but for Clipsal next year there will probally be a tight chicane there.

I thought he would pull through the injuries though It was a big crash but I did not think in my mind anyway that it was fatal.

R.I.P Ashley Cooper

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What intrigues me is that he hit the wall on the passenger side of the car. Mark Porter died as he was hit on the drivers side, but Ashley should have survived by the law of averages, though sadly did not.

We've seen Lowndes do a trillion pirouettes, smash into a concrete wall and walk away, as well as many other big shunts in V8's. It just makes me wonder if something else didn't make the crash fatal...like the tyre hitting Senna, rather than the hit on the wall...perhaps a belt failure? Steering wheel maybe? Certainly a lot of side forces going on, but for the life of me, that particular angle of attack, and the side he hit on, just says survivable 99 times out of 100.

Goes to prove, it only takes one.

RIP

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