8 replies to this topic

[TerryS]

I came across this article on Max.

 

Max Stewart biography (historicracing.com)

 

I have two queries please:

 

-  It states that in the accident the "roll bar supports pierced his helmet visor". I was not previously aware of this.

 

-  Is the last sentence correct that the car was crushed by Customs. 

[GreenMachine]

I was in the paddock that day, spannering for a mate running in the FF DtE, and saw the car come back to the paddock - it was a mess but how much of that was tub damage and how much bodywork I couldn't tell.  Never heard the armco/visor thing before, I understood his fatal injuries arose from the initial impact but that may have been as much assumption as contemporary knowledge/reporting.

 

The Customs involvement would arise if it entered under a bond to be re-exported in order to avoid paying duty, not uncommon.  It may be that in the circumstances there was no time/resources/appetite for the usual stratagems to avoid that.

[Michael Ferner]

'Interesting' to learn that Dennis Firestone was Australian.

[Lee Nicolle]

'he hit the fence head on but one of the roll hoop bars pierced his helmet' Does not ring quite true as the roll hoop is behind the driver,, Clearly a terrible accident.

As for customs crushing the car one presumers they asked the owners for the duty first. And then did they just crush the tub, the chassis or the whole car engine gearbox  wheels etc?

[Ray Bell]

The forward brace on the rollover bar folded...

 

The bent end then went through the visor and into his head.

 

Check this pic:  https://www.google.c...QAAAAAdAAAAABAJ

[pacificquay]

Interesting too how much older people looked back in the day - he was only 42 when he died, but the photo posted of him could easily be a man in his 60s

[Myhinpaa]

An article in "American Muscle Car" May 2021: https://www.pressrea...282415582163095

 

From the article, as told by Max Stewart's mechanic, Barry Carr who worked with BP normally.

 

(According to eyewitness reports.)

 

".....he pulled out to pass Talbot and the nose of the T400 went under Vern's car

      and the side-plate of his car smashed open Max's helmet......."

 

There is an older thread about Max Stewart and the accident too: https://forums.autos...-stewart-crash/

 

A sales advert of the Lola T400 "HU2" when it was in NZ. (Until July 2015)

 

https://www.my105.co...ac-057bf3d2f59d

Edited by Myhinpaa, 22 November 2023 - 20:39.

[Jim Thurman]

I came across this article on Max.

 

Max Stewart biography (historicracing.com)

 

I have two queries please:

 

-  It states that in the accident the "roll bar supports pierced his helmet visor". I was not previously aware of this.

 

-  Is the last sentence correct that the car was crushed by Customs. 

I'm not sure how reliable that site is.

 

Cars being crushed/buried/burned after a fatal accident is a ridiculously common tale in the U.S. motorsport, the overwhelming number of which have been debunked, sometimes by the car turning up at vintage meets.

 

Same for the gruesomeness of accidents. At one time, another forum was rife with both, and greatly exaggerating and embellishing what seemed to be nearly every fatal accident that took place in the U.S.

[Ray Bell]

Perhaps the end-plate of Vern's wing and the bent roll bar support both had a part?

 

Max, as I was told, went upwards as his wheels and Vern's tangled and he nose-dived into the fence, which bent things up considerably.

 

KB would undoubtedly know... and there would have been a Coroner's Report somewhere.