User:Donnie Park/Northern Territory Cannonball Run

Northern Territory Cannonball Run was a Open Road Race that took place on the Northern Territory section of the Stuart Highway on 22 to the 27 May 1994. The race was primarily infamous for an accident involving a high powered Ferrari that lost control at high speed, slamming it into two cars, killing both the two occupants themselves and two officials. The accident that took place on the 24 May became worldwide news and was subsequent debated by the Australian Parliament.

Event
The road was built during World War 2 for military trucks, the road was resurfaced in 1987.

Inspired by Erwin Baker run across the American and the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash of the 1970s. and popularised by the 1980 Burt Reynolds film The Cannonball Run, though some source states that it was based on the film. The race, unlike its predecessor and film, was authorised by Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS), the national sanctioning body for motorsport; starting from Darwin reaching to Alice Springs and back.

Over a six day period, the event was split into three parts, the "flying mile" that tested the car's acceleration over a mile and a timed race that ran for approximately 100km stretches to which set times was applied. Drivers was penalised by losing points on these sections for arriving either too late or too early by over three minutes. Whilst the race took place, the road was open to traffic, though they were warned of motorsport activities on the road. Entrants were required to observe road safety laws as that with non-participants as they shared the highway, though no speed limit exist on the open road. The final part of the event was a non-competive distance run, which the car had to cover the greatest distance possible with, normal, everyday driving. Overall, the length of the races was 2,360 miles.

The idea was conceived by Marshall Perron, Chief Minister of the Northern Territory at that time and Bruce Lindsay, the executive officer of the Darwin Motor Sports Council in 1992. Needing a non-governmental figure to run the event as he required somebody who had the experience to conduct this type of event in addition to entrepreneurial skills; he first proposed the idea to Bob Jane but later rejected his idea after he required a $500,000 non-refundable payment upfront from the government to organise it. After several leads that came to nothing, Perron was later approached by Allan Moffat, who was considered to be one of the greatest Australian racing driver, expressing an interest to run the event

The NT government established a committee to assist Racecage and the organisation of the event

CAMS approved the event

in the weeks due to it taking place

to his deputy Barry Coulter at a meeting in Darwin. A total of $100,000 in interest-free loan was contributed by the Government of the Northern Territory and NT Tourist Commission to pay towards the event's $2million cost to Moffat's company, RaceCage. Other contribution by the government included a $5900 subsidary covered three journalists and a photographer and attractions for international publications from London, Melbourne and Hong Kong and logistical support including policing.

The event was regarded as the world's first legal Cannonball Run event

At a cost of AUS$7,500 excluding fuel, this covered the race, administration, food, storage of the cars and accomodation at the 5 Star Diamond Beach Hotel-Casino  Also included was a personalised registration plate that read "CANNONBALL" followed by the entrant's number, this was used as a means to identify entrants and is still legal for road use on Australian roads. These were provided by the Northern Territory Government. All that was required to enter was a car club membership, current driver license, CAMS road event license that required a medical statement, signed entry form and a fee. The total prize purse was said to be at $150,000.

Entrants
There were two categories for the maximum of 150 entrants to compete in, Exotic Cars and Super Classics.

Each class was divided to a minimum speed a car is allowed to travel at; Exotic Cars for sports cars was permitted to travel no slower than 190km/h, 160km/h to Super Classics for muscle cars and any others not covered at around 130km/h. The race attracted a large variety of cars, amongst those were: Nissan Navara, supported by Nissan themselves; Ford Mustang, Mini (one of them by a competitor in his early 70s ) to exotics such as Dodge Viper, Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow , Ferrari F40, that came all the way from Japan to compete and a Jaguar XJ220. Maserati lent out its Canon sponsored Barchetta to its Australian concessionaire especially to compete in the race. Some competitors came also as far as the United States to compete. In order to attract competitors, Moffat and the organisers went all over the world, even going as far as persuading Tommy Suharto to compete.

Among the entrants was, founding editor of the Option magazine in Japan, who competed in his Toyota Celica GT-Four, as was motorcycle racer turned touring car racer, Gregg Hansford in his Holden VN Commodore SS Group A SV , former heavyweight champion boxer Joe Bugner partipicated in his Lotus Espirit and Tunku Mudzaffar, a member of the Malaysian Negeri Sembilan royal familiy, in his Bufori. Jack Brabham was to compete in his Jaguar XJS but had to pull out due to committments.

Amongst the official cars was two Nissan 300ZX and a Mazda RX-7, Moffat was provided with his own BMW 3 Series course car.

Race
The actual race was preceded by a speed observation trial event at Hidden Valley Raceway, not all entrants took part. This was used to establish the "safe maximum cruising speed during Cannonball Special Sections".

Perron took the task to escort the competitors out with his Ford hot rod. As soon the race began at Katherine, it became evident that safety at the race was lax, as crowds lined the route to get a better viewing of the race at the expense of their safety, even past the speed derestriction zone. As the crowds built up, this made it difficult for competitors to drive as fast as they wished, causing them to drive as slow as 40 kph. Police officers was later bought in part way through to hold the crowds back as they began to bottleneck the roads, that some of them was left uncordoned.

The Flying Mile Challenge where cars enter the course at 60 kph and accelerate through the straight with maximum speed provided by a speed radar gun. This was used to establish starting order for the main race.

This segment was won by the Ferrari F40 of Akihiro Kabe, a dentist from Tachikawa, Tokyo and his colleague and cousin, Takeshi Okano at a speed of 284 km/h.

The Special Section race had to be cancelled into the night as a 60km/h sign caused a 15km long traffic congestion amongst competitors, delaying holiday goers.

In 1994 the first and only Cannonball Run in Australia ran from Darwin to Yulara and back again. Based on similar events in the United States, this event ended in tragedy when an out of control Ferrari F40 crashed into a checkpoint south of Alice Springs, resulting in the death of the two event officials manning the checkpoint as well as the two competitors.

The 1st day event started from Darwin to

2nd of the

Katherine to Alice Springs at a length of 1146km

It had became apparent throughout the competition that some drivers were not competent in driving their cars at high speed.

Non-partipicating motorists were advised to drive with their headlights on to enable competitors to spot them easily.

Accident


During the third day of the race, on a 440km route from Alice Springs to Ayers Rock, the F40 driven by Okano, overtook a Ruf of Johnny Kahlbetzer at 200-220km/h to take the lead before they surprised by a corner. The pair, who had ignored a set of yellow flags and caution signs, got caught behind a non-competing Holden Commodore and whilst in an attempt to overtake, realised a checkpoint was close to them, forcing Okano to brake suddenly. This caused the brakes to lock up to skid out of control through the pea gravel on the side of the road, then the driver attempted to regain control, over correcting the steering in the process. and avoid collision with the Commodore

At about 9.30am, south of near Orange Creek Station, Palmerston's Keith Pritchard and Howard Springs 's Timothy "Tim" Linklater, 31 and 22 years of age respectively, both members of the a local motorsport club acted as checkpoint officials to keep tally on competitor's scorecards. They witnessed the mayhem in front of them as they sat at a folding table by their Jeep Cherokee. They were forced to run for their lives toward their cars, which was too late as the Ferrari slammed into then at over 120km/h, before plowing into their Jeep and another Commodore that was claimed to have rented out to a Japanese journalist, that they tried to run toward. The force of the impact pushed the Jeep by 2 metres.

Kabe, whose only experience was on a track day but not as a race driver, was also instantly killed but Okano, despite the efforts of medical staffs, later died. In addition to the officials killed, both drivers suffered massive head injuries as neither wore helmets since it wasn't compulsory but wore racing harness.

Ironically, a day before the accident, Pritchard, the only person in Northern Terrirory licensed by CAMS who additionally competed in a support race at the 1993 Tooheys 1000, expressed concerns at Kabe's driving skills, stating that he was not qualified to drive at unrestricted speed on an open road, describing his as "crazy and he was going to kill somebody" in addition that many were too unqualified to race. Despite his concerns, Pritchard, who like Linklater agreed to officiate after being approached by organisers in addition that he was unable to raise sponsorship for his car. In an interview with NT News following the accident, the spokesperson of the Japanese drivers thought Kabe was incapable of driving the Ferrari at over 200km/h despite he admittedly thought so.

CAMS chief steward, Mike Bell,

expressed concern that .

Jim Murcott, a proprietor of a CAMS accredited high-performance driving school, described "the event had the potential for disaster", further stating "many suggested it would not be surprising to have a serious accident. They have been proved accurate." Murcott said two weeks previously that he contacted Moffat and Perron a fortnight before the event that "training of drivers for such an event was a safety imperative". He criticised the lack of driver screening and hinted "somebody could get killed doing it".

Phil Scott, editor of Wheels magazine, condemmed the decision to allow amateur drivers to race on open roads with high-performance cars a "dynamite combination". Further describing "racetracks have run-off areas, sand traps, safety fencing. Open roads (do) not." Describing the involved driver and his experience with high speed, he added

"Kabe was a dentist from Tokyo. His experience was driving around Tokyo at around 12km/h. He comes here, they tell him to go like buggery, and put the spotlight on him...He thinks he's Ayrton Senna. It was too much pressure on this guy."

Despite plans to cancel the race altogether, Moffat insisted that the race as to continue, a decision that was supported by his colleagues and all of the drivers as claimed by one competitor.

Following the accident, with the exception of the flying mile, organisers enforced a speed limit of 180km/h for the final leg of the event that began at Ayers Rock following discussion with law enforcement that divided the opinions of the competitors. The course was patrolled by police with radar guns.

http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/hoons-film-themselves-driving-at-over-200kmh/news-story/98a5e912b763cdbd1860610c017c77dc

https://theapparatchik.wordpress.com/2015/10/06/the-cannonball-run-mark-ii-nt-style/

An inquest found that the direct cause of the accident was driver error on the part of the Japanese team which entered the checkpoint at an excessive speed. There was a reasonable inference that the driver mistakenly believed he had arrived at the checkpoint when 7 km short of the actual checkpoint, and then sped up to make up for lost time. Another factor may have been the lack of racing skills of the driver, promoters refused an assessment of skill prior to the race and allowed everybody to take part to the race regardless of driver's experience.

The winner was the Porsche 930 of Ron Conrad and Andrew Kelly, the third car to start the race and the following car to the scene of the accident despite calling the race to be postponed and considering pulling out. He was given a prize money of $2,500. despite the plea from Linklater's families to keep it going.

A memorial was later installed where the accident occured

Coverage
Accident footage taken from a helicopter for the news segment detailing the accident was not aired again.

The press, who had previously supported the event, turned against the organisers with Perron cancelling a planned media conference for an personal interview at his office.

Many of its competitors and business quietly withdrew its support of the race.

Following the accident, the Australian Government took the decision to cut off all coverage of the race as news coverage of the accident was spreading.

As a mark of respect, a Japanese flag was placed at the finishing gantry.

The accdient became worldwide news spreading as far as the United Kingdom

Aftermath
When the subject of the event was raised at the Australian Parliament 10 days before it was due to take place with Members of Parliament comparing the skills of the drivers in the event and the risk to that of the death of Ayrton Senna. It was raised twice again in 2004.

The relationship between Moffat and CAMS officials had been tense throughout the event with the former showing little interest and uncooperative to the latter prior to the accident.

The officials' request for vital paperworks including competitor's regulations and list of competitors fell to deaf ears as according to CAMS chief steward, Mike Bell, the event's executive Graham McVean had made no effort at all until they approached the operations manager Doug Fraser who provided them the documents that was poorly processed; some entries were incomplete, changes not reflected on the list and withdrawals not reflected as well on the lists. Because this was a slow process, McVean later informed them to stop processing licenses as everybody had to leave for driver's meeting prior to the Flying Mile event the next day and the office vacated.

During the Flying mile event, it became apparent that neither ambulance crew had paramedic training

Reception
The race was heavily criticised by the Australian press following the accident. The Sunday Territorian criticised the Cannonball Run image of the race, the pressures to the drivers by the point-scoring structure of the race, the lax safety standards and the standards of the drivers, the attitude of Moffat and the NT Police, Perron's involvement and CAMS approval of the race. It was supposed to, according to the newspaper, establish Perron's electoral race in the forthcoming Country Liberal Party election but that backfired following the controversy, hinting it could damage his chances.

His role in the race was negatively received by John Loizou, who described the race as "an accident waiting to happen". Peter Brock, who taught the inexperienced competitors who had no racing license, expressed his concerns for safety, suggested in an interview that the racing speeds of 200 to 300km/h was too fast for them and that the cars should had been fitted with a roll cage. In an April journal by the Automobile Association of the Northern Territory, it editorialized that the NT government "might regret its promotion of the Cannonball Run and the image it promoted".

In response, Mr Perron's advisers insisted he should not be linked in connection to the accident, going as far as insisting that to the media.

The Daily Telegraph Mirror described how the government road safety campaign "are not meant to apply in the Northern Territory", hinting that "this first such race is also the last".

Legal matters
In April 1998, an inquest in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, criticised the checkpoint design at Stuart Wells and Alleron, 100km north of Alice Springs, Moffat had helped designed as "worse than amateurish" as some cars were described to had either skid through the gravel lined checkpoint or over ran it.

As a result of the organiser not awarding compensation to the officials, the wife of Keith Pritchard took out an unsucessful $800,000 lawsuit against Racecage for compensation, she however was awarded by the NT government the statutory entitlement for the traffic act of slightly over $99,000 and $300,000 compensation by CAMS.

Operator, RaceCage, have since lodged a court battle against the holder of the trademark "Cannonball", Calder Park Promotions, who held it prior to the race, as the right to use the name.

http://www.cannonballrun.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/NT-News-May-30-1994.pdf

http://notes.nt.gov.au/lant/hansard/HANSARD7.NSF/0/0682bcb14ea202ec482561b800310785?OpenDocument http://www.stonefamilyinaustralia.com.au/shane_stone/story/chapter-12-the-chief

There was another attempt to revive the Cannonball Run in 2006 at an unspecified route instead from Gold Coast supported by Nigel Scullion but this time organised by the London based Cannonball World Events but this was thwarted when an 130km/h speed limit was imposed on the highway. It was rescheduled again in 2007 and 2012. Drivers was required to maintain 100km/h throughout the entire run but neither dates have come about since.